Milton Avery and the Existentialism of a Work of Art

I think the public rarely wants to think about how much great work is sitting in storage at the museums, because it's depressing when we DO think about it - All that work is worth how much?? And, as artists, this knowledge forces us to think about the future of our own work, even if that projection is grim.

Narcissism and Self Awareness are purely human traits, and they give us a false hope that one day, after we are gone, and our children are gone, that our legacy will matter to someone. Yet even if our work survives past our death, realistically it only has a very small chance of ever seeing the light of day. This only brings up major feeling of ambiguity and existential paranoia.

Michele Ramirez is a fan of Milton Avery, a Modernist, Mid-century American Painter. SFMOMA has one of his paintings on view in their permanent collection. They actually OWN two paintings: "Three Figures and a Dog", 1943; and "Clear Cut Landscape", 1951 (See what I mean about all the storage?) Aside from MOMA, Avery's paintings are scattered across the globe in various museums and private collections. Here are some images of his works:


These two were in a show at Hackett-Freedman Gallery in SF in '03.
This one is in the collection of University of Mary WashingtonThis one is in the Tate, but not sure which collection.

If one becomes familiar with the work, and Colorist leanings of Milton Avery, one could check out Bard College, where there is an MFA program called the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. Since I'm no East-Coaster, I know little of the program, but maybe a visit to their website will offer more insight?

Here's the Wikipedia entry for Milton Avery

Here's an NPR story about him from 2004