Sally Michel Avery

Sally Michel Avery (; 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

Michel and Avery were inspired by the American Tonalism movement, American Folk Art of the 1800s, and the art of the avant-garde, especially the "Wild Beast" Fauves Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and Andre Derain. MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, NH (1953, 1954,1956) Waverly Gallery (1981) American Masters: Works on Paper from The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and The Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC (1986) Sally Michel: The Other Avery, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA (1987-1988) American Women Artists: The Twentieth Century, Knoxville Museum of Art, TN (1988 - 1990) Seventy-five American Modernists, Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC (1989–90) Sally Michel: Mountain Landscapes, The Erpf Catskill Cultural Center, Arkville, NY (1979) Sally Michel, Fresno Art Museum, CA, (1990) Preserving the Past, Securing the Future: Donations of Art, 1987-1997, National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC. (1997–98) Sally Michel: Retrospective, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA (1999-2000) Sally Michel/Milton Avery: A Portrait, Knoedler & Company, NY (2003) Sally Michael, D. Wigmore Fine Art (2016) Sally Michel Avery: Landscapes and Figures, Anne Loucks Gallery (2018) Sally Michel: Idyllic Moments, Childs Gallery (2019) Summer with the Averys, Bruce Museum (2019)

Selected collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, NY Link to Museum Collection Record - National Gallery of Art (Corcoran Collection), Washington, DC Link to Museum Collection Record - National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Link to Museum Collection Record - Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA Israel Museum, Jerusalem Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT