Martha Avey

Artist Details

• First Name Martha
• Maiden Name Avey
• Surname Avey
• Birth Date October 12, 1872
• Birth Place Arcola, Illinois
• Death Date August 28, 1843
• Death Place Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Residence(s) Chicago, Illinois
  
  Eastport, Maine
  
  Fontainbleau, France
  
  New York, New Y0rk
  
  Rockport, Massachusetts
  
  1940: 1325 N. Kentucky, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with Mary Avey (age 81) and Newton Avey (age 67)
• Active In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Categories Painter-Oil, Watercolorist
• Training Columbia University
  1897-1901, summer 1905: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  American School of Art, Fontainebleau, France
  George Pearse Ennis School, Eastport, Maine
  Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, New York, New York
  W. Lester Stevens School, Rockport, Massachusetts
  Student of Ceclia Beaux, Maurice Braun, John H. Vanderpoel and Martha Walter
   
  
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History 1935: Artists of the Southwest: An Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma: The Old Church
  
  1937:  Wolfe Art Club, New York, New York
  
  1938: Four-artist exhibit, Grant Studios, New York, New York
  
  1939: New York World's Fair, New York, New York
  
  2015: The First Fifty Years of Oklahoma Art, Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  
  Association of Oklahoma Artists
  
  Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, New York, New York
  
  Grant Studio, New York, New York
  
  Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
  
  Southern States Art League
• Collections Oklahoma Art League, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  
  John H. Vanderpoel Art Association, Beverly, Illinois
• Publications Price, B. Byron. Picture Indian Territory: Portraits of the Land that Became Oklahoma, 1819-1907. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.
• Memberships American Artists Professional League
  
  Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club
  
  Oklahoma Art Association
  
  Southern States Art League
• Other Occupation(s) circa 1900-1906: teacher, Oklahoma Public School system; developed art program; first art supervisor 1906
  
  1906-1918: private teacher
  
  1925-1938: Oklahoma City University; organized art curriculum, head of department
• Biography An art teacher in the Oklahoma City public school system as well as fine-art painter, Martha Avey worked in oils and watercolors to depict wildflowers, portraits, and many landscapes in her region as well as in Europe.
  
  She grew up in Illinois and by the age of ten, had memorized all the varieties of wildflowers in her area and made watercolor sketches of them. In 1892, she moved to Oklahoma with her family. She took art training in New York City at Columbia University and in Chicago at the Art Institute.
  
  She developed an art program for the Oklahoma City public school system and became the city's first art supervisor in 1906. However, family illness caused her to retire. In 1925, she organized an art curriculum at Oklahoma City University and was head of that department until 1938.
  
  She exhibited regularly with the association of Oklahoma Artists and the Southern States Art League.
  
  Source: "An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West" by Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick