Gallery of Contemporary Art in Belgium, Xavier Hufkens Announces Estate of Milton Avery Representation

Recently, Xavier Hufkens announced that it would represent the American painter Milton Avery (1885–1965), renowned for his evocative landscapes, household situations, and still lifes. Avery's distinctive output traverses the main painting traditions of his time — American Impressionism, American Modernism, and Abstract Expressionism — yet adheres to none. He is renowned for his distillation of form and harmonious use of colour.

The artist will be featured in the gallery's Art Basel 2022 show. Xavier Hufkens will host a solo exhibition of paintings by Milton Avery in the spring of 2023. Victoria Miro will continue to represent the Estate in London.

Xavier Hufkens: "Like eternal poetry, Milton Avery's paintings have the potential to depict nature, setting, and intimate settings. His compositions' serene simplicity and colour sensitivity resulted in beautiful masterpieces. Ahead of his time, he followed his creative inclinations with determination and influenced his contemporaries and following generations. I am thrilled to be the first gallery on the European continent to exhibit the art of Milton Avery and to bring it to a broader audience. I am very honoured to be entrusted by the Milton Avery family, March Avery Cavanaugh, and Sean Avery Cavanaugh, and I look forward to working closely with them and Waqas Wajahat."

The artist has always forged his own path: "I try to capture a precise moment in nature by means of structured forms and spatial relationships. To do this, I reduce and simplify, leaving just visible colour and pattern. I am not looking for absolute abstraction, but rather the essence and purity of a concept conveyed in its simplest form."

Although Avery mostly resided in New York and photographed several metropolitan settings, he spent almost every summer shooting in rural or seaside locales. Milton Avery was a reflective painter who endeavoured to depict the effects of light. In order to do this, he used a number of unorthodox techniques to create bright, ultraflat surfaces. The clear medium lent itself especially well to his favoured subjects—sea, sky, and landscape—making him an accomplished watercolourist.

Since Avery's death at the age of seventy-nine in 1965, his work has only grown in prominence. It is now the focus of a major retrospective organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. The art of Avery is shown in major museums worldwide.

The Belgian art dealer Xavier Hufkens created the contemporary art gallery Xavier Hufkens. The gallery has three sites in Brussels and represents over forty young, mid-career, and established artists from throughout the world, in addition to a number of estates.