Nude 1953

Milton Avery made this linocut, titled "Nude" in 1960, and he made it with ink on paper. You know, looking at the way the blue ink meets the paper it gives me a sense of a really direct and kind of hands-on process. I love the rawness of the linocut. It’s like the image is built from basic shapes, right? The blue is almost like a stencil that makes up the couch and backdrop, and then the white is like a reverse stencil, making up the nude. It reminds me of Matisse's paper cut-outs, but with a much more human, imperfect touch. The texture of the linoleum comes through, creating a really tactile and immediate surface, and the marks feel like they're made with simple tools. Avery knew how to do something interesting and simple with his mark making, and its this simplicity that really makes this piece shine, if you ask me. Think of the way he’s distilled this complicated subject into these very flat planes. It’s kind of like he’s winking at the history of art.