(EMAILWIRE.COM, August 20, 2009 ) KENT, CONNECTICUT – Thirty-eight works on paper by famed abstract expressionist painter Cleve Gray will be exhibited starting August 29th at The Morrison Gallery in the Old Barns section of Kent.
The exhibit includes two series – an untitled group comprising mixed media of gauche watercolor and charcoal on paper created in 1979 that has never been shown before; the other entitled “Interplay” includes watercolors on paper that he began in 2000 and was working in 2004, the year he died.
The exhibit begins with an opening reception on August 29th from 5-7 pm, pm, and continues through October 4th. The 7,000 square foot Morrison Gallery is located at 8 Old Barn Road, near the junction of Routes 7 and 341.
Cleve Gray was born in 1918 and studied art at Princeton, from which he graduated summa cum laude. After military service in World War II he devoted his life to painting.
Long associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction, Mr. Gray first exhibited his work at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. He had his first solo exhibition at the Jacques Seligmann Gallery in New York in 1947. Mr. 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 and many other museums.
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.
