Mid-20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) signed original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 11 x 16 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal fo...

WILLIAM BAZIOTES Untitled Abstract Expressionist Mid Century Modern ink drawing with Estate COA, ca. 1955 Ink Drawing on Paper Signed lower right recto. Accompanied by letter of aut...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ...

Pioneering female abstract artist Elsie Driggs paints stylized abstract organic forms in a warm palette of orange browns and tope. She merges abstraction with some figuration. A structured face composed of lines and tone emerges from an orange background. It's 1939, and even though Driggs is not well known, she is preceding many of the marquee names of abstraction by a decade. Although under the radar, this is a major work and is titled on the back stretcher is " Egyptian Gothic." It features the artist's inventiveness with her fine pencil lines incorporated in flat washes of color and collage elements. Signed lower right and inscribed on frame verso with title, artist and the date of 1939. Provenance, Christie's, Freemans. Framed under glass.. Elsie Driggs (1898 – July 12, 1992 in New York City) was an American painter known for her contributions to Precisionism, America's one indigenous modern-art movement before Abstract Expressionism, and for her later floral and figurative watercolors, pastels, and oils. She was the only female participant in the Precisionist movement, which in the 1920s and 1930s took a Cubist-inspired approach to painting the skyscrapers and factories that had come to define the new American landscape. Her works are in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the James A. Michener Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and the Columbus Museum of Art, among others. She was married to the American abstract artist Lee Gatch. Career Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Driggs grew up in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, in a family that was supportive of her artistic interests. After a summer spent painting with her sister in New Mexico in her late teens, she felt she had found her life's calling. At twenty, she enrolled in classes at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied under George Luks and Maurice Sterne, both of whom were charismatic, inspirational figures in her early life. She also attended the evening criticism classes held at the home of painter John Sloan. Driggs spent fourteen months in Europe from late 1922 to early 1924, drawing and studying Italian art. There she met Leo Stein, first in Paris and later in Florence, who became an important intellectual influence, and who urged her to study Cézanne. He also introduced her to the works of Piero della Francesca, the Renaissance artist for whom she felt throughout her life the greatest admiration.[1] Driggs eventually settled in New York City, where she found representation with the progressive Charles Daniel Gallery.[2] (Advised that the old-fashioned and misogynistic Daniel would be unlikely to take on a woman artist, she signed the works she left for his consideration simply "Driggs" and waited to meet him in person until he had expressed his eagerness to include her in his gallery.)[3] In sympathy with those artists Daniel represented who were part of the burgeoning Precisionist movement, such as Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, George Ault, Niles Spencer, and Preston Dickinson, she too painted "the modern landscape of factories, bridges, and skyscrapers with geometric precision and almost abstract spareness."Impressionism and academic or Ashcan realism represented the past, in Driggs' view, and she intended to be resolutely modern. She was an attractive and engaging woman, but her demeanor belied a strong ambition and a clear sense of what it would take to make her mark in the New York art world. Driggs was part of the pre-eminent first group of Precisionist painters, including Demuth and Sheeler, who exhibited at the Daniel Gallery in the 1920s. Although a later group of Precisionist painters, including Louis Lozowick, Ralston Crawford and others, came on the American Art scene during the 1930s, Driggs felt that the style came to an end with the 1929 stock market crash.[5] In 1926 she painted her most famous work, Pittsburgh, a dark and brooding picture now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which depicts the gargantuan smokestacks of the Jones & Laughlin steel mills in Pittsburgh. Its focus is an overpowering mass of black and gray smokestacks, thick piping, and crisscrossing wires with only clouds of smoke to relieve the severity of the image, yet it was an image in which she found an ironic beauty. She called the picture "my El Greco" and expressed surprise that viewers in later years interpreted the painting as a work of social criticism. Like the other Precisionists (e.g., Demuth, Charles Sheeler, Louis Lozowick, Stefan Hirsch), she was concerned with applying modernist techniques to renderings of the new industrial and urban landscape, not in commenting on potential dangers the overly mechanized modern world of 1920s America might present. If anything, Precisionism, like Futurism, was a celebration of man-made energy and technology. One year later, she painted Blast Furnaces, in a similar vein. As noted above, Piero della Francesca's mural depicting "The Story of the True Cross" in Arezzo, with its tubular, static and frozen forms was the major influence on Driggs' "Pittsburgh" (it may have been the major influence for "Blast Furnaces" as well).[7] After Pittsburgh, Driggs' most acclaimed work was probably Queensborough Bridge...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Ramstonev Co-operative Project (1937 - 1939) In the late 1930s, Charles Ramsey became close friends with Charles Evans and ...

Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Untitled (Landscape 2), 1968 Ink on paper. 30 × 28 inches. Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and...

"Two Crosses" is a gouache on paper by Alexander Calder. The work is signed in the lower right, "Calder 65”. Although renowned for his innovative and groundbreaking sculptures, Alexander Calder started his artistic career as an abstract painter, preferring to use gouache. What is gouache? Gouache is a water-soluble paint – a type of opaque watercolor. As Calder returned to gouache painting towards the end of his life, he was now armed with a lifetime of experience as a sculptor. He explored the three-dimensional vocabulary of sculptural forms he had developed onto the two-dimensional surface of the paper. Certain shapes and colors recur throughout his gouaches and sculptures. Circles, ovals, and other geometric forms dominate the space. There is the same sense of energy and fluidity. The shapes do not sit on the surface but vibrate giving a feeling of movement in contrast to the static nature of painting. Like his sculpture, Calder’s gouache...

Venice is an original modern artwork realized by Zoran Mušic in 1959. Mixed colored pastel drawing. Includes frame. Hand signed and dated on the lower m...

Dorothea Tanning (American, 1910–2012) Initially associated with the Surrealist movement, Dorothea Tanning developed a personal visual language that blurred the boundaries between r...

Framed 33 X 45.5 image is 29 X 41.5 Hand signed lower left Signed and titled verso Sylvia Carewe (1906-1981) was an American woman artist, painter, writer and poet. Born in New York...

Sam Francis Untitled (SF64-121) 1964 Gouache and oil on paper 69.9 x 104.4 cms (27 1/2 x 41 1/8 ins) SF14605 Exhibited: New York, 'Chamberlain/Francis', Van Doren Waxter, July 11- ...

'Raining in Formosa on the Tamsui River' by Taiwanese artist, Ran In-Ting (Lan Yinding, 藍蔭鼎) (1956-59). Although elements of landscapes often appear in paintings produced by various cultures, before the 17th century in the West they were only peripheral. In 5th century China, shan shui or landscape painting developed, expressing harmony and natural beauty. These were among the first paintings to make landscape their subject (ref: 'The Short Story of Art...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Burgoyne Diller (1906 – 1965). Born in New York City in 1906, Burgoyne Diller began drawing when he was stri...

A drawing by Richard Diebenkorn. This Untitled work from the Urbana Series is an ink of paper, abstract drawing by Post War, Bay Area Figurat...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 15. x 21.5 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal for an...

A fine and delicate, watercolor landscape showing a view of the rural Philippines by this celebrated Philippine Modernist. Signed, lower right, in graphite, 'Romeo V Tabuena' for Rom...

Diana Kurz Green Square #19 Gouache on paper 25 x 19 inches Diana Kurz (born 1936) is an Austrian-born feminist painter. In 1938, Diana Kurz's family fled Austria, first to England...

Drawing on paper without frame Size A4

Sam Francis Untitled (#2 Pri-Rain) (SF64-592) 1964 Gouache on paper 57.2 x 75.6 cms (22 1/2 x 29 3/4 ins) Frame size: 82.9 x 103.2 cms (32 5/8 x 40 5/8 ins) SF14652 $300,000 Exhibit...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Burgoyne Diller (1906-1965) Recognized as the first American painter to embrace the tenets of Neo-Plasticism, Burgoyne Dill...

A semi-abstracted study of a Tuscan townscape with warm terra-cotta roofs and stucco hues of saffron and crimson. Signed lower right, 'D. Masters' for Dora Masters (American, 1916-...

Signed upper left, 'Gilberg' for Robert George Gilberg (American, 1911-1970) and painted circa 1948. A substantial, mid-century watercolor abstract comprising interrelated geometric...

Marbled French abstract aquatint of flowing motion, 1963. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archival plastic sleeve and Cert...

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1967. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth's paintings and mixed-media ...

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1966. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth's paintings and mixed-media ...

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1966. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth Ames Swarts's paintings and m...

A Dynamic, Avant-Garde, Mid-Century Modern Abstract Female Figure Study by Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A striking, black & white figural studio ink drawing on paper depicting an...

WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES Signed original brush and ink on wove paper, circa 1950. WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES is an original watercolor brush and ink on paper, hand signed in ink pen by African-American artist, teacher, and printmaker Ronald Joseph (1910--1992) Artwork depicts an abstract landscape, is in good condition, paper tape remaining on reverse side edges, mounted in an archival acid-free mat, unframed. Artwork paper size - 18 x 21.5 in. Year created - c. 1950 About the artist - Ronald Joseph (1910 -1992) was born on the island of St. Kitts, West Indies In 1910. When he was very young, his mother decided to move to the United States but she could not afford to take him with her. Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Joseph, a childless couple who were friends of Joseph’s mother, adopted him. Afterwards, the Joseph family moved to the Island of Dominica, where they stayed for ten years. In 1921, his foster parents also decided to come to the United States. In New York, Joseph met his mother but remained living with his foster parents. In 1926 Ronald Joseph received a scholarship for the Ethical Culture School, were he spent two and half years of his high school period. At this time he obtained an art scholarship through Dr. Henry Fritz, with whom he became acquainted through his art teacher in public school. Joseph was taken into the Saturday art class, where he was the only black participant. An artistic prodigy, Ronald Joseph had his student works shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ronald Joseph graduated from Ethical Culture Fieldston School in 1929. He was honored as “the most promising” young artist in New York City’s schools. He began his study at Pratt Institute in 1931 and graduated in 1934. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph participated in many exhibitions of African-American art, the Works Progress Administration mural project, and the Harlem Artists Guild. Ronald Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the declaration of World War II and was posted as a member of the ground crew in Tuskegee, Alabama, and in Michigan. At the end of the war in 1945, he received his G. I. Bill of Rights scholarship. In 1948, he was presented with the Rosenwald Fellowship. The funds allowed him to live and work abroad – first in Peru for two years, then in Paris. Joseph used the G.I. bill to study in Paris at the Grande Chaumière. He described this period of his life as being “independent of economy”. His work from these travels is largely undocumented; according to Rosenwald scholar, Daniel Schulman, many pieces of art are undated or simply dated “1948-1952”. After this period he came back to New York without money and work and indicated this as period of hardship. Ronald Joseph left the U.S. in 1956, disappointed in the unreceptiveness of the art world to his work with mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he felt guilty for having left the U.S. during a period when blacks were struggling for their civil rights; on the other, he felt “lucky” to have been able to live and work in place where he did not feel discrimination as intensely. He emigrated to Belgium and later settled permanently in Brussels. Ronald Joseph was married to Claire Joseph and they had a son, Robin Joseph. In 1989 Joseph returned to the United States after an absence of thirty-three years to attend the Lehman College exhibition and symposium and to renew his old friendships. Afterward, he returned to Brussels where he continued to work as a painter, living there for the remainder of his life. Ronald Joseph started his artistic career in Harlem, New York City at the Harlem Community Arts Center, where he was one of the youngest pupils. Joseph studied lithography and other printmaking techniques with Riva Helfond, who taught him many aspects of the process based on simple techniques, including how to operate the press, and how to prepare the stones. Helfond played a significant role as a teacher of lithography at the Harlem Art Center. Joseph produced his first lithographs under her supervision, and this was at a time when she was just beginning to learn the medium herself. At the Harlem Community Arts Center Joseph met Robert Blackburn, who was his classmate. In 1937 Ronald Joseph depicted Blackburn, in one of his most famous works, that is now located at The Metropolitan Museum collection. Experimenting with lithography and etching, as well as woodblock and silkscreen printing, Joseph explored the techniques of printmaking alongside his friend Robert Blackburn. Joseph described the Harlem Art Center as a “healthy and lively” place, where he had made wonderful friends. In the late thirties, he also served as a teacher at the Harlem Community Arts Center. There Joseph met younger artist Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. They formed a friendship, where they enjoyed conversations and visiting museums together. Both Joseph and Knight would hire Lawrence to pose for them. Jacob Lawrence considered Ronald Joseph to be a very intellectual artist. In the 1930s, Joseph became chairman of the Harlem Artists Guild and represented it in Washington with Stuart Davis and Hugo Gellert. Ronald Joseph was also a participant in the mural section of WPA and a representative of the Harlem Artists’ Guild to the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Joseph’s early oil paintings were influenced by Picasso, Braque and other European artists while most of his contemporaries focused on social realism. By 1943, he was hailed by art historian James Porter as New York’s “foremost Negro abstractionist painter”. His pastels and gouaches from the late forties and early fifties showed a highly structured abstraction combined with a studied spontaneity. Ronald Joseph’s finely tuned abstractions often incorporated representational elements along with apparently “purer” forms. He described this aspect of his work in these terms: “It’s not abstract and abstract at the same time. It’s pure creation.” His works from the 1950s employed both still life and landscape as pretexts for masterly exercises in nearly abstract pictorial construction related to cubism and fauvism. During World War II, Joseph was drafted. After the war he formed “a kind of a group” with Robert Blackburn, Charles White, Larry Potter, and Reginald Gammon...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 13.5 x 16.25 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal for...

'Evening Landscape' by Robert George Gilberg. Bay Area Abstraction, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, California Watercolor Society ----- Signed ...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 13 x 11 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal for an un...

Signed lower right, 'T.G.M. Guise' for Thomas Gladstone Middleton Guise (Scottish, 1916-1984) and dated 1963; titled verso, 'Birdwalk'. Thomas Guise studied art at Edinburgh College...

Signed lower right, 'T.G.M. Guise' for Thomas Gladstone Middleton Guise (Scottish, 1916-1984) and dated 1966. Thomas Guise studied art at Edinburgh College of Art under Thomson Adam...

Louis Wolchonok, 'Rockport Harbor', gouache, c. 1950. Signed in ink, lower right. A fine, modernist work, with fresh colors, on cream wove drawing pape...

Oil Pastel on paper realized in 1969. Hand signed and dated in pencil lower right. Hand dedicated, signed and dated (1971) on rear. Includes a wooden frame cm. 43.5x52.  Very goo...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) signed original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 10.75 x 15 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) signed original watercolour painting on artistic paper, unframed size: 10 x 14 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is ...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 10.5 x 13.75 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal for ...

This work is registered as an authentic work by Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) in the archives of the Calder Foundation (NY), under application number A.24492.  Created in 1967, this original pen and red ink drawing on paper is initialed ‘CA’ in blue ink in the lower right by Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) with a handwritten dedication, also in blue ink, ‘To Alvin Lane’ along the lower center. The Sketch for ‘The X & Its Tails’ is an original study and preliminary drawing made by Calder preceding his large-scale sculpture for the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Sketches for models and sculptures are rare and this is no exception; according to Alvin S. Lane, collector and friend to Calder, “To the best of my knowledge there were very few, if any, preliminary drawings done by Calder that were on the market, but he was good enough when he did two for commissions to send the drawings to me as a present [including this Sketch for ‘The X & Its Tails’].  I included one of them here to show that although his drawings usually have a flowing steady line, his preliminary drawings are sloppy scribbles” (23). Provenance: ~       Gift of artist ~       Private Collection (Riverdale, NJ) Catalogue Raisonné and COA: Sketch for 'The X & Its Tails,' 1967 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work). 1. Registered with the Calder Foundation, NY under application number A.24492. 2. Elvehjem Museum of Art. The Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection...

Watercolor on heavy paper work is unframed Signed by artist in pencil, lower right verso. Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso. ...

Stunning modernist avant-garde figurative abstract pastel in deep royal blue, with red and yellow accents by Henry Elinson (Californian/Russian 1935-2010), 1996. Signed and dated "H....

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ...

Mary Abbott (1921-2019) Untitled, 2005 Oil and watercolor on paper Artwork: 5 x 7 in. l 13 x 18 cm Framed: 10 x 12 in. l 25 x 30 cm Signed lower right Exposition: '9 Women, 20th Cen...

Wonderful abstract expressionist drawing in shades and tones of grays and black by John Haley (American, 1905-1991), c.1956-7. Signed lower left corner. Presented in 3" mat. Condition: Very good: some edge wear consistent with age. Image size: 25"H x 19"W. A feature of the artwork of John Charles...

Untitled Collage and crayon drawing, 1967 Signed and dated lower center (see photo) Condition: Small imperfections from the creative process Small tear on the left sheet edge (repai...

Harbor Party by John von Wicht, German (1888–1970) Date: circa 1965 Gouache and Pastel on Japon, signed in pencil lower right Size: 15.5 x 23 in. (39.37 x 58.42 cm) Frame Size: 22 x ...

Provenance: Darthea Speyer, Paris. backing 12 X 17 image 8.5 X 11.5 John Levee (1924 - 2017) was an American modern art abstract expressionist painter who had worked in Paris since ...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 14.75 x 21 inches condition: Fair, minor wear to the edges as is normal for an unframed wo...

Abstract watercolor composition bearing the influence of the earlier color-block compositions of Paul Klee. Pawel August Kontny, (Polish-German-American artist) He was born in Laurahuette, Poland, in 1923, the son of a wealthy pastry shop owner. In 1939 he began studying architecture in Breslau where he was introduced to the European masters and to the work of some of the German Expressionists, soon afterward banned as "degenerate artists" and removed from museums throughout Germany by the Nazi regime. His studies were interrupted by World War II. Drafted into the German army, traveling in many countries as a soldier, he sketched various landscapes but in 1945, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Italy. After the war, he studied at the Union of Nuremberg Architects to help design buildings to replace ones destroyed in the war. He recorded his impressions of the local population and the landscapes through his watercolors and drawings. Pawel Kontny thereafter moved to Nuremberg, Germany, becoming a member of the Union of Nuremberg Architects and helping to rebuild the city's historic center. He soon decided to concentrate on his professional art career. He married Irmgard Laurer, a dancer with the Nuremberg Opera. Pavel Kontny 's career as an artist was launched with his participation in an all German exhibition, held at the Dusseldorf Museum in 1952. He held one-man shows in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. During his trip to the United States in 1960, Kontny became instantly enamored with Colorado, and decided to relocate to Cherry Hills with his wife and two children. He quickly established himself in the local art community, being affiliated for a time with Denver Art Galleries and Saks Galleries. His subject matter became the Southwest. During this time he received the Prestigious Gold Medal of the Art Academy of Rome. His extensive travel provided material for the paintings he did using his hallmark marble dust technique. he also worked equally in pastel, watercolor, charcoal and pencil-and-ink. in a style which merged abstraction and realist styles, influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and South Western American landscapes. In the early 1960s he was one of only a few European-born professional artists in the state, a select group that included Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), a member of the prewar Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany, and Roland Detre...

Sonia Gechtoff Flag Icon, 1963 Pastel, graphite and collage Frame included: elegantly framed in hand made wood frame with UV plexiglass Evocative mixed media mid century modern work...

Here for your consideration is a well executed original watercolor and gouache abstract on archival paper by the New Hope, Pennsylvania artist, Lloyd Ney. Ney was considered to be a...

Here for your consideration is a original and vibrant watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil D. Crisp in lower right margin and dated Oct 6, 1967 in pencil in lower left margin. Condition is excellent. The artwork is framed in a one and a half inch narrow matte black frame with off white matte. Overall framed measurements are 12 by 10 inches. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Edward Darrell Crisp was a California painter...

Original watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil lower right margin. Dated in pencil lower left m...

Robert Andrew Parker Mid Century "Abstraction" Original Watercolor C.1960 Watercolor dimensions 24" wide x 16" high The frame measures 30.5" wide ...

Artist: Beatrice Rubel (aka Betty Abbott) Title: Blue Symphony Year: circa 1948 Medium: Pastel on paper, signed verso Size: 12 in. x 18 in. (30.48 cm x 45.72 cm) Frame Size: 19.5 x 2...

Drawing on paper without frame Size A4

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on thick board unframed: 8 x 8 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have fo...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Burgoyne Diller (1906 – 1965). Born in New York City in 1906, Burgoyne Diller began drawing when he was stri...

Artist: Claude Lagouche (French 1943-2020) Claude Lagouche was born January 2, 1943 in Naves, died January 16, 2020. He quickly gained recognition for his talent and his work, exh...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 10 inches condition: excellent prov...