Glenn Bray
Art collector, author
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glenn Bray is an American private collector[1] of comic book art and memorabilia,[2] and the editor of multiple books about comic book and modern art, including The Original Art of Basil Wolverton: From the Collection of Glenn Bray (2007)[3][4] and The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection.[5][6] Bray started collecting comics, original art, toys and posters in the 1970s,[1] amassing one of the largest private collections of comic art by Mad magazine artist Basil Wolverton[7] over the following decades.[2] Bray’s comic art collection has thousands[8] of pieces, including art from Mad magazine artist Harvey Kurtzman, George Herriman (known for the Krazy Kat comic strip), Disney cartoonist Carl Barks, and Savage Pencil.[2]
Glenn Bray | |
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| Born | 1 April 1948 |
| Occupations | Art collector, editor |
Early life and education
Bray grew up in California's San Fernando Valley.[2] Bray's interest in comic book art started in the 1950s when he was 9 years old, and he saw Basil Wolverton's art in Mad magazine.[9] As a teen, Bray started working in his family’s hardware store and began collecting comics, original art, toys and posters.[2]
Career and comic art collection
Bray purchased his first original piece of art, a drawing by Wolverton, in 1965 at age 17 for $10,[2] and years later he purchased six pages of original art Wolverton made for a story in Mad magazine.[2] Bray's collection of art from Mad is primarily from the comic book editions published under editor Harvey Kurtzman.[1] His collection developed through the 1970s when he purchased original art auctioned by Mad's former publisher, William Gaines.[1] His collection includes original comic art from Mad magazine artists Harvey Kurtzman and Basil Wolverton,[2] underground cartoonists Robert Williams, Robert Crumb, Gary Panter,[10] and Savage Pencil,[2] alternative comic artists Daniel Clowes, George Herriman,[10] and Carl Barks.[2]
In 1971, Bray commissioned the first oil painting from Carl Barks;[7] entitled A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By, the painting featured Donald Duck.[11]
Pieces from Bray’s comic art collection were included in the 2005 “Masters of American Comics” exhibitions at the Los Angeles Hammer Museum[2] and the Museum of Contemporary Art.[9]
Bray and his wife Lena Zwalve also collect art work by Polish modernist painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski.[12] Bray collaborated with and published several books with Szukalski.[13] In 2000 Bray, who is also the executor of Szukalski’s estate, helped organize a retrospective of Szukalski’s work called “Struggle: The Art of Stanislav Szukalski,” hosted at the Laguna Art Museum and sponsored by actor Leonardo DiCaprio.[7] The book Struggle: The Art of Szukalski, edited by Bray and Lena Zwalve, was released the same year.[13][14] Bray’s filmed interviews with Szukalski in the 1980s were included in the 2018 Netflix documentary, Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski.[15]
As of 2008, Bray held he largest private collection of art by Wolverton,[7] with over 400 pieces.[2] In 2014, Bray’s comic art collection included “hundreds of thousands of items.”[8]
Publications
Bray edited and co-edited multiple books about comic art, including The Original Art of Basil Wolverton (2007)[10][4] and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes in 2008.[16][17]
In 2014, Bray co-edited The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection,[6] featuring art by Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb,[5] Charles Addams, Peter Pontiac, and others.[2]
Bray and comics scholar Frank M. Young co-edited To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life and Times of Art Young, published in 2017.[18] The book was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2018.[19]
Select publications
- Struggle: The Art of Szukalski[13][14]
- The Original Art of Basil Wolverton: From the Collection of Glenn Bray(2007)[3][4]
- Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes[16][17]
- Nounours En Enfer[20]
- The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection[5][6]
- To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life and Times of Art Young[18][21]
- Behold!!! the Protong: Extracts from the 39 Volumes of My Science "Zermatism," Based on New Interpretations of Petroglyphic Communications, in which Will be Revealed the Most Precedent-shattering and Up-turning of All Notions on Our Origins. Including Samplings from Anthropolitical Motivations, the Deluged Gods, and Listen to These Stones (2019)[22]
- Art Young's Inferno : Original Art Edition(2020)[23]
- Inner Portraits[24]
Personal life
Bray lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife Lena Zwalve, a Dutch cartoonist.[7] He retired and closed his family’s hardware store in 2010.[2]