Collection in Focus: March Avery in Milton Avery’s “Adolescence”

March, Milton Avery’s only child, was born in 1932 and appears throughout the artist’s body of work. Avery portrays March here reminiscent of a long artistic tradition of portraying women subjects in interior scenes, quietly contemplating a solo activity, such as reading or writing. However, as in many of his later paintings, Avery abstracts the scene, working to capture the essence of his subject, a teenaged girl. He presents his daughter with his signature jagged lines and flat panels of bright color, veiling details of her face with a few strokes of milky, translucent white paint. However, March retains her identity through her hairstyle, a long bob with thick bangs.

While March is shown reading a book, this work was created in 1947, not long after the end of World War II. The title of the painting both addresses the subject, a specific teenaged girl, but also allows one to imagine being a teenager during a time in which the world was completely reorienting and rebuilding itself.

In this video, Chris McAuliffe, a professor at Australian National University, in Canberra, introduces March and offers his contextualization of her in 1947.