Accompanying a major summer 2016 exhibition at the Bennington Museum, Milton Avery’s Vermont takes the first focused look at the work this great American modernist created in response to the six summers he spent in southern Vermont between 1935 and 1943. Avery’s intense activity in Vermont was pivotal to the breakthrough he made to his late work, known for its free use of color, and the delicate balance he achieved between abstraction and representation. In Vermont, Avery captured summer activities with family and friends and his highly personal response to the landscape in works characterized by bold, gestural marks and bright, non-associative colors. Milton Avery’s Vermont examines the artist’s creative process through pencil sketches executed en plein air, watercolors based on his sketches, and major oil paintings. The extraordinary strength of the Vermont watercolors will cement his reputation as one of the great watercolorists of the 20th century. The works in the exhibition and publication are drawn from The Sally and Milton Avery Foundation; the Milton Avery Trust; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Neuberger Museum of Art; The Peabody College Collection, Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery; and private collectors, who wish to remain anonymous.
