Avery's work is seminal to American abstract paintingwhile his work is clearly representational, it focuses on color relations and is not concerned with creating the illusion of depth as most conventional Western painting since the Renaissance has. Avery was often thought of as an American Matisse, especially because of his colorful and innovative landscape paintings. His poetic, bold and creative use of drawing and color set him apart from more conventional painting of his era. Early in his career, his work was considered radical for being too abstract; when Abstract Expressionism became dominant his work was overlooked, as being too representational. In the 1930s, he was befriended by Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko among many other artists living in New York City in the 1930s-40s.[3] The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., was the first museum to purchase one of Avery's paintings in 1929; that museum also gave him his first solo museum exhibition in 1944.[4] He was elected a Fellow of the American Ac Milton Avery was born in Altmar, New York in 1885. Avery was primarily a self-taught painter whose work combining abstraction and realism suggests dialogue between line, shape, muted color, and subdued emotions Although never associated with a particular movement, Avery was a key modernist who influenced succeeding generations of artists including Color Field painter Mark Rothko.