De Hirsh Margules, Mother Ann Lighthouse, Eastern Point, Gloucester, 1946. Gouache on paper. Gift of Jean M. Horblit, 2002. [Acc. #2002.004.002]
Hyperallergic: 7 Art Books for Your March Reading List
By Natalie Haddad, Hrag Vartanian, Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Lisa Yin Zhang | March 10, 2026
Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea, edited by Eliza Rathbone | Rizzoli Electa, March
At Milton Avery’s memorial, Mark Rothko talked lovingly about the pioneering modernist artist who rendered landscapes and seascapes into colorful forms. During that speech, he mentioned meeting with Avery and Adolph Gottlieb numerous times during his formative years. While the three artists don’t seem like obvious companions in the annals of art history, Eliza E. Rathbone, who shares these facts in her essay in this excellent book, points out that even Avery’s wife, Sally, called the three friends “a close-knit trio.”
The images in this book, which accompanies an exhibition opening at the Cape Ann Museum on June 30 before traveling to the Phillips Collection in the fall, make the case that the relationship between their work is not only striking but clear. Avery’s planes of color seem like precursors to Rothko’s own ethereal planes, and Avery’s “White Moon” (1957) appears in dialogue with Gottlieb’s own sun-like forms.
This exhibition and catalog will surely make many of us rethink how we categorize 20th-century American modern art and whether we have been missing connections that have been there all along. —Hrag Vartanian
To read the full Hyperallergic article, click here.
