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Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965)
LOT ID: 69588
Crucifixion, 1946

Oil, on canvas
44 х 34 in. cm.
Signed, and dated lower left on recto: "Milton Avery 1946"
Signed, titled and dated on verso: "Crucifixion Milton Avery 1946"
Lot description
This work by Milton Avery was completed during a painting trip he took to Mexico in 1946. During his time in Mexico, Avery visited with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, among other notable artists, and was inspired by the colors and shapes of the landscape. Focusing on simple compositions and the profound role of object placement, these canvases were referred to as being “infused with a great deal of poetry” by Avery’s wife Sally, who accompanied him on the trip. Crucifixion is a masterful example of Avery’s work at what is perhaps the most interesting stylistic stage of his career. Crucifixion has an impressive exhibition history including the 1982 Avery retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The work is Ex-collection the artist, the Milton Avery Estate, New York, and appears as illustrated plate number 147 in Robert Hobbs, Milton Avery, New York, 1990, pp. 146-7.

Modernist artist Milton Avery (1885-1965) was known as the American Matisse for his use of color and expressionist depictions of both landscapes and the human form. In the manner of Matisse, Avery’s flattened forms become abstract, and his mature style, developed by the mid-1940s, exhibits severely simplified forms. With an eye for detail that could have fit in among his Minimalist contemporaries, Avery's economy of line—weighted on the right, tentative on the left—emphasized gesture, movement and personality. The artist worked through several stylistic periods during his career, but he never abandoned representational subject matter. Avery was an essential influence to his close friend in New York and in Woodstock, modernist painter Adolph Gottlieb. He also enjoyed an artist-collaborator relationship with his wife, Sally.

Milton Avery’s works of art are held in numerous major collections of Modern art in Europe and the United States including the Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hirshorn in Washington, D.C.
Crucifixion by Milton Avery
  • Crucifixion by Milton Avery
  • Crucifixion by Milton Avery
  • Crucifixion by Milton Avery
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