Art Without Labels: Milton Avery: American Colorist @ Royal Academy of Arts, London

An amazing variety of styles. No need to read the labels or information cards — this is art that can be easily understood just by looking, and yet is complex enough to take a deep look. Incredibly hard working, Milton Avery set himself a task to produce a creative work every day.

He started out Impressionist with particularly beautiful reflections on water, moving into folky landscapes, often populated with humourous cows and bustling dwellings and steepled churches, sweeping coastal scenes and wildlife. Then abstraction and colour became the main focus, often portraits or beach scenes — at times he becomes Cezanne like. Eventually Avery moved into blocks of colour and patterns/textures which are very beautiful, such as a speeding motor boat shaping the water.

Inclusive, not alienating, these works encourage you to look and look again, and enjoy. The sense of movement in his seascapes!

They celebrate and appreciate the ordinary, but his use of texture brings such life to the works, such as a textured coat of the dog suggesting movement. Look closely and you see all the scoring and cross hatching of the apartment block and fire escape on the building outside the window.

The wonder and beauty of his blue trees!

At other times he’s almost Holbein-esque with these slanted still lifes. Even sauce bottles, the everyday, can become art! All this scene needs is for the Ambassadors to turn up. I love the playful pops of colour too. The detail and texture of a lute (or guitar) was rendered touchable, almost.

His sense of fun in composition — such as these bottles. All I can see is Ghostbusters! The light, the shades, the tone, the rendering of the urban landscape is beautiful, and overall that’s what this exhibition encourages us all to see and enjoy — the beauty of it all!

One minute his birds were comic, then stylised! I can’t help but smile.

Having come to this exhibition knowing nothing about the artist or their works, I left with a sense of someone who was a lifelong learner — sociable and keen to learn from other artists and artistic techniques, and just had a go, creating great beauty in the process! This is modern art which draws you in, engages the viewer!