Milton Avery (1885-1965)

Barbara Haskell writes: "The 1954 canvas Hint of Autumn manifests Avery's continuing drive toward simplification of form. He gradually made his imagery more and more abstract, obliterating detail and using thinner washes of color. In a catalogue for a 1951 exhibition at the University of Illinois, he described his philosophy and his working process succinctly: 'I like to seize the one sharp instant in Nature, to imprison it by means of ordered shapes and space relationships. To this end, I eliminate and simplify, leaving apparently nothing but color and pattern. I am not seeking pure abstraction, rather the purity and essence of the idea--expressed in its simplest form.'" ("Milton Avery: 'Why Talk when You Can Paint?'," Portfolio, New York, September/October 1982, p. 79)