“Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea” Shows How Three Midcentury Greats Were Shaped by the Shore and One Another

David Curcio | Boston Art Review | 18th August 2026

An American art history tale. Milton Avery was a pioneer of colour field painting – broad areas of flat colour. His younger friends, Rothko and Gottlieb were producing figurative work. The trio started summering together in the 1930’s where Avery encouraged them “to eliminate and simplify, leaving apparently nothing but colour and pattern”. Rothko was most influenced by this advice, ending up with his stacked rectangular fields of colour. Avery also evolved but never entirely let go of painting the sea.