Milton Avery papers
name: label: Creator
content: Avery, Milton, 1885-1965
label: Names
content: Avery, Sally
label: Names
content: Duthuit, Georges, 1891-
label: Names
content: Eilshemius, Louis M. (Louis Michel), 1864-1941
label: Names
content: Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943
label: Names
content: Putnam, Wallace, 1899-1989
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
topic: label: Topic
content: Painting, Abstract
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Milton Avery papers were donated in 1968, 1969, and 1982 by his widow Sally Avery, including a few letters previously loaned for microfilming.
creator: label: Creator
content: Avery, Milton, 1885-1965
setName: label: See more items in
content: Milton Avery papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of abstract painter Milton Avery measure 2.8 linear feet and date from 1926 to 1982, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1950 to 1982. Almost the entire collection consists of records of the Milton Avery Trust (2.4 linear feet) maintained by Avery's wife Sally, who served as a trustee. Milton Avery's business and personal correspondence (five folders) contains letters from friends and fellow artists, including a few from George Duthuit, Louis Eilshemius, Marsden Hartley, Wallace Putnam, and Mark Rothko. Also found are scattered writings about Avery, price lists, estate records, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and news clippings.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Milton Avery (1885-1965) was born in Altmar, New York and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. Around 1905 he began attending the Connecticut League of Art Students in Hartford where he studied life drawing while also working full-time as a factory worker and file clerk. In 1915 he had his first public exhibition and, in 1918, transferred to the School of Art Society in Hartford. In 1924 he met Sally Michel (1905-2003), a student at the Art Students League in New York, and moved to New York City to be closer to her. They married one year later. Around this time Avery also altered his year of birth to 1893, perhaps due to the age difference between him and Sally. After their marriage Sally worked as an illustrator so that Avery could paint full time. 

During the early 1920s, Avery's works were traditional figurative and genre subjects, influenced by American Impressionism. By the mid 1920s, with his move to New York, Avery began to simplify his forms and use broader expanses of flat color. Although his paintings became increasingly abstract, he never fully abandoned representational subject matter, painting figure groups, still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes. By the mid-1940s, Avery's work was characterized by a reduction of elements and elimination of detail, filled with an emphasis on arbitrary color. 

Avery exhibited in a group show at The Opportunity Gallery in 1928 which also featured Mark Rothko and the two became close friends. He became friends with many other artists including Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, and Marsden Hartley. Avery's color work was an important influence on many younger artists, particularly Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, and other Color Field painters. The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. was the first museum to purchase one of his paintings in 1929 and to give him his first solo museum exhibition in 1944. 

 In 1949 Milton Avery suffered a major heart attack and began making monotypes during his recovery. He returned to painting despite periods of ill-health, and his reputation grew rapidly over the next ten years, culminating in a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1960. He also exhibited along with his wife Sally Avery and their daughter, March Avery Cavanaugh (born in 1932), both of whom were also painters. Avery died in 1965 and left behind an oeuvre of paintings that numbers in the thousands. His wife Sally managed his estate and the sale of his works to many major museums, and served as a trustee for the Milton Avery Trust until her death in 2003.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1926-1982
label: Date
content: bulk 1950-1982
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.avermilt
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into 7 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1964, 1975 (Box 1; 1 folder)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1935-1981 (Box 1; 10 folders)

Series 3: Subject Files, 1950-1981 (Box 1-4; 2.4 linear feet)

Series 4: Writings, circa 1951-1979 (Box 4; 5 folders)

Series 5: Financial & Legal Records, 1943-1982 (Box 4; 6 folders)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1926, 1962-1977 (Box 4; 4 folders)

Series 7: Photographs, circa 1970 (Box 4; 1 folder)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Many of the letters loaned by Sally Avery and microfilmed on reel N69-63 were later donated. These were merged with additional accessions and fully processed, arranged, and described in 2007 by Erin Corley, and digitized in 2007 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: The papers of Milton Avery in the Archives of American Art were digitized in 2007, and total 6149 images.

Materials lent for microfilming are available on 35mm microfilm reels N68-95, N68-115, N69-63, and 2535 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of abstract painter Milton Avery measure 2.8 linear feet and date from 1926 to 1982, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1950 to 1982. Almost the entire collection consists of business files maintained by Milton Avery's wife Sally as a trustee for the Milton Avery Trust (2.4 linear feet). Milton Avery's business and personal correspondence (five folders) contains letters from friends and fellow artists, including a few from George Duthuit, Louis Eilshemius, Marsden Hartley, Wallace Putnam, and Mark Rothko. Also found are scattered writings about Avery, price lists, estate records, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and news clippings.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reels N68-95, N68-115, N69-63, and 2535 including six scrapbooks, a sketchbook, Christmas cards, exhibition catalogs, and photographs. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.