Milton Avery (1855-1965)

Milton Avery was one of the primary American Modernists, whose work merged representational concerns with avant-garde techniques. Born in Altmar, New York, Avery studied at the Connecticut League of Students and launched his career in New York City. Inspired by the work of Picasso and Matisse, he began to experiment with simplified forms, graphic patterns, and concentrated fields of color. The dealer Paul Rosenberg helped to establish his name within the avant-garde art world, where Avery’s work became a fundamental stimulus for younger painters including Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Adolph Gottlieb. The Whitney Museum of American Art mounted a major retrospective of his work in 1982; his paintings are now featured in nearly every major museum, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Tate Gallery in London.