La Cienega Area

Female artists who were willingly and not so willingly shadowed by dignitary husbands include Sophie Tauber Arp and Lee Krasner. Less well known but completely committed to supporting her husband’s career, Sally Michel is the now 90-year-old widow of Milton Avery. She sketched and painted beside her husband every day of their long marriage, and such a close tie was bound to bring similarities in style.

The tendency is to see the borrowing from famed husband to apprentice wife, but these charming, accomplished paintings and watercolors introduce an artist gifted in her own right. Her works have a soft, humane touch that often escaped her husband and suggest two unique artistic personae responding to the same influences from the Fauves and Matisse. Like her husband, Michel wedges together flat scenes--mother and child, reclining nude, snowy winters, families at the seashore--from sharply hued, collage pieces of color.

Michel’s description is also greatly abbreviated but surprisingly telling. “Three Bathers” (1960) is no more than loose, thoughtfully balanced daubs on a dilute blue wash. Perhaps more than her husband, Michel seems able to shift from accurate observation to drastically simplified flat figuration with no loss of warmth. Nearly 100 pieces cover her career from the late ‘20s when, fresh out of high school, she met the 40-year-old Avery. Quality is consistently high and this first West Coast exposure to Michel is a treat. (Mekler Gallery, 651 N. La Cienega Blvd., to Dec. 15.)