Avery: A Family Legacy

Milton Sally Michel March JODY KLOTZ FINE ART



AVERY A Family Legacy An Exhibition of Works by Milton, Sally Michel & March Avery with an essay by Colette Copeland, Multimedia Visual Artist & Lecturer in Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas Fall 2021/Winter 2022 JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street • Abilene, TX 79601 • 325.670.9880 [email protected] • www.jodyklotz.com

ABOUT THE GALLERY International roots are at the heart of this distinctive Texas gallery. In 1980, Jody Klotz began her career working as a young art dealer in Paris for four years, and then New York City for fifteen years, specializing in 19th and 20th Century European and American paintings including Barbizon, Academic, Impressionist, Post Impressionist and modern works. She cultivated an internationally based business with a broad network of dealers and collectors. In 1997, she relocated her gallery to Abilene, Texas while continuing to be highly active in the international art market. The gallery has participated in international art fairs including Art Palm Springs, Modernism Palm Springs, the Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair, Beverly Hills Art and Antique Fair, and the Dallas Art and Antique Fair. Jody purchases much of the gallery inventory abroad. European and American Post War and Color Field painting, as well as some early Texas art and mid-century Texas modernism, have become an expanded focus of the gallery in more recent years. The gallery has exhibited in numerous regional art fairs such as the Houston Theta Art and Antique Fair and the Texas Art Fair of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art. Jody Klotz Fine Art contributes locally to the cultural scene of the City of Abilene by curating periodic shows, hosting art talks and vibrant events, and publishing catalogs to accompany its exhibitions. JKFA takes great pride in this aspect of the gallery life and in the collaboration with our cultural community. It's not the most likely place for an international art gallery but as in the movie Field of Dreams, our mantra is \"If you build it, they will come\"... OUR STAFF Jody Klotz | Owner Joshua Wright | Gallery Director Mandy Lambright | Creative Director Bill Huber | Factotum

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION Several years ago, we purchased a lovely landscape by Sally Michel Avery. Its characteristically vibrant and engaging colors and whimsical tone ignited an ongoing interest in her style. Throughout the last few years, we have also focused much of our attention on 20th Century female artists. Realizing the trove of talent that was overlooked in those masculine dominated years, we strove to highlight women through our gallery acquisitions and our exhibitions. As a part of that focus, we acquired more works by Sally Michel Avery and her daughter March Avery. Entranced by their stunning colors and endearing subjects, we gradually amassed a lovely little collection of works by these two artists. Aware that the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth was doing a major retrospective of Milton Avery’s work, we seized the moment to have this exhibition of the gallery’s collection. Milton Avery was an iconic and influential figure among 20th Century American modernist painters, and his innovations as a colorist were unparalleled. However, Milton’s contributions were not made entirely independently. Sally Michel was a young art student in the 1920s when she met Milton Avery. They often painted together and developed their unique style in tandem; a style which March would continue developing in her own career as an artist. “The Avery Style” has become a term used by art historians and professionals to describe the unique voice that all three members of the Avery family brought to the art world. Their style focuses on color, and they abandoned the creation of dimension that characterizes more traditional painting styles in favor of allowing the juxtaposition of unique color combinations to play a central role in their compositions. Our hope is that this exhibition, in conjunction with the stunning Milton Avery exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, will create a cultural synergy in West Texas — allowing art lovers a more insightful window into the Avery family. In presenting Avery: A Family Legacy, we wish to celebrate the impact that this family had on subsequent generations of artists, emphasize the role that the women in the Avery family played, and to revel in the beauty of the art that the Avery family has created. Joshua Wright Gallery Director

AVERY: A FAMILY LEGACY COLETTE COPELAND, MULTIMEDIA VISUAL ARTIST & LECTURER IN FINE ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS Much has been written about Milton Avery’s work — his innovative use of color, the collapse of the pictorial plane in his compositions and his insistence on maintaining his own style, despite the dominance of the Abstract Expressionist movement of the time. Little has been written about his wife Sally Michel — an artist and illustrator who supported the family with commercial work, allowing Milton time to focus on developing his painting career. Like so many female artists, Sally Michel’s work did not garner the attention it deserved. My hope is that this essay will contribute in a small way toward rectifying that omission in art history. While researching Sally Michel’s biography, I could not help but draw comparisons between her and my grandmother-in-law, Barbara Schwinn (Jordan). Both women were successful commercial artists/illustrators in New York City in the 1920s-1950s, supporting their families through their work. I was not able to confirm that they knew one another, but it seems likely, since there were so few females achieving that level of recognition while working in the male-dominated industry. Born only five years apart (1902 and 1907 respectively), both worked in fashion and family illustration for prestigious publications; Michel for Macy’s and the New York Times and Jordan for Vogue, Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post. In addition, both were raising families and maintaining their own artistic practices. I imagine theirs to be an exhilarating, but exhausting life. SALLY MICHEL: Born in 1902 in Brooklyn, New York, Sally knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist. She enrolled in the Art Students’ League in New York after high school. In the summer of 1924, she traveled to East Gloucester, Massachusetts to paint. It was there that she met her future husband Milton Avery, who was 17 years her senior. He followed her to New York and despite her parents’ wishes, they married two years later. At age 21, Sally supported the household with commercial illustration jobs at Macy’s and later at the New York Times. Their daughter March was born in 1932. For forty years, Milton and Sally shared their living room studio and painted side by side. The family spent summer vacations traveling and painting together. It was during these trips that Sally could focus on her personal artistic work. When March went to college, Sally had more time to work, but it wasn’t until after Milton’s death in 1965 that her work began to receive attention. She had her first solo show in 1973 at the Galerie du Jonelle in Palm Springs, California. In 1987-1988, the University of Iowa Museum of Art exhibited a retrospective that included 58 of her works spanning 50 years. The Danforth Museum of Art mounted another retrospective in 1999-2000. Sally died at age 100 in 2003. In writer Robert Hobbs’ article Sally Michel: The Other Avery, he makes a case for examining Sally’s work in its own right, yet most of the article focuses on comparisons between hers and Milton’s work, rather than a close examination of her work on its own merit.

“Her (Sally’s) role in the formation and development of the Avery style appears to be a complex one. She was patron, muse, champion, student, confidante and co-worker… She created the emotional landscape that Milton manifested in his mature work. But such situations are created by the spouses of many artists and cannot be considered artistic contributions, even if they are key factors to that art. Sally must be recognized, then, on the basis of her own work.” (Hobbs p.6) While it is impossible to remove Sally’s work from the context of Milton’s, since they worked so closely together, her later works clearly show mastery and confidence, once she was no longer bound by the need to promote her husband’s career first. The exhibition features 14 works by Sally Michel, five works by March Avery and two by Milton Avery. Of the 14 works by Sally, three are early works and the rest are post-1970. In her early work, Sally primarily worked in small scale, either in watercolor, gouache or oil on paper, rather than canvas. Part of this decision is due to economic hardship of the time, and the difficulty in attaining art materials. Her themes include the sense of place and family life. Since much of the work was created during summer family painting vacations, it is no surprise that the landscape is a primary subject. The scenic vistas would have provided a sharp contrast to their small Manhattan apartment, as well as the confines of urban life. The three early works on display are Cow and Calf (1936), March and Milton (1944) and Chilly Day (1945). Cow and Calf is a watercolor sketch of two cows in a picturesque mountain scene. Curiously, the calf is not painted, but left as a graphite outline. The mother and her calf are distant, not interacting with one another. I’m struck by the beautiful wash of color in the mountains. For me, the color evokes scents of impending rain, fog, damp soil and evergreen. As is characteristic of much of the Avery style, the emphasis is on creating the essence of the moment, rather than rendering the scene realistically. Cow and Calf, 1936 The watercolor entitled March and Milton features both March and Milton, 1944 husband and daughter intently reading. The scale and pictorial plane are especially interesting in this work. March would have been 13 years old at the time, yet she dominates the frame both in size and presence. Milton’s book is disproportionately large, spanning the width of his body. The scene is one of quiet intimacy between a family that is comfortable with silence and reflection. Also included in the March Reading, 1955 exhibit is an ink on paper sketch by Milton entitled March Reading (1955). Like Sally’s earlier work, March is deeply engrossed in her book, oblivious to her parent’s intent artistic gaze. In Chilly Day, a family sits on the beach. The man is face down, presumably sleeping with his head on his hands. Two seated women have their hands folded on their laps. They are not gazing at the water, but just ahead at a small child and a seated woman. In this work, Sally meticulously painted the pattern of both women’s coats, clothing that seems out of place — too

fanciful, even for a cold day on the beach. Chilly Day, 1945 I mention these three works in detail, since they represent Sally’s early period, but also to contextualize them within history. The world was in turmoil during this time. Hitler had come to power in 1933, and by 1936, when Cow and Calf was painted, there was already talk of war. 1944 to 1945 marked the time filled with food, gas and clothing rations in the United States. Rather than focusing on the misery and difficulties during war time, Sally’s (and Milton’s) lyrical work provided a welcome contrast — a bucolic balm to offset the collective anxiety of the time. The three later works I wish to discuss are Sally’s Ibex (1970), Horse Show (1979) and Five Birches (1977). All three works were painted after Milton’s death in 1965 and show the evolution of Sally’s style. She became more daring and experimental with her use of color, as well as her compositions. In Ibex, the bright orange foreground is the dominant pictorial element, while the lavender-hued ibex at the bottom provides an imaginative and whimsical contrast to the scene. While painted in oil, it has the characteristic layered washes found in some of her earlier watercolor work. Sally achieved this by thinning the oil paint to apply translucent layers. This technique also has the effect of smoothing the surface of the canvas or board. Horse Show features two riders on horses with one Untitled (Ibex), 1970 horse jumping the fence. The background is a bold explosion of blue and indigo. In this composition, Sally captures the horse mid-jump with all four hooves frozen in mid-air. The rider is bareback holding on to the horse’s mane. This kinetic composition is radically different from many of her more subdued paintings, evoking dynamic energy. From the horse’s trajectory, it appears that it might not successfully complete the jump. Yet Sally chooses to depict this moment of anticipation — full of hope and wonder. In both Ibex and Horse Show, the simplified forms emphasize the gesture of the animals’ movements, rather than the animal itself. Sally presents us with a decisive moment rather than a static scene. Horse Show, 1979 In Five Birches, Sally has almost eliminated the representational subject matter and depth Five Birches, 1977 of field. The visual formal elements of color, shape and line dominate the composition. The birch trees’ sinuous lines stretch toward a cotton candy pink sky. At 27” x 41”, this painting is larger than most of Sally’s earlier work. Her technique of thinning and layering the oil paint has been refined. The center swath of color shows textured scratch marks as well as subtle layers of green, orange and yellow. It’s a beautifully executed, poetic work.

MARCH AVERY: Born in 1932, March started drawing and painting at age two, alongside her parents. Neither of her parents instructed her in art. When she showed her father a painting, he would nod and tell her to paint another. Her training was through visual observation and the many hours spent on summer vacations painting daily with her parents. In an interview with Waqas Wajahat, March mentions that she liked pottery best in school and still has her early sculptures (which were also featured prominently in many of her father’s paintings). She also states that she didn’t know anyone who wasn’t an artist, so she assumed that everyone was an artist. (Wajahat p.45) Art was just a regular part of her life. Curiously, the only advice her father gave her was to avoid studying art in college. She received her BA in Philosophy from Barnard College in 1954 and married photographer Philip B. Cavanaugh. In 1969, they had a son, Sean, who is also a very accomplished painter. Like his mother and grandparents, his inspiration comes from the natural world. March’s work has been shown extensively at many galleries throughout the U.S. from 1963 to the present. She is currently represented by Blum and Poe Gallery. At age 89, she continues the work ethic modeled by her parents by painting almost daily. On exhibit are five paintings by March Avery dated 1962 to 2008. I will start with Spring Birches (1977), since it is from the same year and presumably the same location as Sally Michel’s Five Birches. Like her mother’s painting, the sky is rendered in a cotton candy pink. Unlike Sally’s painting, March’s composition has much more depth and an interesting slanted horizon line. She painted the birch trees with more detail, with white organic shapes on the ground that resemble patches of snow. The painting’s whimsical tone reminds me of a magical forest out of a children’s storybook. The exhibit includes two figurative paintings by March entitled Orange Sand (1962) and Woman in Green (1984). Orange Sand is a striking painting featuring a bright orange background with two seated figures. The male form in the background is painted Spring Birches, 1977 a pastel blue, while the woman is painted aqua with Woman in Green, 1984 a matching indigo blue bathing suit and hat. Sally used a similar orange for the background in her 1970 Ibex work. The body language of the two figures is at once intimate, and distant, evoking a tentative vulnerability. Woman in Green presents a shift in March’s style. There is much more emphasis in line, texture and pattern, rather than solid color blocking. Orange Sand, 1962 The female figure (who resembles Sally) is reclining on a bed. The linear pattern of the bed provides a sharp contrast to her green coat and patterned skirt. The cacophony of patterns provides visual interest as well as an optical collapse of spatial depth.

The two landscapes, Blue Tree Blue Sky (1967) and Quiet Inlet (2008), clearly show the evolution of March’s style. Blue Tree Blue Sky features a simple composition — a vivid complementary color scheme with a single tree in the foreground. In Quiet Inlet, the composition is much more complex with a more subdued color palette. There is more texture in the painted areas of the landscape, as well as in the rocks. The landscape appears flat in some areas, but has depth in others. The unusual perspective kept me guessing. Much has been written about Milton’s dislike for small talk. He was known to say, “Why talk, when you Blue Tree Blue Sky, 1967 can paint?” March has said that her father was very quiet and usually her mother did most of the talking. Sally has said that sometimes a couple of days would go by without Milton speaking. “Milton said enough to me in his paintings… He didn’t have to talk, because I knew Quiet Inlet, 2008 what he was saying. You know, he did a beautiful painting, what more could you ask?” (Hobbs p.11) I love this notion that painting was the Avery’s shared language — a non-verbal form of communication that explored their family relationship, experiences, travel and a life well-lived. A rich legacy indeed. SOURCES: • Baron, Joan Boykoff and Baron, Reuben M., “The Poetry of Sheer Loveliness: Milton Avery, Sally Michel and March Avery”, artcritical, August 31, 2019. • Devaney, Edith, “Milton Avery: Poet-Inventor,” Milton Avery, Royal Academy of Arts, 2021, p. 19-29. • Hobbs, Robert, “Sally Michel: The Other Avery, Woman’s Art Journal, Autumn 1987-Winter 1988, Vol 8, No. 2, p. 13-14. • March Avery Website. • Mourges, Denise, “Reflecting an Era of Idealized Mores”, The New York Times, June 9, 1991. • Taylor | Graham Gallery, Sally Michel Avery, website. • Vallarino Fine Art, Sally Michel Avery, website. • Wajahat, Waqas, “Understanding Milton Avery: A Conversation with His Daughter March Avery Cavanaugh and His Grandson Sean Cavanaugh,” Milton Avery, Royal Academy of Arts, 2021, p.45-51. • Wolf, Tom, “Sally Michel — Landscapes of Color and Texture,” The New York Times, January 15, 2016. • Wolf, Tom, “The Optimistic Art of Sally Michel,” The New York Times. • York, Alice, “A Life’s Landscape”, Sheridan Road.

COLETTE COPELAND: Colette Copeland is a multi-media visual artist, arts educator, social activist and cultural critic/writer whose work examines issues surrounding gender, death and contemporary culture. Sourcing personal narratives and popular media, she utilizes video, photography, performance and sculptural installation to question societal roles and the pervasive influence of media, and technology on our communal enculturation. For the past 10 years, she has lived in Dallas, Texas where she teaches art appreciation, contemporary studio practices, foundations of art and digital photography at Collin College, and University of Texas at Dallas. From 2002-2011, she taught photography, visual studies and critical writing at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute in New York and her MFA from Syracuse University. She is the recipient of a Leeway Foundation Award for Art & Change and 2020 Kevin Mullins Memorial Award. Over the past 27 years, her work has been exhibited in 25 solo exhibitions and 143 group exhibitions/festivals spanning 35 countries. Highlights include the Arad Biennale in Romania, the Museum of Fine Arts in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, Novosibirsk State Art Museum in Russia, City Nord in Hamburg, Germany, Ars Latina in Macerata, Italy, Mexicali, Baja and Castellon, Spain, Cultural Communication Center in Klapeda, Lithuania, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Scope Hamptons in New York, Kratkofil Film Festival in Bosnia/Herzgovina, and a traveling exhibition throughout India and Bangladesh, including Calcutta, Bombay and Dhaka. For the past 9 years, Copeland has volunteered with Traffick911, an organization helping sex trafficked youth. She has served in the capacity of volunteer coordinator and currently is engaged with advocacy, community awareness and education. She also volunteers in juvenile detention facilities teaching Nia dance therapy to incarcerated teen girls. Copeland writes cultural and arts criticism for Glasstire, Arteidolia, and Eutopia Contemporary Art Reviews. She has also written for The Photo Review, Afterimage Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Ceramics: Art and Perception, and Exposure Journal. She is a member of AICA - International Association of Art Critics. She proudly admits to providing her children with years of \"therapy\" fodder.

MILTON CLARK AVERY AMERICAN, 1885-1965 Born in Sand Bank, New York, the youngest of four children, Milton Avery moved to Hartford, Connecticut, with his family in 1898. He held many factory jobs as a young man before enrolling in a lettering class at the Connecticut League of Art Students in Hartford in 1905. Charles Noël Flagg, the school’s director, persuaded Avery to transfer to a life-drawing class, which launched his career in fine arts. In 1918, while working for an insurance company at night, he studied at the School of the Art Society of Hartford. The following year, he won top honors in his portrait and life-drawing classes. In 1924, he became a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. Avery lived in and around Hartford until 1925, when he moved to New York City. In 1920, Avery began spending summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts. There, in 1924, he met a young painter named Sally Michel. He followed her to New York, and in 1926 they were married. At the beginning of their marriage, Sally determined to place her own artistic concerns second to those of her husband, and she worked as a freelance illustrator to free Avery from the need to support his family. He attended evening classes at the Art Students’ League, and in 1927 began to exhibit in group shows. His first New York exhibition was held in 1928 at the Opportunity Gallery, and that same year he befriended Mark Rothko, who introduced him to Barnett Newman and Adolph Gottlieb. Avery’s early training had prepared him for a career as an academic painter, but he frequented New York galleries that exhibited modernist European art. By 1930, references to Matisse and Picasso can be discerned in Avery’s paintings, and he began to introduce the simplified forms and flattened space that would, along with clear, unmodulated color, become the hallmarks of his later work. The 1930s were financially precarious times for the Averys. Milton exhibited his work frequently, but it did not sell well. However, a 1935 invitation to join the prestigious Valentine Gallery — which exhibited Matisse, Picasso, Miró, Derain, Braque, Kandinsky, Stuart Davis, and others — had a vitalizing effect on his painting and his outlook. Although Avery never joined any of the artists’ organizations that proliferated in New York during the 1930s, the couple’s apartment became a meeting ground for young painters. Gottlieb, Rothko, and Newman were frequent visitors, and often joined the Averys during summers spent in Gloucester or southern Vermont. Many of Avery’s paintings originated during these summers away from the city. A quiet man who seldom participated in conversations about him, Avery constantly sketched — landscapes, people, interiors — whatever was at hand. Around 1938, the Averys began organizing sketch classes where they and

their friends shared the costs of a model. John Opper was among those who congregated at the Averys' and remembered the lively talk and stimulating company. Also in 1938, Avery worked as an artist in the Easel Division of the WPA Federal Art Project. In 1943, Avery joined the New York gallery of Paul Rosenberg, an important dealer who had been forced to flee Paris when the Nazis took the city. This affiliation, coupled with his first museum show at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. in 1944, brought Avery national acclaim. Yet sales remained few, and New York museums, for the most part, showed little enthusiasm for his work. Avery persisted nonetheless, refining form and clarifying color. In 1946, the family spent three months in Mexico, where not only the landscape, but the peasants and city streets, offered new subject matter. Three years later, Avery suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. Prevented by his health from working outdoors, Avery began making monotypes, a medium that requires rapid execution. These monotypes affected his painting style, and after about 1950, Avery increasingly eliminated extraneous detail from his work and began focusing on the harmony of the overall canvas rather than the interrelation of its parts. Critical acclaim for Avery’s work waned for several years during the early 1950s, eclipsed, perhaps, by Abstract Expressionism. Yet, by late in the decade, his independent vision, distilled, vibrant color, and acutely refined forms had secured his recognition as one of the most subtly powerful artists in mid-century America. Scholars have struggled over the years to find an appropriate manner in which to classify Avery as a painter. He has been called “American Fauve”, “America’s Matisse”, and even “Abstract Impressionist”, as Elaine de Kooning used the term in the 1950s. She was attempting to describe the works painted alongside those of the Abstract Expressionist movement, where the artists implemented grittier brushstrokes and broader gestures against more challenging topics. In hindsight we can now recognize the significant impact that Avery’s late work had in this environment, particularly in its alliance with the works of the Color Field painters. Milton Avery’s work is in numerous collections including, but not limited to, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. During his lifetime, retrospective exhibitions were mounted at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1952 and at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1960. Milton and Sally were both awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Artists’ Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire in 1953, 1954, and 1956. In 1960, Milton received a Ford Foundation grant. Milton Avery died in New York City on January 3, 1965.

AWARDS & MEMBERSHIPS: Member, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Member, Art Students League, New York Member, Woodstock Art Colony Athenuem Prize, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, 1929 Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, 1930 First Prize, Baltimore National Watercolor Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1948 MacDowell Artists’ Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1953, 1954, 1956 Ford Foundation Grant Recipient, 1960 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: \"The Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts: Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture\", Annex Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1915-1931 Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1923 “Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists”, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, 1927 & 1928 Opportunity Gallery, New York, 1928 Morton Galleries, New York, 1929 Annual Watercolor Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 1930 Solo Exhibition, Valentine Gallery, New York, 1935 Valentine Gallery, New York, 1942 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, 1943 \"Milton Avery\", Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington D.C., 1943 \"Watercolors by Milton Avery\", Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1944 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, 1945 Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1945 \"My Daughter March\", Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1947 \"Milton Avery Paintings\", Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 1947 “Baltimore National Watercolor Exhibition”, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, 1948 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, 1949 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, 1951 \"Milton Avery\", Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, Traveled to: Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Lowe Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida; Delaware Art Center, Wilmington; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 1952 \"Milton Avery\", Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, 1956 HCE Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1958

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"Two Husband and Wife Painting Teams\" (Sally Michel, Milton Avery, Arnold Blanch, and Doris Lee), Rudolph Galleries, Coral Gables, Florida, 1959 \"Milton Avery\", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Traveled to: Bennington College, Vermont; Bradford Junior College, Massachusetts; Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York; Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania; Swain School of Design, New Bedford, Massachusetts; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut; Pennsylvania State College, University Park; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; University of Kentucky, Lexington; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, 1960 \"Milton Avery\", Fort Wayne Art Museum, Indiana, 1962 \"Milton Avery\", Richmond Artists Association at The Carillon, Byrd Park, Virginia, 1962 \"Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery\", New Arts Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1962 \"Avery Family Group Show\", Rye Free Reading Room, New York, 1963 \"Paintings by Milton Avery\", Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1964 \"Milton Avery Paintings: 1941-1963, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Traveled to: Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Mercer University, Macon, Georgia; Indiana University, Bloomington; Mary Washington College, University of Virginia, Fredericksburg; Michigan State University, East Lansing; Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado; Madison Art Center, Wisconsin; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1965-1966 \"Milton Avery and Family: An Album of a Contemporary Family of Artists\", Gallery Reese Palley, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1966 \"Milton Avery, 1893-1965\", Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, 1968 \"The Milton Avery Family\", New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, 1968 \"Milton Avery\", National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Traveled to: Brooklyn Museum, New York; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, 1969-1970 \"Milton Avery Retrospective\", Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1970 \"The Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1970 \"Paintings by Milton Avery and His Family\", Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1971 \"The Sea by Milton Avery\", Louise E. Thorne Memorial Art Gallery, Keene State College, New Hampshire, Traveled to: Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, 1971 \"The Milton Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1972 \"The Graphic Work of Milton Avery\", Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Traveled to: Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Fort Lauderdale Museum of the Arts, Inc., Florida; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; Beaumont Art Museum, Texas; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Hackley Art Museum, Muskegon, Illinois; Albrecht Art Museum, St. Joseph, Missouri; Tyler Museum of Art, Texas, 1973 \"Avery Family Exhibition\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1974

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"The Avery Family\", Webb & Parsons, Bedford Village, New York, 1975 \"Milton Avery and the Landscape\", William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1976 \"Milton Avery: Drawings and Paintings\", University of Texas Art Museum, Austin, Traveled to Summit Art Center, New Jersey; Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 1976 \"Milton Avery: Selections from the Collection\", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1976 \"Avery: Milton - Works on Paper and March - Ceramics\", Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1980 \"Milton Avery: Drawings\", San Francisco Museum of Art, California, 1980 \"Milton Avery\", University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, 1980 \"Milton Avery: The Late Paintings\", Akron Art Institute, Ohio, 1980 \"Milton Avery: Large Late Paintings\", Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1981 \"Milton Avery\", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1982 \"Milton Avery - Paintings, Drawings and Prints\", Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida, 1983 \"Milton Avery\", Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, 1984 \"The Avery Family: Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery - An Exhibition of Paintings\", Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, 1985 \"The Averys: Sally, March, Milton\", Work of Art Gallery, Saugerties, New York, 1986 \"Milton Avery: Paintings of Canada\", Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Traveled to: Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada; Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C., Canada; Concordia Art Gallery, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 1986-1987 \"Milton Avery: Progressive Images\", Boise Art Museum, Idaho, Traveled to: Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham; Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana, 1988-1989 \"Milton Avery: Works from the 1950s in the Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth\", Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, 1990 \"Milton Avery: Watercolors 1929-1960\", Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Traveled to: Harmon-Meek Gallery II, Naples, Florida; Tampa Museum of Art, Florida, 1991-1992 \"Milton Avery: Paintings from the Collection of the Neuberger Museum of Art\", Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, Traveled to: Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York; The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, 1994-1995 \"Milton Avery: Works on Paper\", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1994-1995 \"Milton Avery's 'Ebb & Flow'\", Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida, 1997 \"Milton Avery\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 1999 \"Milton Avery: Independent Vision\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2000 \"Milton Avery: The Late Paintings\", Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, 2001 \"Milton Avery - The Nude and Other Subjects, A Retrospective View: 1929-1963\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2001 \"Milton Avery\", Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto, Canada, 2002

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"Milton Avery: The Late Paintings\", Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, 2002 \"Milton Avery: Master of American Modernism\", George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2002 \"Milton Avery: The Late Paintings\", Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, 2002 \"Milton Avery - The Nude and Other Subjects, A Retrospective View: 1929-1963\", Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2002 \"Sally Michel/Milton Avery: A Portrait\", Knoedler Gallery, New York, 2003 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2003 \"Milton Avery\", Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2003 \"Milton Avery\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2003 \"Discovering Milton Avery: Two Devoted Collectors - Louis Kaufman and Duncan Phillips\", Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 2004 \"Milton Avery: Works on Paper\", Waddington Custot Galleries, London, 2004 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2004 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2004 \"Milton Avery: Paintings from the Neuberger Museum Collection\", Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, New York, 2004 \"Milton Avery: A Retrospective of Nudes\", Boca Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida, 2005 \"Placing Avery: Selections from The Permanent Collection\", Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, 2005 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005 \"Milton Avery and the Sea\", Alpha Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2006 \"Milton Avery\", Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2006 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2006 \"Milton Avery: Still Lifes 1927-1960\", Waddington Custot Galleries, London, 2007 \"Milton Avery: The Kaufman Collection\", Coral Springs Museum of Art, Florida, 2008 \"Placing Avery: Paintings And Prints From The Collection Of The Neuberger Museum Of Art”, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, 2009 \"Milton Avery\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2009 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2009 \"Milton Avery: Industrial Revelations\", Knoedler & Company, New York, 2010 \"Milton Avery\", Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010 \"Focus On: Milton Avery\", Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, 2011 \"Milton Avery & The End of Modernism\", Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Nassau County, New York, 2011 \"Milton Avery\", Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 2011 \"The Tides of Provincetown\", Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts, 2012 \"Milton Avery - Selected Works\", Fischbach Gallery, New York, 2012 \"Milton Avery\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2013 \"Milton Avery: A Concentration of Drawings and Prints\", Fischbach Gallery, New York, 2014 \"Milton Avery: Selected Paintings\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2015

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"Milton Avery’s Vermont\", Bennington Museum, Vermont, 2016 \"Milton Avery\", Victoria Miro, London, 2017 \"Milton Avery: Early Works on Paper + Late Paintings\", Yares Art Gallery, New York, 2018 \"Milton Avery: The Late Portraits\", Victoria Miro, Venice, Italy, 2019 \"Summer with the Averys [Milton | Sally | March]\", Bruce Museum, Connecticut, 2019 \"Milton Avery: A Selection of Paintings\", DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2019 \"The Family Avery\", Yares Art Gallery, New York, 2020 \"Milton Avery\", Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, 2021 \"Milton Avery\", Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2021 \"The Connecticut Years\", Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, 2021 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe Artists Rights Society, New York Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama Brooklyn Museum, New York Brauer Museum Of Art, Valparaiso, Indiana Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Dayton Art Institute, Ohio De Young Museum, San Francisco, California El Paso Museum of Art, Texas Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts Georgia Museum of Art, Athens Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY, New York Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS (CONTINUED): Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

GRAZING COWS, 1950 Gouache on paper board 15 ½ x 22 ¼ inches Signed and dated lower left: Milton Avery 1950

MARCH READING, CIRCA 1955 Ink on paper 8 ½ x 11 inches Signed lower right: Milton Avery

SALLY MICHEL AVERY AMERICAN, 1902-2003 Born in 1902, Sally Avery, also known as Sally Michel, knew by the age of five that she wanted to be an artist. A prolific painter and illustrator, Avery worked in an early modernist style. She attended the Art Students League in New York and exhibited at the Childs Gallery in Boston. Sally spent summers painting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and in 1924, she met and fell in love with the artist in the next studio, Milton Avery. At this time in his career, Milton Avery was painting Impressionist works and was living with his mother in Connecticut. He soon followed Sally to New York, and the two married in 1926. For the next forty years, the two artists were inseparable. They were each other's model, collaborator, critic and champion. Together they created a style of \"high modernist\" painting that is most often solely attributed to Milton's hand. Although they painted side by side, their purposes were quite different. Sally made no effort to exhibit or sell her art, but instead managed Milton's career and the Avery household. For many years, Sally worked as an illustrator for the New York Times, children's books, and other publications, allowing her to be the primary financial supporter for her family until later in life when Milton’s works started selling. The Averys, along with their daughter, March, spent most summer vacations traveling to much of New England, California, Canada, Mexico, Europe and even Woodstock, allowing Sally more time to paint. Their excursions were often in the company of their close friends and fellow artists, Mark Rothko, Adloph Gotlieb and Barnett Newman. Although both Milton and Sally painted with the notion of making modern art out of familiar surroundings — often painting each other, their daughter, their friends, their home and the places they vacationed — Sally’s art was somewhat different from her husband’s. She never painted for the market, but rather painted for her own pleasure. Even after Milton’s death, Sally still saw his art as art for the public, and remained mysterious about her own work. She drew little attention to her art as a masterful oeuvre, and stuck to simply capturing the charm and delightfulness of daily life. By the mid-1950s, their daughter, March, had grown up and Milton's works had finally begun to sell. Both enabled Sally to devote more time to her own painting. She exhibited at a handful of shows at that time. Her work has since been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries, and can be found in many public and private collections, including the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

AWARDS & MEMBERSHIPS: Member, Art Students League, New York Member, Woodstock Art Colony MacDowell Artists’ Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1953, 1954, 1956 Yaddo Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1955 First Prize, Oil Painting, Village Art Center, New York City, 1957 Second Prize, Oil Painting, Village Art Center, New York City, 1958 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: \"Painting and Sculpture by Wives of Painters and Sculptors\", Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York, 1933 New York City Center Gallery, 1950 Woodstock Art Center, New York, 1950 Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York, 1950 Village Art Center, New York, 1957 Village Art Center, New York, 1958 \"Two Husband and Wife Painting Teams\" (Sally Michel, Milton Avery, Arnold Blanch, and Doris Lee), Rudolph Galleries, Coral Gables, Florida, 1959 \"Mr. and Mrs. Show\", Gallery 14, Inc., Palm Beach, Florida, 1962 \"Milton Avery\", Richmond Artists Association at The Carillon, Byrd Park, Richmond, Virginia, 1962 \"Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery\", New Arts Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1962 \"Avery Family Group Show\", Rye Free Reading Room, New York, 1963 Paul Kessler Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1965-1967 \"Milton Avery and Family: An Album of a Contemporary Family of Artists\", Gallery Reese Palley, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1966 \"The Milton Avery Family\", New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, 1968 Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1969 \"The Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1970 \"Paintings by Milton Avery and His Family\", Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1971 \"The Milton Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1972 \"Sally Michel and March Avery\", Fontana Gallery, Narberth, Pennsylvania, 1972 Galerie du Jonelle, Palm Springs, California, 1973 \"Avery Family Exhibition\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1974 Henry Fox Gallery, 1975-1983 \"The Avery Family\", Webb & Parsons, Bedford Village, New York, 1975 \"Woodstock, An American Art Colony, 1902-1977\", Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1977 \"Sally Michel: Mountain Landscapes\", The Erpf Catskill Cultural Center, Arkville, New York, 1979

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): Solo Exhibition, Waverly Gallery, New York, 1981 Solo Exhibition, Ulster County Council for the Arts, Kingston, New York, 1982 Allentown Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, 1984 \"The Avery Family: Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery - An Exhibition of Paintings\", Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, 1985 Solo Exhibition, Kleinert Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1985 \"American Masters: Works on Paper from The Corcoran Gallery of Art\", Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service & Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Traveled to: Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City; Queens Museum, Flushing, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Burling Library, Grinnell, Iowa; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 1986 \"The Averys: Sally, March, Milton\", Work of Art Gallery, Saugerties, New York, 1986 \"Elders of the Tribe\", Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, 1986-1987 \"A Century of Women Artists\", Childs Gallery, Boston & New York, 1986-1988, 1989 \"Seventy Five American Masters\", Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1987 \"Sally Michel: The Other Avery\", University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1987 Solo Exhibition, Wallace Wentworth Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1988 “Art in the Ambassador's Residence”, Manila, 1988 \"Sally Michel: The Other Avery\", Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1988 Retrospective, Mekler Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1989 Solo Exhibition, David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1989 Rudolph Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, 1989 \"Woman's Art Journal Tenth Year Celebration\", Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, 1989 \"Sally Michel\", Fresno Art Museum, California 1990 Wright Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, 1993-1997 \"Relatively Speaking: Mothers and Daughters in Art\", Sweet Briar College Art Gallery, Virginia, Traveled to: Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art; Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York; Rockford Museum of Art, Illinois; Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, 1994-1996 \"Preserving the Past, Securing the Future: Donations of Art, 1987-1997\", National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1997-1998 Wright Gallery, New York, 1998-1999 \"Sally Michel: Retrospective\", Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts, 2000 \"Celebration of the Horse\", Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 2001 \"A Family Affair\", Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, 2002 \"Sally Michel/Milton Avery: A Portrait\", Knoedler Gallery, New York, 2003 \"Sally Michel: Two Decades of Paintings and Watercolors\", Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, 2003 \"Provincetown Artists: A Survey of American Modern to Abstract Art\", Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): College, Beverly, Massachusetts, 2015-2016 \"Sally Michel Avery: Landscape and Figures\", Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, Illinois, 2018 \"The Family Avery\", Yares Art, New York, 2020 \"A Quest for Parity: Women in Art\", Jody Klotz Fine Art, Abilene, Texas, 2021 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Brooklyn Museum, New York Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Fresno Art Museum, California Grinnell College, Iowa Holyoke Museum, Massachusetts Housatonic Community College Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Connecticut Israel Museum, Jerusalem Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City University of Saint Joseph, Hartford, Connecticut University of St. Thomas - Minnesota, Saint Paul Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania William and Uytendale Scott Memorial Study Collection of Works by Women Artists, Bryn Mawr College Art & Archeology Collections, Pennsylvania Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, New York

COW AND CALF, 1936 Watercolor on paper 15 ⅜ x 22 ¼ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: Sally Michel 1936 Cow and Calf

MARCH AND MILTON, 1944 Watercolor on paper 15 ½ x 22 ⅜ inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1944

CHILLY DAY, 1945 Watercolor on paper 15 ⅝ x 25 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1945

UNTITLED (IBEX), 1970 Oil on board 16 x 20 inchess Signed and dated lower left: Sally Michel 1970

QUIET COVE, 1974 Oil on board 11 ½ x 15 ½ inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1974

COUNTRY ROAD, 1975 Oil on canvas panel 22 x 28 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel '75

FRIENDS, 1976 Oil on cardboard 15 ¼ x 11 ¼ inches Signed lower right: Sally Michel

STREAM SIDE, 1976 Oil on canvas 39 x 39 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1976

COOPER'S MOUNTAIN AND THE RESERVOIR, 1977 Oil on canvas board 12 x 16 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel / 1977

FIVE BIRCHES, 1977 Oil on canvas 27 x 41 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1977

HORSE SHOW, 1979 Oil on board 15 x 19 ¼ inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1979

ROLLING HILLS, 1984 Oil on canvas board 24 x 36 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1984

VARIOUS TREES, 1985 Oil on canvas board 12 x 16 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel / 1985

UNTITLED (IMPALAS), 1987 Watercolor on paper 12 x 16 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel / 1987

MARCH AVERY AMERICAN, BORN 1932 March Avery, born 1932, is the daughter of famous and influential American painters Milton Avery and Sally Michel Avery. Inspired by their example, Avery grew up painting with her family and developed a distinct style, one that uses abstract forms and brilliant color to depict the scenes of everyday life. She began painting as a child — although as she would tell it, “I think I was painting in utero.” She had her first solo exhibition in 1963. Now in her late eighties, the artist continues to work six days a week in her lifelong neighborhood, Greenwich Village. Avery avoided the influences of Abstract Expressionism embraced by many artists in the 1930s and 1940s. Instead, she always adhered to her father's methods: reducing elements to their essential forms, eliminating many details, and instead developed flattened shapes and strong colors — a method that became known as “The Avery Style”. Even today, Avery is most influenced by her father, who died at age 80 in 1965. Without much parental supervision, perhaps she gravitated to his style by osmosis. Raised with the dividing line between life and art blurred, such is the subject matter of her work: domestic scenes, portraits of friends and family members, and landscapes visited and revisited over the course of a lifetime. Avery’s depictions of these modest moments in life are deliberately visually accessible, hovering in a space that is not overtly abstract nor distinctly figurative. Nature’s grandeur and the delicate emotions of human intimacy are rendered with an expert ability to collapse complex experiences and three-dimensional spaces into flattened topographies comprised of evocative shapes and forms. Avery grew up in New York around her parents’ artist friends, such as Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman and Marsden Hartley. She spent her summers in the country, which has had a clear influence on her work. The artist never took a single studio or art history class. Instead, Avery hoped she might discover the definition of \"truth and beauty\" by studying philosophy at Barnard College. Youthful idealism didn't stop the headstrong artist from returning to her roots. \"I knew no one but artists, so I knew that is all I would ever be,\" she says. Avery married Philip Cavanaugh in 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a degree in philosophy. Avery’s son, Sean, is also a painter. Avery, who is based in New York, has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the country, including the Chrysler Museum, Vanderbilt University, Bryn Mawr College, the Brooklyn Museum, the Newark Museum, the New Britain Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: \"Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery\", New Arts Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1962 \"Avery Family Group Show\", Rye Free Reading Room, New York, 1963 Waverly Gallery, New York, 1963-1978 Paul Kessler Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1963-1978 Fontana Gallery, Narberth, Pennsylvania, 1964-1981 \"Milton Avery and Family: An Album of a Contemporary Family of Artists\", Gallery Reese Palley, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1966 \"The Milton Avery Family\", New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, 1968 \"The Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1970 \"Paintings by Milton Avery and His Family\", Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1971 \"March Avery: Recent Paintings and Mixed Media\", Agra Gallery, Washington, DC, 1972 \"The Milton Avery Family\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1972 \"Sally Michel and March Avery\", Fontana Gallery, Narberth, Pennsylvania, 1972 \"Jazz and Painting\", Louise E. Thorne Memorial Art Gallery, Keene State College, New Hampshire, 1972 \"Avery Family Exhibition\", Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1974 \"The Avery Family\", Webb & Parsons, Bedford Village, New York, 1975 \"Avery: Milton - Works on Paper and March - Ceramics\", Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1980 \"March Avery: Recent Paintings\", Summit Gallery, New York, 1982 Visual Images Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1982-1983 \"The Avery Family: Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery - An Exhibition of Paintings\", Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, 1985 \"The Averys: Sally, March, Milton\", Work of Art Gallery, Saugerties, New York, 1986 Armstrong Gallery, New York, 1986 Kendall Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1987-present Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1988 Sena East Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1988 \"Jazz and Painting\", Louise E. Thorne Memorial Art Gallery, Keene State College, New Hampshire, 1989 \"The Ladies Drawing Room\", Kendall Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, \"Twenty-five Women\", Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, New York, 1991 David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1992 \"March Avery: Selected Works: 1974-1994\", Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, Connecticut, in conjunction with Hoorn-Ashby Gallery, New York, 1994 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1994 \"Relatively Speaking: Mothers and Daughters in Art\", Sweet Briar College Art Gallery, Virginia, Traveled to: Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art; Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York; Rockford Museum of Art, Illinois; Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, 1994-1996 Hoorn-Ashby Gallery, New York, 1995

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): Marguerite Oestreicher Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1997 Yearly Exhibitions, Marin-Price Gallery, Chevy Chase, Maryland, 2004-2014 \"Just the Figure\", Walter Wickiser Gallery, Inc., New York, 2007 \"Art in Embassies\", Vienna, Austria, 2010 \"The Friends Seminary Auction\", David Zwirner, New York, 2015 \"Celebrating Our 75th Anniversary\", Federation of Modern Painters & Sculptors, Sylvia Ward & Po Kim Gallery, New York, 2015 \"Long Island in the 1960s\", Long Island Museum of American Art, Stony Brook, New York, 2016 \"Women of the Research Studio: Past & Present\", Art & History Museums, Maitland, Florida, 2018 \"March Avery\", Louise McCagg Gallery, Diana Center, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, 2019 \"March Avery\", Blum and Poe, New York, 2019 \"Summer with the Averys: [Milton/Sally/March]\", Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2019 Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, California, 2020 \"The Family Avery\", Yares Art, New York, 2020 \"March Avery\", Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, California, 2021 \"A Quest for Parity: Women in Art\", Jody Klotz Fine Art, Abilene, Texas, 2021 \"Go Figure\", Over the Influence, Central, Hong Kong, 2021 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Art & History Museums, Maitland, Florida Artists Association of Nantucket, Massachusetts Brooklyn Museum, New York William and Uytendale Scott Memorial Study Collection of Works by Women Artists, Bryn Mawr College Art & Archeology Collections, Pennsylvania Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Stony Brook, New York Newark Museum, New Jersey New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, New York Woodstock Historical Society, New York

ORANGE SAND, 1962 Oil on canvas 48 x 44 inches Signed and dated lower left: MARCH AVERY '62

BLUE TREE BLUE SKY, 1967 Oil on canvas 28 x 37 inches Signed and dated upper left: MARCH AVERY '67

SPRING BIRCHES, 1977 Oil on canvas 28 x 37 inches Signed and dated upper left: MARCH AVERY'67

WOMAN IN GREEN, 1984 Gouache and watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches Signed and dated upper right: MARCH AVERY '84

QUIET INLET, 2008 Oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches

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