Edith Devaney

Avery’s juxtaposing of colour planes creates a cohesion in his compositions, affording them a sense of resolution, serenity and beauty. Edith Devaney, “Milton Avery—Color into Form,” in Milton Avery, Victoria Miro gallery, 2017

Edith Devaney, formerly the modern and contemporary curator at the Royal Academy of Arts and the curator of the major retrospective at the Modern Milton Avery, presents “Milton Avery: An Introduction.” In an earlier essay on the artist, Devaney pointed out, “The development of Avery’s sophisticated and profound understanding of colour can be traced across his career, culminating in the late paintings’ remarkable ability to employ colour to give coherence to form, intimate perspective and evoke mood.” Previewing aspects of the Modern’s exhibition, which opens to the public November 7, Devaney sheds light on the trajectory of Avery’s career and his place in American modern art.

Edith Devaney has recently taken up the newly created position of Managing Director and Curator for David Hockney Inc. and the David Hockney Foundation. Until January 2021, she was the modern and contemporary curator at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where she curated exhibitions including David HockneyA Bigger Picture in 2012, Abstract Expressionism in 2016, and Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth in 2017. Recent exhibitions also include Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948 in 2019 at Ca Pesaro Museum in Venice. She curated the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition for twenty years and has written extensively on art.

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