This exhibition, currently on at the Royal Academy, introduced me to Milton Avery, an artist I was unfamiliar with. He apparently influenced the Abstract Expressionists, particularly Rothko so I was keen to learn more.
I did find it a bit of struggle at times but focussed looking always brings rewards: his physical manipulation of paint for example. And of course his use of colour, often unrealistic but always evocative.
The paintings vary wildly in style which is often a problem for art historians; some seemed to me to be heavy and gauche at times, at others they were poetic and light.
I enjoyed seeing the experimentation of different techniques and themes. His everyday life and situations were the most common subjects.
This portrait of his daughter March is a prime example of the purity he sometimes achieved.
And these landscapes show how he was influenced by fauvism
moving to abstraction.
