CLEVEGRAY WORKSON PAPER1940-1986

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+""1 Publishedfor the exhibition CleveGray: Workson Paper 1940-1986 The BrooklynMuseum December15, 1986-February23,1987

Cover: Untitled #123, 1982 Acrylic, 22 x 30% inches Collectionof the artist

Photographsby E. lrving Blomstrann,with the exceplionof page 2 by Nancy Tutko.

tsBN0-87273-107-3 :);' Designedand publishedby The ,200 Eastern Parkway,Brooklyn, New York 11238.Typeset in Triumvirateand printed in the U.S.A. by Albert H. Vela Co Inc.,. by RichardWaller. Edited by Elaine Koss. Designed ,,t' O 1986 The BrooklynMuseum. All rights reserved. 't'

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\ gLEVEGRAy WORKSON PAPER1940{986

DECEMBER15, 1986 _ FEBRUARY23, 1987 THE BROOKLYNMUSEUM what is a drawing,as opposedto a painting? where is fhe point at which theycan be separated?How easilyone says "That's a drawing.',,'That,s a painting." I have yet to hear the definitionof a drawing that satisfiesme. ln fact for the past ten years I have tried to eliminate the drawing-painting dichotomy.I want a line in painting, a line that is so integrated with the color and form that it is indistinguishablefrom, totallya part of them.And I want a drawing that is painted.

Cleve Gray FOREWORD

I A f hileworking closely with Cleve Gray places-if notactual landscapes that captivate lf lf to prepare an exhibition of his him,then landscapes of the mindand emotion. U U paintingsat the Albright-KnoxArt It is,therefore, a specialpleasure for me Galleryin Buffaloin 1977, I cameto knowand that The BrooklynMuseum is presentingthis respect him as an idealisticand highly retrospectiveexhibition of CleveGray's works intellectualartist who informs his work with an on paper from 1940 to the present.Linda acuteintelligence. Having come of ageas an Konheim Kramer, Curator of Prints and artist in the years just after 1945, Gray Drawings, has selected the works and witnessedthe importantchanges that occurred prepared the catalogue with the close whenthe newAmerican vocabulary of Abstract assistanceof the artist. Expressionismovertook the previousstylistic I am pleasedto have had a part in the movements of French modernism.After documentationof two different aspects of studyingwith And16 Lhote and Gray'stremendously prolific and stylistically and absorbing all he could from these varied career and look forward to the distinguished painter-teachersand the forthcomingdevelopments in hiswork as well. immediatepostwar Parisianart scene, he returnedto the UnitedStates and converted ROBERTT. BUCK to a gesturallanguage that retainedhis strong Director figureand groundfoundations. Since then he The Brooklyn Museum has followed a forty-year odyssey whose stylisticdevelopment separates him from his colleaguesand makesit impossibleto place hisart within any particularmovement. Often, thoughnot necessarily always, he revealshis deep rootsin Cubismand Surrealism.Above all, his work interpretsactual times and London Rurns(four drawings),1944 Coloredpencil, 8 x 6elainches each Collectionof the artist

4 Gray:they were the firstworks on paperthat he did in a seriesand the firstindication of the abstractsensibility that was to permeatethe work that followed. Bythis point in hiscareer Gray felt a need to movebeyond the rationalismof his earlier art towardgreater spontaneity. Although he neverfelt comfortablewith the nonobjective basisof AbstractExpressionism, he eventually came to see aspects of the Abstract Expressionists'work that couldbe relatedto his passionfor Orientalart. To attaingreater freedomof expression,he beganto work in 1965on a serieshe called ReverseDrawings. These drawings were the product of a techniquehe hadlearned in artschool in New York yearsbefore. They involveddrawing on paperin opaquewhite watercolor, covering the drawingwith India ink, and then washing the opaquewhite off so thatonly the inkwas left. The resultingworks containedhard edges ratherthan tuzzy watercolor or washcontours. Sometimesthe artist dribbledthe opaque Feverse Drawing #3, 1965 white on; other times he appliedit with an lndiaink and acrylic,243/q x 18% inches automaticgesture. According to Gray, the Collectionof the artist imagery derivedfrom his love of Oriental paintingand calligraphy. With the Reverse Drawings, Gray had The switchfrom paintingon canvasto work- establishedthe directionof his maturestyle, ingon paperdepends on the problemhe istry- He has continuedto work in lengthyseries ing to resolve,and he is alwaysconsciously overextended periods of time,pursuing one reactingagainst what he did beforein order ideaas far as he can and thenstarting a new to take a step ahead.Although he regards series in which he tacklesan entirelynew drawingand painting as equallyimportant, he problem.Because he movesbetween such op- feelsfreer working on canvasand onlyturns positesas structureand the dissolutionof to paper,which he considersmore constrain- form,color and noncolor,texture and nontex- ing,when he knowsexactly what he wantsto ture,there are similar forms, colors, and con- do. "Paperhas a moredemanding character ceptsthat tend to recurin hisvarious formats. thancanvas," he says."You workwith paper And yetthe imageryof hisworks on paperrare- as partof the matieremuch more than you do ly overlapswith that of his workson canvas. withthe canvas.You can havea fightwith the

6 canvas,but you can't do that with paper theState University of NewYork at Purchase, becauseeventually it will disintegrate." wasthe resultof yearsof antiwaractivity and After completingthe ReverseDrawings, theultimate expression of Gray'sanguish over Grayabandoned paper for a longtime, turn- thetragedy of Vietnam. ln contentit harksback ingto the largepaintings of hisCeres and Hera to his drawingsof the Londonruins. series.In these paintings, which were inspired Havingspent almost fifteen years on the by histravels in Greecein 1964and 1965, he verticalform, Gray found that he could go no reexploredthe brilliant color and upright forms furtherwith it. Whilevacationing in Vermont of his"red verticals," which now represented in 1974he made a seriesof paintingson paper for him a femalewho was part goddess, part in whichhe decidedto switchto horizontal column,and part tree. So involved was he with forms, and gradually,in works like After theseworks that he producednothing on Vermont,forms similar to thoseof the Reverse paperthrough the latesixties except a few Drawingsreappeared. Then, in 1975 in landscapesin watercolorthat he madefrom Jerusalem,he begana seriesof workson naturewhile on holiday in Nassauin 1967and smallsheets of paper(the Jerusalem Series) Martha'sVineyard in 1969.Although these in whichhe broketotally not onlywith the watercolorscontain certain qualities of color verticalbut with the horizontalas well.This andform that reappeared later in hiscareer, series,which he continuedas the Affer unlikemost of his workthey presented him JerusalemSeries when he cameback to the withno formal problems. Indeed, he classifies UnitedStates, employed gestural lines and themas "informal"because they were intend- circular,almost cosmic, forms. ed merelyto capturea landscapehe loved. Afterreturning to canvasfor several years, More typicalof Gray'soeuvre are the Gray beganworking with dry pigmentson drawingsof hisMoroccan Serieg which were paperin 1979.These pigments, he discovered, inspiredby a three-weektour of Moroccoin blurredfor him the distinctionbetween the 1970.Gray strove in this series to eliminatethe mediumand the support. Similarly, when he separationbetween drawing and painting, to wentto Romein Decemberof thatyear as a makethe brushstrokeand line become one. ResidentArtist of theAmerican Academy, he Whileturning away from color, he maintained incorporatedinto his acrylics the marble dust thevertical shape, reading it thistime simply he foundon the floorof the studioof the as "woman" and superimposingit on a sculptornext door. The soft colors,varied square,which for him represented a tile. Hav- textures,and scratchy,graffiti-like gestural ingresolved on canvas some of the problems formsof the resultingseries, Roman Walls, presentedby the vertical form, he felt comfor- wereinspired by the surfacesof Rome'sold tableworking directly on Japanesepaper. buildings. The artist'sexplorations of the vertical Graycontinued the colorful Roman Walls shape on both paper and canvasfinally seriesfor the next two years, but then moved culminatedin 1974in a sequenceof fourteen intothe almost colorless calligraphic works of largepaintings entitled Threnody. This series, his Zen Series(reminiscent o,f 'the Reverse commissionedby the NeubergerMuseum of Drawings)and followinga.,progression of experimentationsimilar to what he had gone a continuouscycle when viewed in the context throughwith the verticalform. In 1984,still of his entire career.As LawrenceAlloway usingthe same gesturalforms, he returnedto notedin a discussionof Gray'sart in 1970,"A color and specificimagery in his Embassy consecutivelogic emerges, highly convincing Series,so titledbecause it wasexhibited at the in retrospectthough it is a form of logic residenceof the Americanambassador in impossiblefor the artist to predict during * Prague. These drawings, inspired by the work." shape of the umbrellapine of ltaly,were a continuationof the calligraphicstyle he had LINDAKONHEIM KRAMER arrivedat in his Jerusalemworks. Curator of Printsand Drawings While in Prague,Gray visitedthe old The Brooklyn Museum Jewishcemetery, an uncaredfor but tragically beautifulplace in whichone cannothelp but visualizethe centuriesof bodiesthat were -CleveGray, exhibition catalogue ( Academy heaped on top of one anotherthere. This of Arts, '1970). experience,combined with the articleson Klaus Barbie and the Vichy government's persecutionof theJews that his wife, Francine du PlessixGray, had writtentor VanityFair in 1983,suggested to him his HolocaustSeries of 1985.The figure, long missing from Gray's oeuvre,reemerges here in the form of piled- up bodiessymbolic of boththe tragediesof the Jewishpeople in particularand the horrorof war in general.Recalling the emotionsthat producedThrenody, this seriescoil'res almost fullcycle back to Gray'sdrawings of WorldWar ll London.lt also representsone of the few times in the lasttwenty years that his works on paperhave led to paintings. Most recently, in Gray's Resurrection Seriesof 1986,line has nearlyoverwhelmed the figureand white transparencies similar to thosefound in hisZen Serieshave obliterated most of the color.Once again,the artist is turningfrom imagery to abstraction,from color to blackand white, from form to dissolutionof form. Such apparent stylistic shifts in the developmentof Gray'swork are in factpart of

8 Roman Walls #6, 1980 Acrylicand marbledust, 19slex 28 inches Collectionof the artist

10 fdL ^7'74,a- - d /

EmbassySerles #8, 1984 Acrylic,223/e x 30 inches Collectionof the artist

1'1 HolocaustSerles #7. 1985 lndia ink and acrylic,29t/e x 22 inches Collectionof the artist

12 CHRONOLOGY

1918 Born in New York City,SePtember 22 1934-36 AttendedPhillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 1940 Graduatedfrom PrincetonUniversity 1943-46 Servedin the army in EuroPe Studiedwith Andr6 Lhoteand JacquesVillon in 1947 Firstone-man exhibition, Jacques Seligmann Gallery, New York (1948-50,1952, 1954, 1957, 1959) 1949 Movedto Warren, 1957 MarriedFrancine du Plessix 1960 February,exhibition of paintingsand drawingsat StaempfliGallery, New York (1962,1964) 4 Became contributingeditor of Art in America 1966 TranslatedDuchamp's A finfinnit 1968 FoundedNorthwest Connecticut chapter of Clergy and LaymenConcerned About Vietnam Head, 1940 Edited David Smith by David Smith Charcoal,18 x 12 inches Collectionof the artist 1970 March,traveled through Morocco for threeweeks First one-manexhibition at Betty ParsonsGallery, 1974 New York (1972,1974, 1976, 1977, 1979,'1981, May-June 1976,Threnody murals on exhibitionat 1982,1983) NeubergerMuseum August 1970-February1971, Artist in Residenceat 1977 HonoluluAcademy of Arts June, exhibitionof ten years of paintings November,exhibition at HonoluluAcademy (1966-1977)at Albright-KnoxArt Gallery,Buffalo. Traveledto Museumof Art, Rhode lslandSchool of 1971 Design,Providence; , ; Edited John Marin by John Marin KrannertArt Museum,Champaign, lllinois Edited Hans Richterby Hans Richter Summer,traveled in Europewith familyto lschia, 1972 Italy,to visit Francine'sstepfather and mother, Threnodycommissioned by NeubergerMuseum, Alexanderand TatianaLiberman, then to Veniceand State Universityof New York at Purchase

13 December,trip up the Nile with family.Colors and November,exhibition at BenjaminMangel Gallery, landscapeof Egypt inspiredPerne Seriesof paintings Philadelphia 1978 Threnodyreinstalled at NeubergerMuseum, State Summer,Nantucket Universityat Purchase,New York, for six months 1979 1984 June, Threnodyreinstalled at NeubergerMuseum, Returnedto AmericanAcademy, Rome. Embassy State Universityof New York at Purchase,for three Serlesderived from form of umbrella pines of ltaly months March,visited William Luers, who had become Fall, exhibitionof Perne Serlesat The Mattatuck Ambassadorto Czechoslovakia Museumof the MattatuckHistorical Society, Exhibitionin Luers'sresidence in Praoueof Waterbury,Con necticut Ernbassy Sezbs December,went to AmericanAcademy in Romefor 'ln Prague Seriescame out of visit to old Jewish five monthsas ResidentArtist cemetery 1980 VisitedVienna with Luers Took trips with the Academydown the Anatolian Coast and to Palladio'sVeneto Went to Chinawith Francine Roman Wal/s Serles Winter,exhibition at Fairweather-HardinGallery, Chicago,and RobertKidd Gallery,Birmingham, Summer,went to Caracas,Venezuela, at invitationof Michigan AmericanAmbassador, William Luers, and the u.s.l.A. November,exhibition of new Praguepaintings at ArmstrongGallery, New York Exhibition o'fRoman Wallsat Museo de Bellas Artes. Caracas 1985 New Year's Day. Returnedto AmericanAcademy, Upon return from Caracas began Here Serlesand Rome. Worked on HolocaustSerles. human fiqures black-and-whitepaintings ol Man and Nature Series on paper 1981 End of February,went to West Berlinand spent one Mid-January,one monthat the AmericanAcademy in day in East Berlin Rome October, article for Art in America on paintingson Worked on Zen Serieson paper with bamboo pen, a the BerlinWall continuationof Man and Nature Series Began working on paintingsol HolocausfSeries, November,exhibition at MichaelLord's Gallery, called S/eepersAwake Milwaukee Resurrection Series emeroed 1982 New Year's Day,arrived at AmericanAcademy, 1986 Rome.Continued work on paper but with more color Juried Prix de Romefor Academy Spring,trip to India,Indonesia, and Japanunder April, exhibitionof Zen Gardensat Fairweather- auspicesof U.S.l.A.to lecturewith Francineon HardinGallery, Chicago; exhibition ot Resurrection Post-Modernism Seriesat ArmstrongGallery, New York; exhibitionof ResurrectionSerles canvases at BenjaminMangel Spent ten days in Kyotolooking at four or five Zen Gallery,Philadelphia; exhibition of RomanWalls at gardens paintings a day. Zen GardenSerles of JacquesKaplan's Gallery, Kent, Connecticut begun upon returnhome 1987 1983 January,exhibition of largepaintings, Duke Early February,last exhibitionat BettyParsons UniversityMuseum of Art, Durham,North Carolina; Gallery exhibitionat ArmstrongGallery, New York JoinedArmstrong Gallery, New York February,Threnody reinstalled at Neuberger Started Rocksand Water Series Museum,State Universityat Purchase,New York

14 c HECKLIST i:J;',i:r',::{::,f,1:,L722x 183/q

ReyerseDrawing #3, 1965 Dimensionsare in inches;height precedes width. India ink and acrylic,243/q x 181/z Unless otherwise noted, all works are in the collection of the artist. Untitled 1/4/65, 1965 Mixedmedia, 30 x 22 Head, 1940 Pastel,18 x 12 Nassau#9, 1967 Watercolor. 143/qx 221/a Heads(three drawings), 1940 Charcoalpencil, 121/16 x 9; 18 x 12; 18 x 12 Nassau#11, 1967 Watercolor,14s/a x 22s/s LondonRurns (six drawings),1944 Colored pencil, 8 x 6sle;8 x 63/e;8 x 63/e; Martha's Vineyard#2, 1969 6s/ax 8i 8 x 63/a;gtt1.,u x 615/a Watercolor, 191/ax 241/q

Le Mont St. Michel, 1952 Martha's Vineyard#3, 1969 Coloredpencil and pencil, 15 x 23t/z Watercolor,18t/z x 241/e

Fountainof the Lions,Alhambra, 1959 Moroccan Serles#5, 197'l Indiaink, 17s/15x 13s/e Acrylicand Indiaink, 31 x 21t/q

Study lor Mosque, Cordova, 1959 Moroccan Serles#6, 1971 Charcoal,pastel, and syntheticpolymer on Acrylic,31 x 21t/z compositionboard, 40 x 48 WhitneyMuseum of AmericanArt, New York; Study for Threnody,1972 Gift of the artist Acrylicon Mille/s board,30 x 22

Sf// L/e, 1960 VermontSeries #114, 1974 fndia ink, 171/qx 241/e Acrylicand dry pigment,221/q x 301/a

StillLife, 1960 VermontSeries #190, 1974 Pencil,f ndia ink, and watercolor,175/16 x 171/z Acrylic,221/a x 301/q

Sf// Life, 1960 After Vermont, 1974 lndia ink and watercolor,17t/z x 22s/e Mixed media,201/e x 243/q

Orpheus, 1962 After Vermont#3, 1974 fndia ink, 17s/15x 24 Acrylic,221/q x 26

Untitled (Red Vertical$, 1962 After Threnody, 1974 Acrylic, 301/ax 221/e Acrylic on Miller'sboard, 301/ax 22

ReverseDrawing, 1965 After Jerusalem#1, 1975 lndia ink and acrylic,187/a x 243/q Acrylic,147/e x 221/z

15 After Jerusalem #4, 1975 Untitled #96, 1982 Acrylic,15 x 223/s Acrylic,221/+ x 293A

Nantucket Paper #2, 1976 Untitled #123, 1982 Acrylic,30 x 223/a Acrylic,22 x 301/z

Jerusalem#AL, 1976 EmbassySeries #3, 1984 Acrylicover lithograph,293/16 x 21 Acrylic,221/z x 30

Untitled #6, 1979 Embassy Series #8, 1984 Acrylicand dry pigment,24 x 34s/q Acrylic,22s/e x 30

IJntitled#11, 1g7g EmbassySeries #20, 1984 Acryficand dry pigment,27 x 42 Acrylic,22t/q x 30

Untitled#18,1979 HolocaustSerles #7, 1985 Acrylic and dry pigment,22 x 2915/a India ink and acrylic,297/e x 22

Untitled#24, 1979 HolocaustSerles #75, 1985 Acrylicand dry pigment,30 x 22t/+ Acrylic,273/q x 395/a Collectionof Mr. John Yau HolocaustSeries #18, 1985 Roman Walls#3, 1980 Acrylic, 271/zx 39 Acrylicand marbledust, 197/ex 279/a Collectionof BettyJean and RobertJay Lifton

Roman Walls #6, 1980 Holocaust Serles #21, 1985 Acryficand marbledust, 19slex 28 Acrylic,27s/q x 391/z

Roman Walls#398, 1980 ResurrectionSerles 1/4-10/86, 1986 Acrylicand marbledust, 18 x 243/s lndia ink and acrylic,293/c x 22

Roman Walls#91, 1980 ResurrectionSeries 1/15-17/86, 1986 Acrylicand marbledust, 20 x 27s/q India ink and acrylic,28s/c x 22

Roman Walls#178, 1980 ResurrectionSerles 1/27-28/86, 1986 Acryficand marbledust, 181/ex 241/z India ink and acrylic,27t/z x 39 Collectionof PeterStern Zen Series #4, 1981 Acryfic and fndia ink, 225/ex 297/a ResurrectionSerles 1/27-28/86, 1986 The BrooklynMuseum, Gift of India ink and acrylic,291/z x 41 Mr. and Mrs. RobertT. Buck Collectionof JacquesKaplan

Zen Series#8, 1981 Acrylicand lndia ink,22Vqx 30 Collectionof Dr, and Mrs. John Cook

16 After Jerusalem #4, 1975 Acrylic,15 x 223/einches Collectionof the artist

j1:i:!ryq4#_qF€::r. t .-.::rjsry-t:' - :-:.;:;)1,..ffi -

Untitled#18, 1979 Acrylicand dry pigment 22 x 29ts/5 inches Collectionof the artist 1z::.i1:,|'ll.a CLEVEGRAY: WORKS ON PAPER1940-1986

his exhibition,which coversthe full Universitysenior thesis on ChineseYuan spanof CleveGray's career up to the Dynasty would later present,is thefirst retrospective of his profoundlyaffect his art, there is nothing workson paper.In it,one can perceivenot only Oriental about such early works as his the developmentof hisartistic style in general drawingsof the Londonruins or the pasteland but alsothe evolutionof his treatmentof the charcoalportraits he madein 1939and 1940 mediumof paperin particular. while he was still in college.Instead, these Earlyin his careerGray used paper in a worksdisplay a Cubistangularity and a search traditionalmanner. Consequently, the earliest for underlyingstructure that was subsequently works in the exhibitionare drawingsthat he reinforcedby hispostwar studies in Pariswith did from natureas preparatorysketches for Andr6Lhote and JacquesVillon.During the paintings.After executing them, he wentback 1950s, while making drawings of such to the studio,pinned them on the wall,and Europeanarchitectural monuments as the made paintings from them, using the mosqueat Cordovaand the Alhambra,he informationthey contained and hopingnever continuedto work in a stylesimilar to that of to haveto returnto the originalsubject. Not Villonand the post-Cubistartists who madeup surprisingly,he usuallyworked on paperwhen the so-calledSchool of Paris. he was away from home. Sketchesthat he Gray'sfirst distinct break with this style drew in the bombed-outstreets of London is representedby a numberof untitledoil-on- whilehe wasa soldierin Europebetween 1943 paper drawingsof the early 1960sthat he and 1946 and studiesof Mont-Saint-Michel refersto as "red verticals."Although these that he madein Francein the early1950s he drawings are still consideredstudies for carefullytranslated onto canvas upon his paintings and although they recall the returnto America. influenceof such membersof the Schoolof Althoughthe Oriental painting philosophy Parisas Franti6ekKupka and Nicolasde Stael, Graystudied while working on his Princeton they representan importantturning point for