CERES 6, 1967 by Cleve Gray
CERES 6, 1967 by Cleve Gray
Cleve Gray was an American Abstract Expressionist painter who is best known for his works which correspond with the theories of Colour Field Painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Often contrasting flat applications of colours with gestural brushstrokes, Gray’s marks appears to float above the picture plane.
DIMENSIONS: (unframed) 82.0 x 79.0 in./ 208.3 x 200.7 cm
SIGNATURE: Signed and dated ’67; titled on the reverse
MEDIUM: Acrylic on Canvas
Price: £POA.
Cleve Gray was an American Abstract Expressionist painter who is best known for his works which correspond with the theories of Colour Field Painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Often contrasting flat applications of colours with gestural brushstrokes, Gray’s marks appears to float above the picture plane.
Today Gray’s work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Phillips Collection in Washington and many other museums.
Provenance
Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (gift of the artist circa 1970)
Acquired by the present owner from the above circa 1995
Biography
Born Cleve Ginsberg on September 22, 1918 in New York, NY, he went on to study at the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA and later art history at Princeton University. In 1942, he enlisted in the army, going on to serve in Britain, France, and Germany during World War II. After the war ended, he remained in Paris, falling under the influence of Cubist painters like André Lhote before returning New York in 1946. In the 1960s, Gray developed a close friendship with the artist Barnett Newman, and slowly abandoned his Cubist tendencies, developed during his time in Paris, in favour of more colour-based and gestural compositions. Gray gradually thinned his oil paints and eventually switched to acrylic to create washes of pigment. Gray died on December 4, 2004 in Hartford, CT.
Today Gray’s work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Phillips Collection in Washington and many other museums.