Milton Avery filled his quiet canvases with flattened planes and simplified figures, bridging early modernist movements such as Impressionism with mid-century genres such as color field painting. While Avery’s subject matter was decidedly representational—the artist often captured domestic scenes and serene landscapes—his bright color palettes and pared-back compositions inspired a number of artists in the New York avant-garde including Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and Barnett Newman. Avery studied at the Connecticut League of Art Students and the School of the Art Society of Hartford. He exhibited in New York, London, Venice, and Los Angeles, and his works belong in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His paintings have sold for seven figures on the secondary market.
American, 1885–1965