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Milton Avery
Reproductions of the American artist's seascapes, landscapes, and portraits are accompanied by a discussion of his life and work
- GenresArtNonfiction
20 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1981
About the author
Milton Avery
87 booksThe works of Henri Matisse influenced style of subtle colors and flat patterns of American painter Milton Clark Avery and abstract expressionism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2010
from an exhibition organized by the American Federation or Arts in 2001
Unlike those artists who explode in youth and then keep repeating their success, having nothing else new or substantial to say, Avery spent years looking, listening, thinking: not only at art and the world, but poetry, words, conversation. His late work was "a culmination of life events."
Like Clement Greenberg, I prefer his landscapes to his figures. The simplicity is deceptive; the combination of realism and abstraction is carefully balanced, the relationship subtle and complex. As Greenberg states: "No matter how much he simplifies or eliminates, he almost always preserves the local, namable identity of his subject; it never becomes merely a pretext."
I spent a lot of time looking at the reproductions of the paintings, enhanced by the essays, which were insightful, full of information about 20th century painting, and well-written. The influence of Albert Pinkham Ryder on Avery was not a connection I would have made on my own. Matisse is more direct; but the poetic bond of Mallarme-Matisse to Wallace Stevens-Avery was also something I would not have thought about.
Robert Hobbs, who wrote the main essays, points out that the artist is never "done": creative individuals must always begin again, learning and relearning, circling around the universal, the "first idea". Food for thought, and probably applicable to education and the art of living as well.
Unlike those artists who explode in youth and then keep repeating their success, having nothing else new or substantial to say, Avery spent years looking, listening, thinking: not only at art and the world, but poetry, words, conversation. His late work was "a culmination of life events."
Like Clement Greenberg, I prefer his landscapes to his figures. The simplicity is deceptive; the combination of realism and abstraction is carefully balanced, the relationship subtle and complex. As Greenberg states: "No matter how much he simplifies or eliminates, he almost always preserves the local, namable identity of his subject; it never becomes merely a pretext."
I spent a lot of time looking at the reproductions of the paintings, enhanced by the essays, which were insightful, full of information about 20th century painting, and well-written. The influence of Albert Pinkham Ryder on Avery was not a connection I would have made on my own. Matisse is more direct; but the poetic bond of Mallarme-Matisse to Wallace Stevens-Avery was also something I would not have thought about.
Robert Hobbs, who wrote the main essays, points out that the artist is never "done": creative individuals must always begin again, learning and relearning, circling around the universal, the "first idea". Food for thought, and probably applicable to education and the art of living as well.
Currently Reading
January 12, 2009 Milton Avery is an American Modernist. I happened across this book a few months ago. I kept looking at it and then putting it back on the shelves. Last week I finally broke down and purchased it. It is a beautiful example of abstraction combined with representation. I'm only about a quarter of a way through this. More insight to come.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews