Anti-war painting back in the spotlight - Artworld - Neuberger Museum of Art reinstalls controversial painting by Cleve Gray - Brief Article

Reaffirming the potential of abstract painting to convey political convictions as well as emotion, the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase recently reinstalled Cleve Gray's Threnody, a vast multipanel composition from 1972-73. The site-specific work, commissioned by the museum in anticipation of its inauguration in 1974, was created in response to the Vietnam War. Since the work's debut, the Neuberger has displayed the piece every five years or so.

Born in New York City in 1918, Gray is known for his spare, abstract compositions on a grand scale; Threnody is the largest and, according to many critics, the most important work of his career. Made of 14 abutting canvas-on-wood panels, each 20 feet square, the composition spans four walls of a large gallery. Each panel features an elongated, irregular rectangle painted in acrylic in red, blue or black against a contrasting hue. In 1975, the artist explained to the press that the aim of the work is to suggest a "primordial archetype," a sensation of darkness flowing into light that hints at the yin and yang of life and a reconciliation of opposites.

A "threnody" is a dirge, a song of lamentation; the artist intended to create an environment that would be conducive to meditation on death and destruction. In spite of the passages of brilliant color and the work's majestic installation, the overall mood of the piece is somber and elegiac. As the U.S. today tries to find ways to memorialize victims of last year's terrorist attacks and as war with Iraq looms on the horizon, the reinstallation could hardly be more timely. Threnody remains on view through Dec. 29.

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