Cleve Gray Art

Cleve Gray, American (1918-2004) Composition, (1976) serigraph or lithograph Hand signed lower right, and editioned 9/50 Dimensions: 19.25 X 23.75 inches sheet. unframed Cleve Gray (1918 – 2004) was an American Abstract expressionist painter, who was also associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Gray was born Cleve Ginsberg, the family changed their name to Gray in 1936. Gray attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City (1924–1932). From the age of 11 until the age of 14 he had his first formal art training with Antonia Nell, who had been a student of George Bellows. From 15 to 18 he attended the Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts; where he studied painting with Bartlett Hayes and won the Samuel F. B. Morse Prize for most promising art student. In 1940 he graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, with a degree in Art and Archeology. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Princeton he studied painting with James C. Davis and Far Eastern Art with George Rowley, under whose supervision he wrote his thesis on Yuan dynasty landscape painting. Best known for his calligraphic abstractions which melded elements of Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, and traditional Chinese scroll painting. After graduation in 1941 Gray moved to Tucson, Arizona. In Arizona he exhibited his modernist landscape paintings and still lifes at the Alfred Messer Studio Gallery in Tucson. In 1942 he returned to New York and joined the United States Army. During World War II, he served in the signal intelligence service in Britain, France and Germany, where he rose to the rank of sergeant. After the liberation of Paris he was the first American GI to greet Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. He began informal art training with the French artists André Lhote and Jacques Villon, continuing his art studies in Paris after the war. Gray returned to the United States in 1946. In 1949 he moved to the house his parents had owned on a 94-acre property in Warren, Connecticut, and lived there for the rest of his life. In the 1960s he formed a close friendship with Barnett Newman. It was during this time that he experienced an artistic metamorphosis, dissolving his earlier cubist compositions in a sea of distilled color. This dramatic body of work marked the beginning of an artistic meditation that would last for over 40 years. The rigors of French modernism, the ethos of Abstract Expressionism and the meditative restraint of Chinese and Japanese scroll painting commingle with astounding affect. The atmospheric, subdued tones of his 1960s paintings gradually gave way to bright, monochromatic fields of color, hazily washed onto the canvas in stain like swathes. Much of his work from the last three decades of his career feature striking graphic brushwork that conjures the influence of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. He married the noted author Francine du Plessix on April 23, 1957. They worked in separate studios in two outbuildings with a driveway in between. Gray was a veteran of scores of exhibitions throughout his career, as listed below, from the early days Tucson, through to postwar Paris and New York, and most recently in 2002 at the Berry-Hill Gallery in New York City. His paintings are held in the collections of numerous prominent museums and institutions. In 2009 the art critic Karen Wilkin curated a posthumous retrospective of his work at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, and other posthumous exhibitions have been held. Museum collections Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida The Brooklyn Museum, New York City Columbia University Art Gallery, New York City Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, New York City Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii The Jewish Museum, New York City The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Modern Art, New York City The Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut The Newark Museum, New Jersey Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida Oklahoma City Art Center, Oklahoma The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.[14] The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey[6] Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut He was included in the show 1977, Group Exhibition, Betty Parsons Gallery. Mino Argento...

Cleve Gray, American (1918-2004) Composition, (1976) serigraph or lithograph Hand signed lower right, and editioned 36/60 Dimensions: 19.25 X 23.75 inches sheet. unframed Cleve Gray (1918 – 2004) was an American Abstract expressionist painter, who was also associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Gray was born Cleve Ginsberg, the family changed their name to Gray in 1936. Gray attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City (1924–1932). From the age of 11 until the age of 14 he had his first formal art training with Antonia Nell, who had been a student of George Bellows. From 15 to 18 he attended the Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts; where he studied painting with Bartlett Hayes and won the Samuel F. B. Morse Prize for most promising art student. In 1940 he graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, with a degree in Art and Archeology. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Princeton he studied painting with James C. Davis and Far Eastern Art with George Rowley, under whose supervision he wrote his thesis on Yuan dynasty landscape painting. Best known for his calligraphic abstractions which melded elements of Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, and traditional Chinese scroll painting. After graduation in 1941 Gray moved to Tucson, Arizona. In Arizona he exhibited his modernist landscape paintings and still lifes at the Alfred Messer Studio Gallery in Tucson. In 1942 he returned to New York and joined the United States Army. During World War II, he served in the signal intelligence service in Britain, France and Germany, where he rose to the rank of sergeant. After the liberation of Paris he was the first American GI to greet Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. He began informal art training with the French artists André Lhote and Jacques Villon, continuing his art studies in Paris after the war. Gray returned to the United States in 1946. In 1949 he moved to the house his parents had owned on a 94-acre property in Warren, Connecticut, and lived there for the rest of his life. In the 1960s he formed a close friendship with Barnett Newman. It was during this time that he experienced an artistic metamorphosis, dissolving his earlier cubist compositions in a sea of distilled color. This dramatic body of work marked the beginning of an artistic meditation that would last for over 40 years. The rigors of French modernism, the ethos of Abstract Expressionism and the meditative restraint of Chinese and Japanese scroll painting commingle with astounding affect. The atmospheric, subdued tones of his 1960s paintings gradually gave way to bright, monochromatic fields of color, hazily washed onto the canvas in stain like swathes. Much of his work from the last three decades of his career feature striking graphic brushwork that conjures the influence of Asian, Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. He married the noted author Francine du Plessix on April 23, 1957. They worked in separate studios in two outbuildings with a driveway in between. Gray was a veteran of scores of exhibitions throughout his career, as listed below, from the early days Tucson, through to postwar Paris and New York, and most recently in 2002 at the Berry-Hill Gallery in New York City. His paintings are held in the collections of numerous prominent museums and institutions. In 2009 the art critic Karen Wilkin curated a posthumous retrospective of his work at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, and other posthumous exhibitions have been held. Museum collections Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida The Brooklyn Museum, New York City Columbia University Art Gallery, New York City Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, New York City Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii The Jewish Museum, New York City The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Modern Art, New York City The Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut The Newark Museum, New Jersey Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida Oklahoma City Art Center, Oklahoma The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.[14] The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey[6] Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut He was included in the show 1977, Group Exhibition, Betty Parsons Gallery. Mino Argento...

Artist/Designer: Cleve Gray (American, 1918-2004) Additional Information: Work is titled “Towards Cornwall #3.” Gallery label to reverse: Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida. Mar...

Cleve Gray Untitled, 1970 Silkscreen Boldly signed and numbered 32/100 in graphite pencil by Cleve Gray on the front 30 × 22 1/2 inches Signed and numbered 32/100 by artist on the fr...

Cleve Gray Zen Garden #106, 1982 Signed, dated and titled on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 60 x 70 inches Provenance: The artist Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida Private Collec...

Acrylic on canvas. Signed and dated lower right, titled verso. 69 x 68.25 in. 70.5 x 70 in. (framed) Custom framed in a solid maple floater. Provenance Private Collection, Hilton ...

Vibrant, original, signed and dated, 1962, abstract, oil-on-canvas painting by esteemed, award winning American artist, Cleve Gray (1918-2004). Select collections: The Brooklyn Museu...

A very good impression of this large, scarce print, color aquatint on white wove Fabriano paper. Artist's proof, aside from the edition of 35. Signed and inscribed "artist's proof" ...

Southhampton 8:45 PM Signed Gray lower right Titled on verso in black paint Oil on canvas, 28 x 40 inches Exhibited: Jacques Seligman Galleries (label) twice, original price $450. (See photo) Condition: {Small slit in canvas, delivered to Monica for cleaning and repair} Expertly repaired by Monica Radecki Gray had his first one man show at Seligmann in 1947. NY Times Obit: Large Abstract Works, Dies By Ken Johnson Dec. 10, 2004 Cleve Gray, a painter admired for his large-scale, vividly colorful and lyrically gestural abstract compositions, died on Wednesday in Hartford. He was 86. The cause was a massive subdural hematoma suffered after he fell on ice and hit his head on Tuesday outside his home in Warren, Conn., said his wife, the writer Francine du Plessix Gray. Mr. Gray achieved his greatest critical recognition in the late 1960's and 70's after working for many years in a comparatively conservative late-Cubist style. Inspired in the 60's by artists like Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler, Mr. Gray began to produce large paintings using a variety of application methods -- pouring, staining, sponging and other nontraditional techniques -- to create compositions combining expanses of pure color and spontaneous calligraphic gestures. In 1972 and 73 he produced "Threnody," a suite of 14 paintings, each measuring 20 feet by 20 feet, dedicated to the dead on both sides in the Vietnam War. The series was commissioned by the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, part of the State University of New York, and is considered one of the largest groups of abstract paintings created for a specific public space. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Cathedral of Saint John the Divine Art Gallery, New York, NY Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME Columbia University Art Gallery, New York, NY Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, New York, NY Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York, NY Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Honolulu, HI The Jewish Museum, New York, NY Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MI Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase, NY New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL Oklahoma City Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Shearson Lehman Hutton Collection...

Cleve Gray 'End of October,' 1978 Acrylic on canvas 55 x 55 inches Signed verso This work was donated to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) by the The Estate of Cleve Gray for FCA's 2021 benefit exhibition held at Greene Naftali.

A very good impression of this color screenprint on Rives BFK. Signed and numbered 68/100 in pencil by Gray. Dimensions with the frame are 31 x 23 inches.

Cleve Gray (1918-2004) was admired for his large-scale, vividly colorful and lyrically gestural abstract compositions and achieved his greatest critical recognition in the late 1960's and 70's after working for many years in a comparatively conservative late-Cubist style. Inspired in the 1960's by artists like Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler, Gray began to produce large paintings using...

This is a powerful, even fierce, work by one of the greats of Abstract Expressionism and masters of minimalism. Cleve Gray (1918-2004) was admired for his large-scale, vividly colorful and lyrically gestural abstract compositions and achieved his greatest critical recognition in the late 1960's and 70's after working for many years in a comparatively conservative late-Cubist style. Inspired in the 1960's by artists like Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler, Gray began to produce large paintings using...

Abstract painting wherein a calligraphic brushstroke delineates a mountaintop.

acrylic on canvas 77.27 x 54.5 x 2.25 inches framed

watercolor on paper, signed