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Milton Avery
THE CONNECTICUT YEARS
May 14 – October 17, 2021
This exhibition presents an intimate look at the formative years of the modernist painter Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965). Beginning in Hartford in the 1910s and 1920s, Avery forged a staunchly independent path as an artist for more than half a century. Two dozen sketches, watercolors, and oils illustrate his early interest in depicting landscapes, which he continued to do throughout his career. Highlights of the show also include rarely seen works from Avery’s summer stay in Collinsville, CT, in 1930. To add context to these formative experiences and influences artwork by Avery’s teachers and colleagues from the Connecticut League of Art Students and the Hartford Art School will be displayed, along with brochures, reviews, and letters from the museum archives. Seen together, these objects tell the story of Avery’s artistic roots in Connecticut.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring an essay by curator Erin Monroe exploring Avery’s artistic roots in Hartford. The catalogue is richly illustrated with rarely seen examples of his early sketches, watercolors, and oils.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
July 9 | Gallery Talk: Documenting Milton Avery
August 7 | Curator Talk: Milton Avery
August 14 | Second Saturdays for Families: Sketch a Scene
Featured image: Milton Avery, East Hartford Meadows, 1919. Oil on board. The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc. © 2021 The Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Support for this exhibition is generously provided by The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc.
Sustaining support for the Wadsworth Atheneum provided by Newman’s Own Foundation and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign with support from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts.
