Book excerpt: Milton Avery chronicles the work of an artist who, although he did not become a serious, full-time painter until after he moved to New York at the age of 40, managed to carve out a unique position for himself in the art world over the next thirty-five years. A friend and colleague of the Abstract Expressionists who nevertheless maintained his commitment to representation, Avery was enormously important to several succeeding generations of artists and produced some of the most resonant and beloved images in American art history. Avery's work reflects the concerns he shared with the pioneer French modernists including Matisse, Dufy, and Picasso: saturated colour in distinctly new combinations and an interest in retaining the two-dimensional character of the canvas. The combination allowed him to create a distinctly American brand of modernism. AUTHOR: Robert Hobbs is an art historian who has taught at Yale and Cornell Universities. He is also the author of monographs on Robert Smithson and Edward Hopper. Hilton Kramer is a former critic of The New York Observer and former chief art critic of The New York Times. SELLING POINTS: The highly anticipated reprint of the artist's monograph that is still is considered the most comprehensive presentation of Avery's work Included are many unfamiliar pieces, in oversize colour plates that range in date from the early 1920s to 1963 A detailed chronology of the artist's life is included and rounding out the volume are essays that explore Avery's career in detail, from the importance of Avery's wife Sally Michel, to the interaction--personal, artistic, and political--between him and his Abstract Expressionist colleagues 120 colour & 38 b/w illustrations