Sally Michel Avery
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July 27, 1902
Sally Michel Avery | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sally Michel July 27, 1902 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 9, 2003 (aged 100) |
| Education | New York's Arts Students League |
| Spouse | |
| Children | March Avery |
Sally Michel Avery (/ˈeɪvəri/; née Michel; July 27, 1902 – January 9, 2003) was an artist and illustrator who created modernist paintings of abstracted figures, landscapes, and genre scenes capturing personal moments of everyday life. She was the co-creator of the "Avery style", wife and collaborator of artist Milton Avery, and mother of artist March Avery.[1] Throughout their lives, Michel and Avery shared their studio space together, painting side by side, critiquing each other's work, and developing a shared style which includes the use of abstracted subjects, expressionistic color fields, and harmonious but unusual colors juxtapositions.[2][3] Michel's work is the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Corcoran Collection), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Israel Museum, among others.[4][5][2]
Born in Brooklyn, Michel knew from around the time she was five or seven years old that she had the drive and desire to become an artist.[6] She began working immediately as a freelance illustrator after high school creating fashion illustrations for Macy's and was a contributor to the family column Parent and Child in the New York Times Magazine for over twenty years.[1][2][6] While working, Michel also took evening classes at New York's Arts Students League.[1][7]
In 1924 Michel joined her peers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a relaxing and picturesque locale where she went to focus on developing her artwork outside of illustration. Here, Michel got to know her soon-to-be husband, Milton Avery, who was in awe of her dedication to her art.[8] They married and Avery moved to New York to be with Michel in 1926 where they would eventually live together in the top floor apartment at 294 West 11th Street, Manhattan.[6] Michel served as the primary source of income for their small family from the 1920s-1950s, throughout the Great Depression.[9][1]
