- 22
Milton Avery 1885 - 1965
Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Milton Avery
- Hens
- signed Milton Avery and dated 1947 (lower left); also signed Milton Avery on the reverse
- oil on canvas
- 28 by 36 inches
- (71.1 by 91.4 cm)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owners from the above, 1980
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owners from the above, 1980
Exhibited
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, A Private Vision: Contemporary Art from the Graham Gund Collection, February-April 1982, illustrated in color p. 22
South Hadley, Massachusetts, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum, An Architect's Eye: Selections from the Graham Gund Collection, September-November 1985, illustrated in color p. 15
Toronto, Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario; Kingston, Ontario, Queen's University of Kingston, The Agnes Etherington Art Centre; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Edmonton, Alberta, Edmonton Art Gallery; Victoria, British Columbia, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Montreal, Quebec, Concordia University Art Gallery, Milton Avery: Paintings of Canada, February 1986-March 1987, no. 32
Gambier, Ohio, Kenyon College, Gund Gallery, Color: Theories and Structures, January-May 2014
South Hadley, Massachusetts, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum, An Architect's Eye: Selections from the Graham Gund Collection, September-November 1985, illustrated in color p. 15
Toronto, Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario; Kingston, Ontario, Queen's University of Kingston, The Agnes Etherington Art Centre; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Edmonton, Alberta, Edmonton Art Gallery; Victoria, British Columbia, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Montreal, Quebec, Concordia University Art Gallery, Milton Avery: Paintings of Canada, February 1986-March 1987, no. 32
Gambier, Ohio, Kenyon College, Gund Gallery, Color: Theories and Structures, January-May 2014
Catalogue Note
Hens displays the remarkable range of imaginative possibilities Milton Avery conjured during his long and prolific career. The artist often featured animals in his work, painting numerous depictions of cows, horses, seagulls, roosters, and, as in the present painting, hens. According to Robert Hobbs, Avery’s depictions of birds found their inspiration in folk art, which first drew the artist’s interest in the 1930s. He writes, “In these images Avery vacillates between natural and cultural forms with grace and wit. Many of his animals…continue this theme since they resemble pieces of folk art that Avery playfully brings to life…
“In these paintings Avery is enjoying a wonderful joke that makes the abstruse formalism of modern art delightful and charming. If modern paintings are first and foremost experiences of the medium before being representations of reality, Avery gives people images of a mediated reality, pictures of pictures that show how reality has already been turned into other mediums such as wooden decoys and metal weathervanes only to be transposed by Avery to still another medium, paint. Because these works appear so direct and innocent, the artist’s subtle wit and complex understanding of nature and culture are frequently overlooked. But as his wife has pointed out on a number of occasions, Avery’s art was extremely cerebral…“ (Milton Avery, New York, 1990, pp. 81, 83).
A deceptively simple organization of color, line and shape imbued with characteristic whimsy and sensitivity, Hens achieves a monumentality that belies its subject. By the time he completed this work in 1947, Avery had established his compositional format of using planes of color, juxtaposed in careful relationship to each other, to create a two-dimensional design. These flat areas are accented by expressive brushwork, seen in the representational pattern of feathers on the white hen, that adds dimension to the surface. Barbara Haskell writes, “As the forties advanced, Avery’s concentration on color and the simplification of shapes became increasingly intense. As before, color created the dominant impression and set the emotional tone, but now Avery’s choice of colors and their combination became more striking and daring. Multiple areas of pigment were blended together into evenly toned areas marked by Avery’s unmistakable color sense” (Milton Avery, New York, 1982, pp. 92, 108).
“In these paintings Avery is enjoying a wonderful joke that makes the abstruse formalism of modern art delightful and charming. If modern paintings are first and foremost experiences of the medium before being representations of reality, Avery gives people images of a mediated reality, pictures of pictures that show how reality has already been turned into other mediums such as wooden decoys and metal weathervanes only to be transposed by Avery to still another medium, paint. Because these works appear so direct and innocent, the artist’s subtle wit and complex understanding of nature and culture are frequently overlooked. But as his wife has pointed out on a number of occasions, Avery’s art was extremely cerebral…“ (Milton Avery, New York, 1990, pp. 81, 83).
A deceptively simple organization of color, line and shape imbued with characteristic whimsy and sensitivity, Hens achieves a monumentality that belies its subject. By the time he completed this work in 1947, Avery had established his compositional format of using planes of color, juxtaposed in careful relationship to each other, to create a two-dimensional design. These flat areas are accented by expressive brushwork, seen in the representational pattern of feathers on the white hen, that adds dimension to the surface. Barbara Haskell writes, “As the forties advanced, Avery’s concentration on color and the simplification of shapes became increasingly intense. As before, color created the dominant impression and set the emotional tone, but now Avery’s choice of colors and their combination became more striking and daring. Multiple areas of pigment were blended together into evenly toned areas marked by Avery’s unmistakable color sense” (Milton Avery, New York, 1982, pp. 92, 108).