Three Birds 1952

Milton Avery made this print, Three Birds, and, well, it's hard to say when, exactly. But look at the way he's used his tools to carve away at the woodblock, leaving these birds in stark contrast to the dark ground. I imagine Avery hunched over the block, thinking about flight, about the simplified shapes of birds in motion. Did he watch them, or did he imagine them? The central bird is almost pure negative space, a void in the darkness. The other two are patterned, textured, full of life, while the first one is all shadow. Avery's work always feels so deeply felt, a distillation of form and color. Think about other artists who've taken up similar themes, like, say, Picasso, or even some of the early modernists. It’s all a big conversation, right? It’s like Avery's in dialogue with the history of painting, finding his own quiet, idiosyncratic voice. It's beautiful, isn’t it?