ROCHESTER'S RALPH AVERY

ROCHESTER’S  RALPH AVERY

by Joan K. Yanni

Ralph Avery (1906-1976) was probably the best known and most loved of Rochester's artists.  Though he was nationally known for his magazine and greeting card illustrations, local admirers knew best his views of Rochester, streets wet with rain.  He had an insight that cut through the grey days and saw color and warmth in the city's streets. 

Avery was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of a marine surveyor and harbor-master.  He moved to Rochester in his early twenties to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology (then the Mechanic's Institute) and graduated in 1928.  In his senior year, he captured first prize in the Picturesque Rochester Contest with a charcoal drawing of the statute of Mercury atop the Kimball Tobacco Factory. He never tired of recording Rochester's neighborhoods and landmarks, particularly the Third Ward, where he lived for over forty years.

His early career took many directions: he studied at the Académie Julien in Paris and spent two years at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in Oyster Bay, LI.   He was by turn a designer of belt buckles, director of the Rundel Library art gallery, a Navy cartoonist, and an instructor at RIT.  At last he settled into the life of a full-time freelance illustrator.

For his subject matter, he returned again and again to the places most familiar, discovering at different times of day and from different angles some previously unnoticed detail in the urban landscape.  "I'm a real downtowner," he said.  "I like to be right around the corner from where things are happening."

Avery gained international recognition for the many Reader's Digest covers he painted for both English and foreign language editions in the 1950's and '60s. He also found himself in great demand for calendar illustrations, nostalgic Christmas card designs, and precisely rendered 

advertisements for industry.  Despite his legendary personal reserve and love of  home, Avery was an enthusiastic traveler.  The watercolors which emerged from early sketching trips to Mexico, Guatemala, the West Indies, Europe, and Africa were infused with the playfulness he could not indulge in his commercial work.

Although Avery considered himself an abstractionist, strong draftsmanship was the underpinning of even his simplest compositions.  "Painting is not a bag of tricks," he wrote.  And in the manner of academically trained artists, he worked through a series of preliminary sketches.  However, he was not afraid to provoke the watercolor purists of his time by touching his transparent washes with a bit of opaque gouache.

Avery particularly loved the city's architecture.  "I have a feeling for old buildings and streets," he said. He noted that abstract patterns can make or break a painting:  "When I paint a building, I am not concerned whether my building looks just like the one in front of me—it may be just a vague mass with little dots for windows.  As long as that mass seems to be the right size, color and shape, and is correctly placed, I am satisfied."

Avery died unexpectedly in 1976 as he was trying to push his car out of a snow bank.  His last exhibition had been a joint showing with Rochester artist John Menihan at the Atelier, 696 Park Avenue.  The year after his death, his family presented the Gallery with a major gift of over 450 of his works.

Strange and Familiar Places, the exhibition of his works mounted in 1992, included precise illustrator watercolors, some from Readers Digest covers; looser, more personal vacation views; and drawings—preparatory as well as highly finished.  They presented as varied subjects as New York cityscapes, North African settings, beach scenes, Rochester's streets and Upper Falls, and Charlotte Whitney Allen's garden.