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Clifford Gleason

American, 1914-1978


Details
Names

Clifford Gleason

Gleason, Clifford

Active

Oregon

Occupation or Type

painter

printmaker

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Bio

As a WPA artist, Clifford Gleason worked with Louis Bunce to create murals for the Bush Elementary School in Salem. His study with Bunce at the Salem Federal Art Center helped orient him to Modernism. He owned the Clifford Gleason Studio and Art Gallery in Salem in the mid-1950s. He displayed his work in the Marion County Health Building. Gleason had three one-person shows at the Portland Art Museum. He exhibited widely in Oregon and his works were housed in more than fifty public and private collections.

Gleason was one of Oregon's true Modernists. He was a gifted colorist whose abstractions were based on nature. His surfaces were softly textured, the simple forms often isolated in empty space. Although he used muted color early in his career, later works showed more brilliant color.

Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.

Gender

Male

Related People

Associate of: Louis Bunce (American, 1907-1983)

Related Artworks
Media
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