Image: Milton Avery, Black Sea, 1959, The Phillips Collection, Acquired 1965; © 2025 Milton Avery Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
‘Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea’ will run from October 24, 2026, through January 24, 2027, as a special exhibition. The exhibition is organized by the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in partnership with The Phillips Collection.
It will bring together approximately 90 paintings, drawings, and watercolors dating from the 1920s to the mid-1960s. Many of the works have never been on public view. The exhibition’s scope therefore includes paintings, drawings, and watercolors made across the period specified for the presentation, while also including works that have not previously been shown publicly.
The exhibition tells the story of the enduring friendship between three towering figures in American art: Milton Avery, born in 1885 and deceased in 1965; Adolph Gottlieb, who lived from 1903 to 1974; and Mark Rothko, who lived from 1903 to 1970. From summers spent together in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on Cape Ann, and beyond, the artists found inspiration in the landscape and in one another. The stated settings include both the Massachusetts coast and places beyond it, while the sources of inspiration identified for the artists are the landscape and their mutual presence.
The presentation reflects in depth, for the first time, on the artistic exchange among the three artists, the experiences they shared, and the support they gave one another. Eliza Rathbone is the guest curator, and Renée Maurer, Associate Curator, is The Phillips Collection’s coordinating curator for the exhibition.
Among the identified works is Milton Avery’s ‘Black Sea,’ dated 1959 and held by The Phillips Collection.
