A foremost American modernist, Milton Avery (1885–1965) has had an enduring influence on mid-century American art, particularly the color field branch of Abstract Expressionism. This exhibition, curated by Robert Hobbs, featured fifty of Avery's late paintings, dating from 1947 to 1963, including nudes, still lifes, interiors, landscapes, and seascapes. Avery's late canvases display a dynamic tension between representation and abstraction that would influence his artist friends, including Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko.

Exhibition Itinerary: Milwaukee Art Museum (November 30, 2001–January 27, 2002); the Norton Museum of Art (February 16–April 14, 2002); and UCLA Hammer Museum (May 21–September 8, 2002).