'Milton Avery & the End of Modernism' at Nassau County Museum of Art Jan. 22

The Nassau County Museum of Art reopens Saturday, Jan. 22 with the 'Milton Avery & the End of Modernism' exhibition.

Nassau Museum, the premier art gallery in Roslyn Harbor, proudly presents their Milton Avery exhibition, which pays homage to Avery's style and how he raised sketches to the level of  a finished painting. The exhibition was organized for the Nassau County Museum of Art by Museum Director Karl E. Willers, Ph.D and will be shown in the Main Galleries.

(PLEASE VIEW THE SLIDESHOW AT LEFT TO SEE PREVIEWS OF MILTON AVERY'S WORK.)

Additionally, the Contemporary Gallery and Art Space for Children have also refreshed their exhibitions, with large-scale collaged paintings by Donald Baechler in the former and "A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes" in the latter.

Please review the calendar below and contact the Museum at (516) 484-9337 for more information. You can also visit them on the web at nassaumuseum.com.

Watch this space - schedule permitting, we will provide reviews of 2011 Nassau Museum exhibitions here on Long Island Events Examiner.

Calendar of Exhibitions through May 8, 2011:

MAIN GALLERIES  January 22, 2011 through May 8, 2011
'Milton Avery & the End of Modernism'

This comprehensive exhibition looks at work by the artist who brought the sketch, with its spontaneity, movement and fleetingness, to the status of a finished painting. The exhibition features Avery’s intense saturated color fields, the simplification of form, and figures that emphasize the flatness of canvas surface. The exhibition examines the contributions of Milton Avery as a significant figurative painter from the late 1920s through the early 1960s and places Avery’s work within a long history of modernist practice that recognizes the artist’s sketch as a finished work.  Learn more about Milton Avery at Artcyclopedia.

Avery was born in Altmar, NY and later moved first to Connecticut and then New York City. As his avant-garde style came to be fully appreciated, Avery is recognized as one of the preeminent American painters of his era. 

Hollis Taggart Galleries sums up Avery's legacy in this way:

"Avery's style evolved over time from Impressionism to modernism and by the 1930s he had developed his signature style of combining abstraction with representational forms to create a unified whole.  In his mature paintings, he flattened form and applied intense colors in large unbroken areas. This unique style, often depicting scenes from the natural world and images of the artist’s family, has become part of the canon of modernism." 

Milton Avery & the End of Modernism is organized by Museum Director Karl E. Willers, Ph.D.

CONTEMPORARY GALLERY January 22, 2011 through May 8, 2011
Donald Baechler

The newest Contemporary Gallery exhibition features a large-scale installation by artist Donald Baechler accompanied by several of his collaged paintings. The New York Times described his work as “a distinctive fusion of Americana and popular culture.” Art in America wrote that Baechler’s seemingly ingenuous depictions of everyday objects and simple figures succeed by “tapping into our nostalgia for childhood.” View some of Baechler's work on his website.

Baechler was born in Hartford, CT and lives and works in New York City. He has had solo exhibitions both here and abroad, and his works are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and museums in Amsterdam and Paris.

The exhibition is organized by Elaine Berger for the museum’s Contemporary Collectors Circle.

ART SPACE FOR CHILDREN January 22, 2011 through May 8, 2011 Tuesday-Sunday, 12-4:30 p.m.
LET’S HAVE A BITE! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes

Book by Robert L. Forbes, Drawings by Ronald Searle. Forbes’ imaginative rhymes and Searle’s whimsical illustrations return to delight young visitors to the Art Space for Children. As in Beastly Feasts! held last season, Let’s Have a Bite! features whimsical animal characters, among them the baboon, Baker Betty; the somewhat nasty-tempered koala, Lala; and the rattler, Rory.

EVENTS FOR THE FAMILY February 6, 13, 20 & 27, Sundays from 1 p.m.
Family Sunday at the Museum
Each Sunday the museum offers a 1 p.m. guided walk-through of the exhibition and, beginning at 1:30 p.m., supervised art activities for the whole family. Special family guides of the main exhibition are available in the galleries. Family Sunday at the Museum is free with museum admission.

Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive (just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road) in Roslyn Harbor. You can reach them at (516) 484-9337 and hours are 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission to the galleries in the Arnold & Joan Saltzman Fine Art Building is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62+) and $4 for students and children (4-12). Admission includes entrance to the Art Space for Children. There is a $2 parking fee on weekends (no charge to members).

Nassau County Museum of Art (NCMA) is chartered by New York State as a not-for-profit private educational institution and museum and is funded through income derived from admissions, parking, membership, special events, private donations and corporate sponsorships, as well as federal and state grants.

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