CLEVELAND, OH.- This month Gray’s Auctioneers in Cleveland Ohio are featuring modern and contemporary fine art, prints, sculpture and fine art books from notable collectors across the globe. Paintings, prints and fine art books from the noted Ohio gallerist and collector Charles Foley feature prominently in the auction. Foley was an early proponent of modern art in Columbus, Ohio. A graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, in 1966 he went to work at Eve Glimcher’s Pace Gallery/Columbus, serving as the gallery’s Assistant Director from 1969 to 1982. After Glimcher died in 1982 Charles continued her legacy and opened his own gallery championing modern and contemporary artists in the Ohio market.

Lot 1 - from the Charley Foley Gallery - is an unpretentious, untitled, abstract oil on canvas by the Dutch artist Theo Wilhelm Wolvecamp. Rich with reds, whites and blacks the work opens the October 25 auction. Wolvecamp was a founding member of the Experimentele Groep in Holland with Corneille, Karel Appel and Constant. They then went on to found the highly influential artists’ collective CoBrA. The American Abstract expressionist movement came to the fore in the US as these European artists were making their mark in Europe and you can see the cross cultural influence in Wolvecamp’s canvas.

The auction features lots 2 – 13, twelve, transcendent oils on canvas by the Abstract Expressionist artist Albert J. Newbill – Al for short. “Newbill was a part of the movement, although it didn't take long for him to follow his own path” writes Paul Kemerling, the former Executive Director of the Mansfield Art Center.

"I threw off the yoke of abstract expressionism fairly early and went my own way," Newbill said. "I was among the second generation of abstract expressionists. My work had elements of it, but I think it had a little more control. I was somewhat aloof from the whole thing."

Kemerling writes, ”For 15 years, Newbill lived and painted in empty inner-city lofts and spent his evenings at fabled New York pubs like the Eighth Street Club and the Cedar Street Tavern, which catered to the city's cultural revolutionaries.” His friends included Pollack, de Kooning and Franz Kline. A major yet underrated talent, his works have been shown throughout the US.

Gregorio Prieto Munoz, one of Spain’s most celebrated artists, whose life spanned the twentieth century (1897 – 1992) created lot 16, Male Nude with Three Female Torsos, a sensuous scene of unrequited longing. The placement of living mortals and lush vegetation juxtaposed against a backdrop of ancient ruins, sculptures and motifs were a thematic subject of many of his paintings throughout the 1930s. A hopeful message that ‘this too shall pass’ at a time when most of the world was overwhelmed by the rise of fascism. The National Museum of Art in Madrid holds several of his works of art, The Gregorio Prieto Foundation in Valdepenas is dedicated to exhibiting, preserving his works and celebrating the life of this important Spanish artist.

Lot 17 Portrait of a Female painted in 1952 by B. Prabha is a soulful portrait of a young Indian woman, a vibrant yellow sari falling loosely from one shoulder. B. Prabha is famously quoted as saying “I have yet to see one happy woman”. The celebrated Indian artist made a living as an artist in a country and time where women were universally oppressed. Only this month – October 2017 - did the Supreme Court in India rule that sex with girls under the age of 18 is illegal and criminally prosecutable. Her work is in museums and collections across the sub-continent including India’s National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. This work is from the collection of writer, musician and lecturer Sorab K. Modi who passed away in 2015.

The auction includes works by Alex Katz – lot 59, Ada with Sunglasses; Howard Hodgkin – lot 55, Green Palm; Bridget Riley – lot 30, Elapse; Edwin Mieczkowski – lot 28, Untitled; and Yaakov Agam – lot 31, Nines, a screenprint on folded paper, numbered 89/99 and signed lower right. The three dimensional design of Agam’s artwork is dramatically exhibited in an elegant shadow box frame.

The auction features a significant number of Pace prints, exhibition posters, catalogues and fine art books from the collection of the Charles Foley Gallery. These include works from the artists Miro, Matisse, Picasso, Dubuffet, Albers, Nevelson, Dali, Braque, Leger, Kandinsky & Chagall amongst many others.

Gray’s is open for in-person preview October 19 - 25; Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 12noon – 4pm. The auction starts at 11am EST on Wednesday, October 25 with live bidding provided by GraysAuctioneers.com.