Cleve Gray ( 1918 - 2004)

  Abstract painter Cleve Gray died December 8, 2004 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was born Cleve Ginsburg (his family changed their name in 1936).

Gray created a variety of works with fields of color made by pouring, staining, and sponging to which he added gestural marks. He painted a series of 14 paintings entitled, "Threnody" in response to the Vietnam War. The series was commissioned by the Neuberger Museum of Purchase, New York.

While Cleve Gray served in the Army he studied with French artists Andre Lhote and Jacques Villon after the liberation of Paris.

Cleve Gray married the writer Francine du Plessix in 1957. He was a contributing editor to Art in America in the 1960s and he edited volumes of writings by David Smith, John Marin and Hans Richter.

Source: Art in America, February 2005