Cleve Gray

Considering All Possible Worlds Purple and Black

1992

Signed, dated , and titled verso: Gray - '90 / "Air Things Wear that Build This World" / 60 x 60 / acrylic

CLEVE GRAY Floating Red, 1990 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 inches

Loretta Howard Gallery is pleased to present a selection of important paintings by Cleve Gray from the 1970’s. Wrought in deeply saturated fields of color and marked with calligraphic brushwork, the paintings on display exemplify the artist’s mature style. They highlight the artist’s lifelong affinity for Japanese and Chinese art and philosophy. His familiarity with Asian cultures began at Princeton University where he studied Far Eastern Art under George Rowley and wrote his thesis on the landscape painting of the Yuan dynasty. The resulting paintings illustrate a synthesis of western and eastern art historical conventions as Gray infused the radical sensibilities of Abstract Expressionism with Zen quietude. Also on view are a selection of hanging scrolls collected by the artist during his visits to China and Japan. These scrolls, which highlight a meditative approach, also contain an intensity and immediacy of action that Gray sought in his own work. In an essay written in the accompanying catalog, Luke Gray...

CLEVE GRAY Conjugation #27, 1975 Acrylic on canvas 38 x 36 inches Loretta Howard Gallery is pleased to present a selection of important paintings by Cleve Gray from the 1970’s. Wrought in deeply saturated fields of color and marked with calligraphic brushwork, the paintings on display exemplify the artist’s mature style. They highlight the artist’s lifelong affinity for Japanese and Chinese art and philosophy. His familiarity with Asian cultures began at Princeton University where he studied Far Eastern Art under George Rowley and wrote his thesis on the landscape painting of the Yuan dynasty. The resulting paintings illustrate a synthesis of western and eastern art historical conventions as Gray infused the radical sensibilities of Abstract Expressionism with Zen quietude. Also on view are a selection of hanging scrolls collected by the artist during his visits to China and Japan. These scrolls, which highlight a meditative approach, also contain an intensity and immediacy of action that Gray sought in his own work. In an essay written in the accompanying catalog, Luke Gray...

CLEVE GRAY Three, 1989 Acrylic on canvas 57 x 79 inches

Cleve Gray Considering All Possible Worlds #4

Abstract painting wherein a calligraphic brushstroke delineates a mountaintop.

"Conjunction #98" by Cleve Gray is an abstract painting made of acrylic on canvas from 1976. The piece contains rich fields of saturated color punctuated by calligraphic gestures and...

"Ascensions #4" by Cleve Gray, is an abstract painting made of acrylic on canvas from 1997. The painting contains rich fields of saturated color punctuated by calligraphic gestures a...

"Hopkin's Comet" by Cleve Gray, is an abstract painting made of acrylic on canvas from 1990. The painting contains rich fields of saturated color punctuated by calligraphic gestures ...

This Cleve Gray painting, titled "Perne #7", contains rich fields of saturated color punctuated by calligraphic gestures and sweeping brushstrokes. Known for his confident and personal vision of color-based abstraction, Gray’s subtly nuanced paintings vacillate between explosive energy and contained reflection. Cleve Gray (b. 1918 New York City, NY, d. 2004 Hartford, CT) graduated with a degree in art and archeology from Princeton University in 1940. While serving in World War II and afterwards, Gray traveled extensively with significant exposure to European art and artists. His earliest inspiration ranged from his Princeton thesis on Chinese Yuan Dynasty...

"Conjunction #199" by Cleve Gray is an abstract painting made of acrylic on canvas from 1976. The piece contains rich fields of saturated color punctuated by calligraphic gestures an...