Milton Avery, born Sand Bank, NY 1885-died New York City 1965 Search this
Medium:
oil on canvas
Dimensions:
42 x 30 in. (106.7 x 76.2 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1947
Luce Center Label:
Milton Avery was often dismissed as a naive painter because he did not seem as sophisticated as the elite abstract expressionists who took the stage after World War II. Avery borrowed this figure's pose from Picasso, and, in fact, Nude with Guitar reflects Avery’s knowledge of modern literature as well as painting. He was fond of Wallace Stevens's 1937 poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar," based on Picasso's famous Blue Period image. The poem praised the power of art to transform everyday moments into transcendent experiences, and the guitar became Avery's personal symbol of this power, appearing in many of his canvases (Hobbs, Milton Avery, 1990).
Luce Object Quote:
"I am not seeking pure abstraction; rather the purity and essence of the idea expressed in its simplest form." The artist, quoted in Hobbs, Milton Avery, 1990
