Online Lecture – Friendship by the Sea: Avery, Gottlieb, and Rothko

This online lecture is hosted through Smithsonian Associates.  Monday, July 27, 2026 6:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m. Online Lecture Smithsonian Associates Members $20, Non-Members $30. Registration is required. To register, please visit the Smithsonian Associates website. Please direct any questions about this partner programming to Smithsonian Associates. Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko’s shared summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the 1930s and 1940s had a lasting impact on the work of these three pivotal 20th-century American artists. While Avery is often associated with representational art and Gottlieb and Rothko with abstraction, their friendship and time together on Cape Ann shaped their artistic journeys in profound ways. Featuring 82 works from 26 collections, the Cape Ann Museum and The Phillips Collection present Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea, a new exhibition that explores their bond. Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita of The Phillips Collection, talks with Cape Ann Museum director Oliver Barker about the development of this groundbreaking show. Highlighting key works by each, Rathbone discusses the impact of Gloucester’s coastal landscape on the three artists and shares behind-the-scenes details about the exhibition, illuminating the men’s friendship and its influence on each artist’s evolution. Image Credit: Mark Rothko, No. 20, 1949. Oil on canvas, 56 x 48 in. Collection of Christopher Rothko, 5096.49. © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.