Drawbridge

Milton Avery's drypoint etching Drawbridge is a view of a raised drawbridge over a waterway, probably New York City's Harlem River, flanked by industrial buildings. The most vigorously rendered part of the image is the dark, slab-like underside of the left part of the bridge; its massive rectangular steel structure is conjured by densely scribbled hatching overlaid with even blacker, nearly parallel lines. This section of the bridge dwarfs the warehouses beneath. By contrast, the right half of the bridge, shown in profile, appears as a lighter web of girders and cables. Unprinted areas of the paper evoke the sky and placid river, the latter defined by Avery's loosely drawn reflections on a barely rippling surface. Using diagonals to animate his composition, the artist framed the view with the raised bridge sections.

A figurative and landscape painter noted for his restrained use of color and simplified forms, Avery also made linear sketches with a minimum of detail. In 1933, using a scrap metal plate salvaged from a commercial printer's discards, he made his first print: a drypoint sketch of his baby daughter who, along with his wife Sally, became a favorite model, as demonstrated by his painting Adolescence (TF 1992.3). Three years later, the artist made the first of his few scenic drypoint etchings; by 1949, he had made thirty such prints, most of which he did not bother to print in editions. Then, following a massive heart attack, he abandoned intaglio in favor of painting and printmaking media that required less physical exertion. In 1964, Sally Avery took a selection of her husband's drypoint plates, including this one, to a skilled printer who editioned them, and the artist subsequently signed and numbered each impression.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Milton Avery: Prints and Drawings, 1930–1964. Brooklyn, New York: Shorewood Publishers, New York, 1966. No. 56, p. 21.

Lunn, Harry H. Milton Avery Prints 1933–1965. Washington, D.C.: International Graphics, 1973. No. 10.