Cleve Gray

Cleve Gray (born September 22, 1918 in New York City; died December 8, 2004 in Hartford, Connecticut) was known as an Abstract expressionist painter, who was also associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. He was born Cleve Ginsberg. The family changed their name to Gray in 1936. He was considered "ultraliberal" when it came to politics, but was fairly conservative when it came to his social and creative tastes. He attended the... more

Cleve Gray (born September 22, 1918 in New York City; died December 8, 2004 in Hartford, Connecticut) was known as an Abstract expressionist painter, who was also associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. He was born Cleve Ginsberg. The family changed their name to Gray in 1936. He was considered "ultraliberal" when it came to politics, but was fairly conservative when it came to his social and creative tastes. He attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City (1924-1932); and from age 11 to age 14 he began his formal art training with Antonia Nell, (who had been a student of George Bellows). At 15 until the age of 18 he attended the Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts; where he studied painting with Bartlett Hayes and won the Samuel F. B. Morse Prize for most promising art student. In 1940 he graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, with a degree in Art and Archeology. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Princeton he studied painting... less