Pilot Fish
1952
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color woodcut on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 29.3 x 76.8 cm (11 9/16 x 30 1/4 in.) sheet: 40.9 x 91 cm (16 1/8 x 35 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Avery Family, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1991.233.35
Art Historical Context
Milton Avery's *Pilot Fish* (1952) is a striking color wood on wove paper, capturing the artist's distinctive modernist vision in print form. Measuring nearly 30 inches wide, this horizontal composition likely evokes a serene seascape or marine tableau, with the title referencing the small fish that guide sharks through the ocean—a metaphor for companionship and navigation. Avery, an influential American painter (1885–1965), was renowned for his simplified forms, flattened perspectives, and vibrant color harmonies, bridging European modernism with the emerging Abstract Expressionism of artists...
About the Artist
Milton Avery
Milton Avery, born on March 7, 1885, in Altmar, New York, to a working-class family—his father a tanner—grew up in modest circumstances. After his family's move to the Hartford area of Connecticut in 1898, he took on various manual jobs, including as a mechanic, clerk, and construction worker, to support himself and relatives following family tragedies. His artistic path began around 1905 at the C...