Milton Avery, a great American colorist

Art critic Hilton Kramer said: "He was, without question, our greatest colorist.... Among his European contemporaries, only Matisse--to whose art he owed much, of course--produced a greater achievement in this respect."

Untitled (Rock and Water View), vers 1921-25

huile sur toile

Gaspe Pink Sky, 1940

Gloucester Dawn

Vermont, 1941

Bridge to the Sea, 1944

Autumn, 1944

Pink Sky, 1944

Green Landscape, 1945

Shapes of Spring, 1952

Green Sea, 1958

Dancing Trees 1960

Trees

White-Vased Blooms

oil on canvas

Pale Trees Dark Mountain

Milton Avery

Milton Avery (March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965) was an American modern painter.  Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.

Avery's work is seminal to American abstract painting—while his work is clearly representational, it focuses on color relations and is not concerned with creating the illusion of depth as most conventional Western painting since the Renaissance has. Avery was often thought of as an American Matisse, especially because of his colorful and innovative landscape paintings. His poetic, bold and creative use of drawing and color set him apart from more conventional painting of his era. Early in his career, his work was considered too radical for being too abstract; when Abstract Expressionism became dominant his work was overlooked, as being too representational.

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