Sea Grasses and Blue Sea 1958

Milton Avery made this seascape with oil paint, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. Avery's color palette here is all about blues, from the pale sky to the deeper sea, punctuated by those dark, almost black, shapes that could be sea grasses or reflections. The paint application looks straightforward, not overworked, but purposeful. I imagine him stepping back, squinting, making each stroke count. Look at the way the lower left corner fades from a solid block into a series of discrete strokes, revealing the canvas beneath – it’s as if the picture plane itself is breaking down, dissolving into pure sensation. Avery reminds me a little of someone like Lois Dodd, stripping landscapes down to their essence, making them feel both familiar and utterly new. And like Dodd, he shows us that a painting can hold multiple realities at once. It is a reminder that art is a conversation.