Wound Up
Artist
Cleve Gray
(American, 1918 - 2004)
Date1989
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions55 × 70 in. (139.7 × 177.8 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Object numberUAC2724
DescriptionKnown for his self-described, “active voids,” Cleve Gray has a reputation in the abstract art scene. “Wound Up” fits in this description easily, as the majority of the painting is made up of patches of color with very little figural elements within it. There is a line that divides the canvas nearly in half, like a horizon line, but the only slightly figural object is the mass of black and blue streaked through with red and white lines. The object that takes the center of the painting, which seems to also represent the title, as the merging of the colors gives rise to a three-dimensional shape, which in turn seems bound by these red and white lines that run throughout it; wound up, even.
Cleve Gray (1918-2004) was an American abstract expressionist in the 1940s, with a career that lasted until his death in 2004. He studied Art and Archeology at Princeton before graduating and exhibiting his works of landscapes and still lives in Tucson, Arizona. After spending time in military service during WWII, Gray studied and exhibited in Paris and New York. He spent the rest of his career working in Warren, Connecticut, with his wife and noted author and literary critic, Francine du Plessix.
Written by Alex Heath
