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Label Text In his recent work, Milton Avery has achieved that economy of means and statement which is at once a dichotomy of hardness and gentleness. Going far beyond mere designing of flat simplified forms, the totality of Avery is apparent in the close relationship and appropriateness of design, color, and paint appreciation. Born in 1893, Avery was early linked with the Fauves, a link that became only a thread as his personal style emerged. All things, animate and inanimate have, for Avery, a sensitivity all their own to which he, as a sensitive painter, responds. "The Blue Plate" painted in 1938 is an important example of the artist as he matured. The elegant simplicity, the muted color, the thin surface and flat planes, and the sensitivity for the subject are all there, speaking of things to come. Source: Bulletin, April 1961.
Exhibition History"Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," organized and circulated by the Waterloo Municipal Galleries, sponsored by the National Bank of Waterloo: Waterloo Municipal Galleries, Oct. 24 - Nov. 20, 1938; Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, Jan. 15 - Feb. 26, 1984; Muscatine Art Center, Apr. 1 - May 13, 1984; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, May 27 - July 1, 1984; Sioux City Art Center, July 15 - Aug. 26, 1984

"American Sampler Exhibition, Paintings from Around the United States, " Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, May 4 - June 9, 1963

"Paintings, Sculpture, Prints from Twenty-three Iowa Collections," Art Department, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, May 9 - Aug. 15, 1961

"Six Decades of American Painting of the Twentieth Century," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 10 - Mar. 12, 1961
Published References"Paintings, Sculpture, Prints from Twenty-three Iowa Collections," Art Department, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1961, cat. no. 30

"American Sampler Exhibition, Paintings from Around the United States," Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, 1963, cat. no. 2, ill.

"Six Decades of American Painting of the Twentieth Century," Des Moines Art Center, 1961, cat. no. 33

"Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," Waterloo Municipal Galleries, 1983, cat. no. 1

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, a catalog of selections from the permanent collections published in 1985, cat. ref. pp.24 & 26

DMAC Bulletin, April 1961, ill.
DimensionsOverall: 29 1/4 × 24 1/4 in. (74.3 × 61.6 cm)
Accession Number 1961.27
Classificationspainting
CopyrightARS
SignedMilton Avery (l,l oil paint)
ProvenanceArtist. (Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1961]
The Blue Plate
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Milton Avery
1952
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
John Edward Heliker
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
John Avery Newman
1985
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Peter Winslow Milton
1975
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Adolph Gottlieb
1965
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Maurice Brazil Prendergast
1912-1914
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ben Nicholson
1956
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Louisa L. Chase
1983
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ellsworth Kelly
1963
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Thomas Hart Benton
ca. 1946