Sally Michel Avery: Landscape and Figures

Anne Loucks Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Sally Michel Avery: Landscapes and Figures. Included in the exhibition will be twenty-five exceptional examples of the artist’s paintings from 1962-1989.

Sally Michel Avery’s career as an artist spanned nearly 70 years, beginning in 1924 with her time at the Arts Students League in New York. In 1926, she married the celebrated artist, Milton Avery and for the next 40 years, they painted side by side acting as each other’s model, champion, and collaborator. Together, they developed a distinct modernist style using fields of high key color and flat semi-abstract forms. During this time, Sally also worked to promote her husband’s career as a painter and provided for her family financially as an illustrator.

This exhibition focuses on a selection of Sally’s abstract landscape paintings representing some of her favorite places, as well as figurative work depicting time spent with family and friends. Consistent throughout her paintings is her use flat, simplified shapes and forms, as well as broad fields of bright, vibrant color which she used to express her feelings towards her subjects. One can sense that her paintings reflect how she lived her life – modern and fresh, with a sense of grace, charm and optimism.

Sally continued to paint into her 90s and died in 2003 at the age of 100. Her work is held in many public collections including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.