Milton Avery (1893-1965), Rooster, woodcut, 1953, signed and dated in pencil lower right. Reference: Lunn 50, fourth state (of 4), published in an edition of 100 by Collectors of American Art. In very good condition, with full margins, 9 5/8 x 7 1/4,  the sheet 12 x 9 inches (24.5 x 18.4, the sheet 30.5 x 22.9 m.), printed on a cream Japan paper, in blue and black.

A fine impression, printed in blue and black.

Avery loved cutting and printing woodcuts, and experimenting with different color combinations on some of them. For Rooster, he initially made editions of 25 in black only, then in gray, then a few proofs in yellow and black, and finally an edition in blue and black.

Avery took up the woodcut in 1952, working on about 17 over the next three years, before his health declined and the effort of cutting and printing became too arduous for him.  He apparently enjoyed experimenting with different colors and color combinations,  and printing the colored cuts with varying intensity, and slightly out of register, so that no single print is identical to another.

Milton Avery (1893-1965),  My Wife Sally, drypoint, 1934, signed, dated and numbered in pencil [also signed in the plate on Sally's writing pad], from the edition of 100. Reference: Lunn 5 (only state). In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, 5 5/8 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 x 14 3/4 inches, archival window matting.

A fine fresh impression, printed in a dark brown ink.

Provenance: Associated American Artists, with their certificate appended to the mat verso.

This is a relatively early print by Avery, done in a period when he was creating drypoints and before the work on wood. At this stage he was working in a mannerist/modernist mode, depicting Sally with an exaggeratedly long arm, with a modernist flattening of the composition.

Sally Avery (1902=2003) was, of course, a distinguished artist in her own right.

A fine fresh impression, printed in black ink,with substantial burr from the drypoint work.

This is a relatively early print by Avery, done in a period when he was creating drypoints and before the work on wood. Here he’s working in a Mannerist mode, with the bodily exaggerations reminiscent of artists in the late 16th-early 17th Century such as Callot or Bassange - but of course he’s thoroughly modernist as well.

A fine impression, printed in a brownish/black ink, with a veil of plate tone.

Milton Avery made his first drypoint just after his daughter March was born, in 1932. Although primarily a painter, he turned to printmaking frequently throughout his career, making a number of drypoints in the ’30′s and ’40′s, then turning to woodcuts and linocuts in later years.

Little Girl is a thoroughly modernist composition, but appears to have roots in late Renaissance Mannerist portraiture.

Although Avery paintings have regularly achieved high auction and dealer prices, public recognition of Avery as a master modern American printmaker has only recently been forthcoming.

Milton Avery (1893-1965),  Fish, color woodcut, 1952, signed, dated and numbered (24/100) in pencil lower margin. Reference: Lunn 41, from the edition of 100 in dark green (there were also about 10 impressions in blue). In very good condition, with wide margins, 2 1/2 x 9, the sheet 7 x 15 3/8 inches. Printed in a greenish black ink on a very light wove paper.

A fine clear impression.

Avery made his woodcuts by rubbing the paper against the inked wood, using an implement such as a spoon. In this impression of Fish the grain of the wood is evident; it serves to give some texture to the water surrounding the fish.

Avery began making woodcuts in 1952, the year of Fish.