Cleve Gray ’40

Cleve died Dec. 8, 2004, from a massive subdural hematoma suffered after a fall on ice. An artist to the end, he was working on pictures for a show this winter.

He prepared at Phillips Academy. At Princeton, he majored in art and archaeology, graduating with highest honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Cleve was art editor of the Nassau Lit and Free Atelier.

He served in the Army during World War II in Britain, France, and Germany, where he sketched scenes of wartime destruction. After the liberation of Paris, Cleve studied with noted French artists, exhibiting his work at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.

Returning to New York in 1947, Cleve's large-scale abstract compositions attracted critical recognition and resulted in one-man exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, Guggenheim, and many other museums in the US and in Europe. He was editor of Art in America and was a well-known artist, writer, and lecturer.

In 1957, he married Francine Du Plessix, the noted novelist and essayist. She survives him as do their sons, Thaddeus and Luke, and four grandchildren. To them, his classmates extend deep sympathies.

The Class of 1940