During a recent auction at Stair Galleries Auction House in Hudson, New York, well-known American artist Donray sold a painting entitled Butterfly #20 for a price exceeding the artist’s existing record. The painting, measuring 15.5 inches by 19 inches, was one of three top sellers among the 240 lots of fine art items sold. A second painting, a pastel on paper of a Native American Indian titled Paladin, sold for $5,175 and measures 25 inches by 19 inches. Paladin was not only among the top 10 percent of lots sold in the auction, the painting was the artist’s first pastel to be sold at auction.
Even given the current economic outlook, market and collector support of Donray appears strong. Although Butterfly #20 is considered an important painting as one in the Butterfly Series completed by the artist, a large work of Donray has yet to come to auction. With a selling price of $12,870, Butterfly #20 reached more than $43 per square inch.
Recently, a substantial body of Donray’s work was purchased by investment banking firm, Allegiance Capital Corporation, of Dallas and New York. According to David Mahmood, CEO of Allegiance Capital, “Donray’s work is sharply on the rise and I believe collectors are anxiously awaiting the offering of a large Donray painting at auction.”
Additionally, The Prestige Financial Center, an investment services firm in Manhattan, acquired several early pieces by Donray, including a self-portrait. According to esteemed art critic and author, Donald Kuspit, the artist’s work reveals “a verve, an energy, a dynamic surging gesture, violent movement, an overall vividness and vitality that places Donray’s paintings among the most interesting of what might be called post-modern expressionist painting.”
An artist who epitomizes dynamic artistry through his powerful, energetic and sometimes dreamlike use of color, Donray’s work exudes movement and emotional images. Many of his works use human and animal imagery to create moments of breathtaking lightness and transcendency and provide other instances of profound gravity and intensity. In particular, his special technique involving acrylics and glaze provides many of his canvas works with a depth not commonly found in the art world.
For many of his acrylic pieces, Donray continues to use an innovative technique that he pioneered and for which he is known involving an acrylic-on-acrylic collage created by the artist. The collage material is the same as that being used to paint with and developed through a tedious process of mixing, pouring, manipulation and cutting. The result is a dramatic display of intermingling color, texture, reflecting light and exciting energy.
About the Artist
Often called an American Expressionist, Donray’s works have been lauded on both sides of the Atlantic. Powerful, energetic, pulsating and sometimes dreamlike, his use of color, movement and imagery is emotional, visceral and thought-provoking. Many of his works use human and animal imagery to create moments of breathtaking lightness and transcendency and provide other moments of profound gravity and intensity. In particular, his unique technique involving acrylic on acrylic collage provides many of his canvas works a depth not commonly found in the art world. You may learn more about Donray at Wikipedia, or via a Web site set up by his supporters at http://www.donrayartist.com/.