General MacArthur on the Rocks

In her review of Milton Avery on Paper, which debuted at the Whitney Museum of American Art's Fairfield County branch in September 1982, Victoria Raynor of the New York Times wrote, "Miss [Barbara] Haskell refers to [Avery's] use of 'nonassociative' color, an apparent example of which is the madder brown sea in 'General MacArthur on the Rocks,' a 1944 gouache of a wrecked boat that may well be the nearest the artist ever came to a political comment." ("Art; Milton Avery: Paintings on Paper at the Whitney," New York Times, October 10, 1982, p. 26) October 20th, 1944 was notably the date that U.S. General Douglas MacArthur landed ashore on the Philippines after fleeing the area in retreat from the Japanese offensive in 1942. MacArthur promised to return, and in 1944, the year the present work was executed, the General launch a renewed invasion that went on to fell the Philippine capital of Manila and mark an important turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II.