Milton Avery

Milton Avery was perhaps the most influential artist to sustain a viable figurative tradition between the 1930s and 1950s, creating works that defied categorization and which were embraced by Abstract Expressionists and Color Field artists who saw him as a kindred spirit. Mark Rothko eulogized him in 1965: "Avery is first a great poet. His is the poetry of sheer loveliness, of sheer beauty. Thanks to him this kind of poetry has been able to survive in our time."