Skip to main content

Art

235
to
797
4,328
4,176
2,345
1,326
4,787
3,172
341
4,252
1,467
1,292
851
633
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2,714
674
607
341
249
113
105
101
22
18
3
2
4,966
2,294
2,095
1,487
1,415
1,032
622
582
545
481
425
366
341
322
320
300
288
283
255
248
7,648
19,067
147,532
245,286
1,815
2,225
4,587
6,382
5,620
14,197
18,291
22,549
16,055
13,354
5,264
258
102
89
74
69
2,768
2,378
1,835
1,247
1,074
Art For Sale
Period: 1930s
Period: 1910s
Antique English Colored Original Engraving of an English Gentleman 1919
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3905 English Gentleman colored engraving set in a custom made frame Image size 14x10"
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Laid Paper

Léger L'encrier, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Bridge Construction with Philadelphia Museum
Located in Raleigh, NC
A rare etching by Frederick W. Haupte of the Delaware River and the Philadelphia Art Museum in the background. A richly evenly inked impression with strong plate mark. There are lig...
Category

1930s American Realist Art

Materials

Etching

The Tea Party with the Artist's Daughter Lois
Located in Washington, DC
Following two decades of successful impressionistic landscape painting, Wilson Henry Irvine became known for a new experimental style in the 1930s. In 1930, Irvine began making pris...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Femme Profile (Marie-Therese Walter), Lithograph from the Marina Picasso Estate
Located in Long Island City, NY
Rendered in profile, Marie-Therese Walter is shown wearing a purple beret and a brown coat with fluffy trim. One of Pablo Picasso's famed muses, this representation of her is reminis...
Category

1930s Cubist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Fernande Horovitz-Edwards, Bathers, Large Oil on Canvas, 1930s
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Large oil on canvas by Fernande Horovitz-Edwards, France, 1930s. "Bathers". With frame: 117,5x90x4 cm - 46.3x35.4x1.6 inches. Without frame: 114x87 cm - 44.9x34.25 inches. Signed low...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape oil Painting, Garden landscape, mountain landscape, French art
Located in AIGNAN, FR
Vintage landscape oil painting on canvas by French artist Marie Marguerite Reol (1880-1963) Garden landscape in the fore with a backdrop of mountains, most likely to be the Pyrenees....
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil

YVES DIEY The Nude, Oil on canvas, 1930s
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on canvas by Yves DIEY (1892-1984), France. The Nude. With frame : 99x54 cm - 39x21.25 inches ; without frame : 90x45 cm - 35.4x17.7 inches. Signed "Yves Dieÿ" lower right (see p...
Category

1930s Art Deco Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Early 20th Century Original German Impressionist Painting of Forest Interior
Located in Soquel, CA
Early 20th Century Original Impressionist Landscape Painting of German Forest Interior A fine example of a German impressionist landscape of autumnal forest interior by Elisabeth v...
Category

1910s Impressionist Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

Roland Paris Bronze Statue Glider 1933 Schneider Grunau Baby Glider
Located in Oakland, CA
Roland Paris Bronze Statue Glider 1933. This glider was originally based on the Schneider Grunau Baby Glider from 1931. It held the world record fo...
Category

1930s Art Deco Art

Materials

Marble, Bronze

“Hill View”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on heavy cardboard (old chocolate candy box cover) of a hill view landscape by Whitney Myron Hubbard. Signed lower left. Signed and titled verso. Circa 1930. Conditi...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

French school circa 1930, Portrait of a young man with blue eyes, oil
Located in Paris, FR
French school circa 1930 Portrait of a young man with blue eyes Oil on cardboard panel 27 x 21.5 cm Bears a signature (illegible) upper right Framed : 34.5 x 29.5 cm
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Buee Matinale - Impressionist Riverscape Oil Painting by Alexandre Jacob
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1930 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The piece depicts a fisherman in a small boat by the bank of the River Seine ...
Category

1930s Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Bouquet and books
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Light brown wooden frame 61 x 53 x 4 cm
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Oil

Bords de riviere a Saint-Prive - Barbizon Landsape Oil - Henri Joseph Harpignies
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed and dated Barbizon School landscape oil on panel by French painter Henri Joseph Harpignies. The work depicts the trees lining the banks of the River Loing at Saint Prive in no...
Category

1910s Barbizon School Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

The Hunter, Mid-Century Photo Realist Drypoint Etching Portrait, Limited Edition
By Gilbert Schoenbrod
Located in Soquel, CA
An incredible photo-realist drypoint etching of a Native American man by Gilbert Adam Shoenbrod (American, 1903-1996), 1937. Titled "The Hunter", this hyper detailed portrait depicts...
Category

1930s Photorealist Art

Materials

Drypoint

Landscape in Spring
Located in Greenwich, CT
George Oberteuffer was an American Impressionist but he spent much of his career painting in France which is where this may have been done. He embraced the Post - Impressionist styl...
Category

1910s Post-Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Barcelona Spain pencil drawing
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Eliseo Meifren Roig (1859-1940) - Barcelona - Pencil drawing Drawing measurements 9x12 cm. Frame measurements 22x25 cm.
Category

1930s Impressionist Art

Materials

Pencil, Color Pencil

La Proie by Orovida Pissarro, 1917 - Etching Print
Located in London, GB
*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE La Proie by Orovida Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Etching 12.5 x 17.5 cm (4 ⅞ x 6 ⅞ inches) Signed and dated 1917 Trial ...
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Etching

Antique Still Life of shoes, shoes painting, impressionist shoes, boots painting
By Jacques Bergmans
Located in AIGNAN, FR
Delightful and quite unusual post impressionist vintage oil painting of children's shoes by Belgium artist, Jacques Bermans, signed in the to...
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Oil

Nuages sur la Seine - Fevrier - Impressionist Riverscape Oil by Alexandre Jacob
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
A good sized signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1930 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The piece depicts a view of the River Seine. The cold scene is s...
Category

1930s Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Naked model
Located in Täby, SE
Unique etching in red chalk performed in 1930 in glass framed oak in mint condition Börje Harald Holm, born May 17, 1892 in Uppsala, died October 3, 1973, was a Swedish painter and...
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Etching

Early 20th Century Young Girl With Pink Bow Portrait
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful portrait of a young girl by listed aritst artist Helen Mae Enoch Gleiforst (American,1903-1997). Signed "Gleiforst" lower left. Unframed. Image, 20"H x 16"W. Gleiforst wa...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Nude, Oil on Canvas by B.Robert, Ca. 1930
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on canvas by B.Robert, France, ca.1930. Younh nude lady lying. With frame : 24x43.7x2.4 inches - 61x111x6 cm ; without frame : 19.7x39.4 inches - 50x100cm. Signed "B.Robert" (see...
Category

1930s Art Deco Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Buste d'enfant, tourné à droite" original etching
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original soft ground etching. This is a lifetime impression printed in 1914 on laid paper and published in Berlin by Bruno Cassirer for Theodore Duret's "Die Impressionisten"...
Category

1910s Impressionist Art

Materials

Etching

Dancing Nude Bronze of a Woman "Femme Dansant, 1910"
Located in Brookville, NY
Dancing Nude Bronze by Charles Rumsey is one of many figures he depicted of women. He has usually been known for his sculptures of horses, polo players, wildlife and dogs, mainly du...
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Bronze

Chiparus 'The Hunter' Large Art Deco Sculpture with Panther, 1930
Located in Oakland, CA
Large Art Deco sculpture of hunter and panther (or lion) by the famous sculptor Demetre H. Chiparus. The Art metal sculpture has a beautiful green verdigris patina and stands on an a...
Category

1930s Art Deco Art

Materials

Marble, Metal

Ottokar Mascha Folio, plate 8: "Poster for the 1st Vienna Secession Exhibition"
Located in Chicago, IL
After GUSTAV KLIMT (1862-1918) THESEUS UND MINOTAURUS, 1898, final design submission for poster advertising the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession, (In Mascha, no. 8) As a cele...
Category

1910s Vienna Secession Art

Materials

Lithograph

Woman in profile, watercolor and pencil on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Raphael DELORME (1886-1962) Study of a woman in profile Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper Illegible annotation in the lower right corner 31 x 20 cm Small needle holes at the to...
Category

1930s Art Deco Art

Materials

Watercolor, Pencil

Dufy, Les blés, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

"La diga di Chebourg" Olio cm. 73 x 54 1938
Located in Torino, IT
Bellissimo paesaggio del paese della Normandia dove è avvenuto lo sbarco degli americani nel 1944 Spiaggia,Barche,Mare del Nord
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil

Two men's heads, ca. 1930, ink on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Mathieu (Matei) ROSIANU (1897-1969) Two men's heads, circa 1930 Ink on paper 7 x 9 cm Born in Bucharest in 1897 to an officer in the Romanian National Guard and a mother of French ...
Category

1930s Surrealist Art

Materials

India Ink, Ink

Derain, Paysage, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

people on the bar terrace spanish modernism colored pencils
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Ricard Opisso - Bar - Colored pencils Measurements drawing 11x13cm. Frame measures 35x37 cm. Son of Alfredo Opisso y Viñas, journalist, historian and critic, and of Antonia Sala y ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Color Pencil

Untitled-019 gouache and pencil by Vaclav Vytlacil
Located in Hudson, NY
Delightful petite abstract work by American abstract artist Vaclav Vytlacil. About this artist: Born in 1892 to Czechoslovakian parents in New York, Vaclav Vytlacil and his parents ...
Category

1930s Abstract Expressionist Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Cardboard, Pencil

Landscape
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Illegible signature
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Oil

Naked model
Located in Täby, SE
Unique etching in red chalk perfomed in 19030 glass framed oak mint condition. Börje Harald Holm, born May 17, 1892 in Uppsala, died October 3, 1973, was a Swedish painter and graph...
Category

1930s French School Art

Materials

Etching

1930's Palm Springs Desert in Spring Landscape Original Oil Painting
By Helen Wannop
Located in Soquel, CA
1930's Palm Springs Desert in Spring Landscape Original Oil Painting Gorgeous oil painting of Palm Springs desert landscape by Helen Wannop (American, 1899-1942). This piece has a c...
Category

1930s Abstract Impressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

1912 original poster by André Nevil Torpedo car
Located in PARIS, FR
The original poster from 1912 by André Nevil, showcasing the "Torpédo" equipped with the "Janko" hood by Paris Lyon Méditerranée, is a testament to the innovative spirit and technolo...
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

Matisse, La Danse (Duthuit 67), Verve: Revue Artistique et Littéraire (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin du Marais paper. Double signed in the plate, verso, as issued. Good condition with centerfold and binding pinholes, as issued; lithography by Matisse, verso, as i...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Ottokar Mascha Folio, plate 18: "Shaw Oder Die Ironie Poster" by Egon Schiele
Located in Chicago, IL
after EGON SCHIELE (1890-1918) SHAW ODER DIE IRONIE POSTER, C. 1912, (In Mascha, no. 18) Schiele’s poster is an advertisement for a lecture to be given ...
Category

1910s Vienna Secession Art

Materials

Lithograph

Lurçat, Baigneuse, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Nandor Vagh Weinmann, Oil on cardboard, Naked Back, 1930s
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on cardboard by Nandor VAGH WEINMANN (1897-1978), France, 1930s. Naked back. With frame: 64x56 cm - 25.2x22 inches ; without frame: 46x38cm - 18.1x15 inches. 8F format. Signed "Nandor V. Weinmann" lower left. In its Montparnasse frame. Very good condition. Born October 3, 1897 in Budapest, Nándor is the older brother of Elemer and Maurice Vagh-Weinmann. He came to Paris to present his work in 1931. He died on December 12, 1978 near Montereau (Seine-et-Marne) following an automobile accident. He is the most colorful of the three “expressionist” brothers. Painter of figures, landscapes, especially open mountains, and bouquets in bright colors. He is also a religious painter and then finds the tragic condition. Born in BUDAPEST on October 3, 1897, Nandor Vagh Weinmann belongs to a profoundly artistic people. Living in the heart of Central Europe where they came from Asia a millennium ago, the Hungarians have preserved a strong ethnic individuality whose mark is their very synthetic, non-Indo-European language. Resistant to secular invasions, they have kept the virtues of a very ancient humanity that have become rare in our modern world, especially since their way of life has remained essentially rural until today. In the arts they know how to express a generous, extreme sensibility and by the poetic verb, by the musical rhythms and also by a popular art of a richness, an exceptional harmony. Until the age of thirty-four, during the decisive years of childhood and youth, Nandor Vagh Weinmann was intimately imbued with popular life and the soul of Hungary. From the capital where his father was a jeweler and had a family of ten children, Nandor was the fifth, he knew first of all the suburbs, the populated districts, the rigors in winter of the cold and the snow. A very mobile existence made him acquainted with all of Hungary, from the Danube to Transylvania, its infinite plains and its wild mountains, its immense villages with ample low houses, and its towns which are still immense villages. The painter is passionate about rustic works, harvest scenes, beautiful folk costumes. Coming into direct contact with the peasants, he learned to know their soul. These contacts gave the artist a direct feeling for popular life and soul, as Millet once understood the peasants of Barbizon and Normandy whose existence he shared. What fascinated Nandor Vagh Weinmann above all were the festivals which enlivened the dreary life of the countryside, the circuses, the merry-go-rounds, the gypsies unleashing orgies of music, light and color. In the party, and especially the Hungarian party, the whole soul of a people, all its energy, its need for movement, for intensity, is expressed in its pure state and realizes the primary and essential form of what is called beauty. And as if melted at the party, there is the infinite steppe where herds of horses and oxen circulate where terrible storms sometimes roar where the seasons unfold their grandiose splendours. The young Nandor Vagh Weinmann nourishes his sensitivity to his inexhaustible shows, both eternal and always new, a sensitivity which very early declared itself that of a painter. Since the age of fourteen he painted, and since then he never stopped doing it. Two of his brothers Maurice, two years his junior, who had a remarkable career similar to that of Nandor and later Elemer who became Maurice's pupil, also devoted themselves to painting, despite family obstacles. And the three brothers united by a common passion worked together in Hungary and later in France. Painting was so much in the blood of the family, as in the past among the Veroneses, the Breughels, the Lenains, the Van Loos and so many other artistic dynasties, that three sons of the Vagh Weinmanns became painters in their turn. One of these, Emeric, son of Nandor, today occupies an important place in the contemporary school. Nandor, at fifteen, was a pupil of the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest where he worked diligently, then at that of Vienna. He painted many portraits, but also landscapes, compositions and, by his relentless work, managed to live from his brush, although married very young and having to overcome many hardships. He therefore knew the hardships and miseries of life. These strongly impregnated his vision as an artist and explain the thrill of humanity that runs through all his work. A particularly moving experience was reserved for him at the age of twenty. In the hospitals of Budapest he had to paint extraordinary cases, operations, frightful wounds, the deformations to which our poor body is subjected by traumas and physiological decompositions. In these circumstances, it is not a question of gratuitous art, of formal research but of immediate, authentic expressions of our flesh and our being. We know that Breughel Velázquez and Goya had been haunted by the sight of cripples and of madmen Géricault by that of corpses. But life is ultimately stronger than anything, and it is life that Nandor Vagh Weinmann has passionately observed and translated through all the places where he has always painted on nature. Nothing stopped him. It happened to him to paint, for example in front of the mill of Linselles by a weather so cold, that nobody could stay outside, and that he did not leave the place before having finished his work. Because he works constantly on the ground, under the sky, in the silence he loves. His reputation is established. He exhibited at the national fair in Budapest, in the big cities of Hungary Szeged, Szombathely, Veszprém, Kaposvar. In 1931, like all artists in the world, he came to France. But unlike the others, he did not settle in Paris. Because Nandor Vagh Weinmann does not belong to this group of cosmopolitans that we call the School of Paris. He settled in Toulouse, where he remained for a long time with his brothers, and traveled throughout France, eager for new ties, exhibiting in the most diverse cities, in Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon, Agen, Bayonne, Dax, Tarbes, Grenoble, Nice, Cannes, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Colmar, Lille. He even crossed borders. He was in Saint Sebastian, in Geneva, and once in Egypt in 1927 where he painted King Fouad...
Category

1930s Expressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

“Evening”
Located in Southampton, NY
Beautifully executed etching on archival paper by the well known American artist, Morris Henry Hobbs. Circa 1935. Condition is excellent. Signed in the lower right margin by the a...
Category

1930s Academic Art

Materials

Etching

Still Life at a Table, Study in Yellow by Artist Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1931 delightful watercolor still life at a table; a study in yellow by artist Harold Haydon. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ont...
Category

1930s American Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Pen

Girl with Cat oil painting by Hans Burkhardt
Located in Hudson, NY
Girl with Cat (1935) Oil on canvas 38" x 26" 42 ½" x 30 ½" x 3 ½" framed Signed and dated "1935 H Burkhardt" lower right. Signed, dated and inscribed verso. About this artist: Hans ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

original linocut
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original linoleum cut. Printed in 1938 for the art revue XXe Siecle (issue number 4). Size: 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches (317 x 248 mm). Not signed. Condition: there are pinholes i...
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Linocut

Matisse, Scène d'intérieur, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Original Vintage 1930s Travel Advertising Poster – Australia For Sun And Surf
Located in London, GB
Original vintage travel advertising poster: Australia For Sun and Surf published by the Australian National Travel Association. Great design by the award winning architect and graphi...
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Paper

On the Sea (På havet, 1911) by Swedish Carl Wilhelmson
Located in Stockholm, SE
The painting På Havet (On the Sea) by Carl Wilhelmson, created in 1911, stands as a remarkable testament to the artist's profound connection with the s...
Category

1910s Modern Art

Materials

Wood Panel, Oil

'Near Locranan, Brittany', Paris, Charlottenborg, Bornholm School, Benezit
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Mogens Hertz' (Danish, 1909-1999) and painted circa 1935. This notable Impressionist first studied with the classically-trained Academician, Laurits Ring and, su...
Category

1930s Impressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Plywood, Canvas

Original 1937 Imperial Airlines Poster - An Ensign Air Liner for Empire Services
Located in London, GB
Original vintage travel poster for Imperial Airways: An Ensign Air Liner for Empire Services 2 decks 200 mph 20 tons featuring a great technical drawing...
Category

1930s Art

Materials

Paper

Untitled (Study of Classical Drapery)
Located in Chicago, IL
A graphite on paper, study of a classical drapery by artist Jan Matulka. The image is drawn on the back of a typewritten, folded sheet of stationery, from Dyer, Hudson & Co., New Yo...
Category

1930s American Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Graphite

'Sailing' — 1930s Modernism, New York City WPA
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Fred Becker, 'Sailing', wood engraving, c. 1935, edition c. 25. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove paper; with full margins (1 to 2 15/16...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Gris, Le Paquet de tabac, Dix Reproductions (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Dix Reproductions, 1933. Published by Editions ...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

La Roche Posay by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro - Landscape watercolour
Located in London, GB
La Roche Posay by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878-1952) Watercolour and pencil on paper 26 x 36.5 cm (10 ¹/₄ x 14 ³/₈ inches) Signed and titled lower left Executed circa 1910 This work ...
Category

1910s Impressionist Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Henri Matisse -- Visage À La Frange
Located in BRUCE, ACT
Henri Matisse Visage À La Frange, 1913 lithograph on japon paper Edition: 34/50 Hand signed with initials and numbered below the image Image size 49.0 x 32.5 cm Frame size 70.0 x 5...
Category

1910s Art

Materials

Lithograph

Composition (Roethel 201), Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Original Limited Edition Woodcut on wove paper. Inscription: Signed in the block, as issued. Edition: 1,200. Excellent condition. Notes: From the volume, XXe Siècle, Paris, N° 5-6, 1...
Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Photography, Drawings, Prints, Sculptures and Paintings for Sale

Whether growing your current fine art collection or taking the first steps on that journey, you will find an extensive range of original photography, drawings, prints, sculptures, paintings and more on 1stDibs.

Visual art is among the oldest forms of expression, and it has been evolving for centuries. Beautiful objects can provide a window to the past or insight into our current time. Art collecting enhances daily life through the presence of meaningful work. It displays an appreciation for culture, whether a print by Elizabeth Catlett channeling social change or a narrative quilt by Faith Ringgold.

Contemporary art has lured more initiates to collecting than almost any other category, with notable artists including Yayoi Kusama, Marc Chagall, Kehinde Wiley and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Navigating the waiting lists for the next Marlene Dumas, Jeff Koons or Jasper Johns has become competitive.

When you’re living with art, particularly as people more often work from home and enjoy their spaces, it’s important to choose art that resonates with you. While the richness of art with its many movements, styles and histories can be overwhelming, the key is to identify what is appealing and inspiring. Artwork can play with the surrounding color of a room, creating a layered approach. The dynamic shapes and sizes of sculptures can set different moods, such as a bronze by Miguel Guía on a mantel or an Alexander Calder mobile suspended over a table. A wall of art can evoke emotions in an interior while showing off your tastes and interests. A salon-style wall mixing eclectic pieces like landscape paintings with charcoal drawings is a unique way to transform a space and show off a collection.

For art meditating on the subconscious, investigate Surrealists like Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. Explore Pop art and its leading artists such as Andy Warhol, Rosalyn Drexler and Keith Haring for bright and bold colors. Not only did these artists question art itself, but also how we perceive society. Similarly, 20th-century photography and abstract painting reconsidered the intent of art.

Abstract Expressionists like Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner and Color Field artists including Sam Gilliam broke from conventional ideas of painting, while Op artists such as Yaacov Agam embraced visual trickery and kinetic movement. Novel visuals are also integral to contemporary work influenced by street art, such as sculptures and prints by KAWS.

Realist portraiture is a global tradition reflecting on what makes us human. This is reflected in the work of Slim Aarons, an American photographer whose images are at once candid and polished and appeared in Holiday magazine and elsewhere. Innovative artists Mickalene Thomas and Kerry James Marshall are now offering new perspectives on the form.

Collecting art is a rewarding, lifelong pursuit that can help connect you with the creative ways historic, modern and contemporary artists have engaged with the world. For more tips on piecing together an art collection, see our guide to buying and displaying art.

A variety of authentic art is available on 1stDibs. Explore art at auction and the 1stDibs NFT art marketplace, too. 

Recently Viewed

View All