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Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

ABSTRACT STYLE

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Abstract
Color:  Beige
#7- intricate beige 3D abstract aerial landscape drawing with pulled paper fiber
Located in New York, NY
Finesse and delicateness are what best characterize Antonin Anzil’s artistic practice. Using a sharp tool to carefully pull the fiber of the paper from the front, the artist gives bi...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

Duo Triptych 02 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
Duo Triptych 02 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflectiv...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Set of 6 drawings from the "Artists & Architects”, series.
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Set of 6 drawings from the "Artists & Architects”, series. 2022 by Rodrigo Spinel (Framed) Gliceé printed on Hahnemule Fiber Matt paper, intervene...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Color

Emotional Color Chart 153 (Abstract painting)
Located in London, GB
Emotional Color Chart 153 (Abstract painting) Acrylic on Fabriano-Terra paper - Unframed. This series, started in 2016 conveys a color and emotional language and is inspired by the series Color as Adjective, a series of drawings...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Drawing For 3 Horizontal Configurations 9 (Abstract painting)
Located in London, GB
Drawing For 3 Horizontal Configurations 9 (Abstract painting) Acrylic on Fabriano-Terra paper - Unframed. "This work is part of a series titled ""Drawing for 3 configurations', emp...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

C Zone 08 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
C Zone 08 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflective of n...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Minoan Stories 6 (Abstract painting)
Located in London, GB
Minoan Stories 6 - (Abstract painting) Oil pastel and acrylic on hot press paper - Framed Artwork framed, dimensions incl framing: 64 x 82 cm / 25.1 x 32.2 in ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Acrylic

Abstract painting listed artist Royal Society Arts Pink Purple Yellow Green
Located in Norfolk, GB
Anthony Benjamin, 'Untitled', watercolour and acrylic on paper, image size 20 x 26cm, framed size, 33 cm x 40 cm, signed and dated 2000 Provenance: From the Artist Estate A Gallery Certificate accompanies the painting Anthony Benjamin was a 20th Century abstract precisionist artist. Born in London in 1931 he was active throughout the second half of the 20th century. Experimental, hugely talented and obsessive, Benjamin moved fluidly between mediums and refused to be tied to any practise. He trained with the best, amongst others with Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris and was recognised by the Royal Society of the Arts, his pier group and leading Galleries and Institutions who displayed and collected his work. Anthony Benjamin was also daring. At at time when the art-world was fixated with the St Ives Group of artists, Benjamin, who was part of this group, chose to leave. Although adept at making St Ives abstractionism it did not sit naturally with him. He did not see value in its art. Instead he sought to replicate abstraction in nature and was inspired by others who had also mastered this craft such as the Composer Brian Eno, with whom he later collaborated with and the Gnawa musicians of Morocco. A trained engineering draughtsman, Benjamin's formally perfect artworks are always infused with an air of technical experimentation and a poetic response to the natural world. The artist was inspired by pattern and obsessed with process. He was a sculptor, printmaker, painter, draughtsman and used collage, canvas, brass, perspex, steel, paper and anything that inspired him. Throughout his career, Benjamin made monumental paintings. In the studio he thought, pondered and considered every move. It was during these periods of contemplation that he would make warm up paintings that were beautifully loose, almost the antithesis in process to his large works. However it was in these smaller watercolour paintings...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Watercolor

Soft Light S 03 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
Soft Light S 03 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of n...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

C Zone 09 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
C Zone 09 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflective of n...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

#8- intricate beige 3D abstract aerial landscape drawing with pulled paper fiber
Located in New York, NY
Finesse and delicateness are what best characterize Antonin Anzil’s artistic practice. Using a sharp tool to carefully pull the fiber of the paper from the front, the artist gives bi...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

Mid Century Abstract Vertical Sunset
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract watercolor fragment of a sunset over a field by Irene Pattinson (American, 20th Century). Tag on verso reads "Miller Fine Art / The Estate of Irene Pattinson". Unsigned. Acq...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Tissue Paper

Perch (Abstract Expressionism painting)
Located in London, GB
Perch (Abstract Expressionism painting) Acrylic and mixed media on paper - Unframed Work will be shipped rolled in a tube. Werfel emp...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Untitled, Kirsten Hawthorne
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Kirsten Hawthorne received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she lives and works in New York City. Hawthorne is a master oil pastellist creating works on p...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Graphite

Strip Nature - Drawing by Contempologyc E.M. - 2020
Located in Roma, IT
Strip nature Mixture of tempera on paper. Made by the Italian artist Contempologyc in 2020. Excellent condition.
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Tempera

Shape 42 (2019) - Abstract shape, work on paper, nonobjective art, minimalist
Located in Jersey City, NJ
Shape 42 (2019) by Ryan Park of Shapes Only Abstract geometric art, acrylic on 300gsm archival paper. Abstract shape innovated by the artist. Framing a...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Kenneth Rowntree: 'Abstract Australian Landscape' watercolour Modern British Art
By Kenneth Rowntree
Located in London, GB
Kenneth Rowntree Abstract Australian Landscape Watercolour 27.5 x 33cm Signed (top left) and dated ‘Kenneth Rowntree ’85’ Provenance: Anderson & Garland Studio sale of Kenneth Rowntree lot 263 Tuesday 8 September 2009 For biographical details and other works by Rowntree click here. Rowntree visited Australia in 1984/85. In this painting he picks up various vignettes from the Australian landscape in six separate blocks. Two relate to the sky, with almost-unbroken blue skies stretching from horizon to horizon, three relate to desert areas, with a whole array of different textures, and one is a luscious green. In one of the desert scenes he has picked out two road signs, in typical Rowntree fashion, reducing them to their simplest form. In her essay Kenneth Rowntree: A Strange Simplicity (published in Kenneth Rowntree A Centenary Exhibition Published by Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, on behalf of the artist’s estate, on the occasion of the centenary of Kenneth Rowntree’s birth) Alexandra Harris makes reference to this painting noting: "Later, in 1986, just when the young David Hockney was collaging the signs and road-markings of Route 138 in Pearblossom Highway, Rowntree was in Australia painting yellow diamond-shaped road-signs as bright icons in open country. Wherever he went, Rowntree captured both the unfamiliarity of places and their relationship to things he knew. Heading into the Australian outback, he painted a road-sign as he would paint a rail signal at Clare in Suffolk or nautical markers at Swansea." Hockney’s 1986 Pearblossom Highway may be seen in the Getty and it is worth noting that Rowntree was in fact painting the yellow sign in 1985, so a year before Hockney. Kenneth Rowntree (1915-1997) Rowntree was born in Scarborough and educated in York where his father managed the local department store. Young Kenneth’s work was displayed there and his first major commission arose from an advertisement at the store. After the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford he studied at the Slade School, meeting Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden and then moving to north Essex to work with them as members of the group of Great Bardfield Artists. Between 1940 and 1943 he was one of the team of over 60 artists engaged by the War Artists Advisory Committee for the ‘Recording Britain’ project, to record the face of England and Wales before wartime action – or development – changed it for ever. Rowntree’s keen sense of design, and fascination with the quirky and the vernacular made him an ideal candidate to interpret our built heritage’s more unusual aspects. In 1951 he painted murals in the Lion and Unicorn pavilion for the Festival of Britain, he decorated the route of the Queen’s Coronation procession (some of the works being acquired by Her Majesty). During a teaching job at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford he was driven, perhaps by his experiences recording Britain, to record the decorated barges that belonged to the Oxford Colleges. These wooden Victorian ceremonial barges had belonged to the London livery companies, but were acquired in their later life by the Colleges to be used as changing rooms and clubhouses for the College boat clubs – depending on the size of the barge rowing eights were stored on board too. Part way through painting one of them Rowntree thought his drawing incorrect until he realised that it was the boat that was moving. It was in fact sinking. These days the Colleges have modern (but unromantic) boat houses; a handful of the barges remain – restored – in private hands. In 1959 he was appointed Professor of Fine Art at King’s College, Newcastle (latterly part of the University), which as British art schools went was one of the most progressive. The Master of Painting was the abstract constructionist Victor Passmore...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Aparejo #1, Gliceé . Abstract painting on canvas
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Aparejo #1 Gliceé print and Chinese ink on canvas Hahnemule photo canvas 320gr. Image size: 100 cm H x 70 cm W x 0.3 cm D. Frame size: 102 cm H x 72 cm W x 4 cm D. Natural ivory wo...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Canvas, Ink, Giclée

Abstract painting listed artist Royal Society Arts Green Blue Yellow Red Africa
Located in Norfolk, GB
Anthony Benjamin, 'Untitled', watercolour and acrylic on paper, image size 24cm x 31cm, framed size, 37.5cm x 44cm, signed and dated 2001 Provenance: From the Artist Estate A Gallery Certificate accompanies the painting Anthony Benjamin was a 20th Century abstract precisionist artist. Born in London in 1931 he was active throughout the second half of the 20th century. Experimental, hugely talented and obsessive, Benjamin moved fluidly between mediums and refused to be tied to any practise. He trained with the best, amongst others with Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris and was recognised by the Royal Society of the Arts, his pier group and leading Galleries and Institutions who displayed and collected his work. Anthony Benjamin was also daring. At at time when the art-world was fixated with the St Ives Group of artists, Benjamin, who was part of this group, chose to leave. Although adept at making St Ives abstractionism it did not sit naturally with him. He did not see value in its art. Instead he sought to replicate abstraction in nature and was inspired by others who had also mastered this craft such as the Composer Brian Eno, who he later collaborated with and Gnawa musicians of Morocco. A trained engineering draughtsmanship, Benjamins formally perfect artworks are always infused with an air of technical experimentation and a poetic response to the natural world. The artist was inspired by pattern and obsessed with process. He was a sculptor, printmaker, painter, draughtsman and used collage, canvas, brass, perspex, steel, paper and anything that inspired him. Throughout his career, Benjamin made monumental paintings. In the studio he thought, pondered and considered every move. It was during these periods of contemplation that he would make warm up paintings that were beautifully loose and almost the antithesis in process to his large works. However it was in these smaller watercolour paintings...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Watercolor

Zen- Original Drawing by Contempologyc E.M. - 2020
Located in Roma, IT
Zen Mixture of tempera on pape. Made by the Italian artist contempologyc in 2020. Excellent condition.
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Tempera

American Modernist Abstract Mining Scene Watercolor Painting, Red Green Brown
By Frank Pancho Gates
Located in Denver, CO
1935 American Modernist watercolor on paper by Frank "Pancho" Gates (1904-1998). An abstract scene of a mining town in the mountains, completed in colors of red, green, yellow, and black. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, outside dimensions measure 14 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches. Image size measures 8 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches. Painting is clean and in good condition, has had restoration work - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: A Colorado modernist artist and theater set designer, he grew up in Edgewater, Colorado, near the Manhattan Beach Theater and the winter quarters of the Denver Post’s Sells-Floto Circus which he frequented as a youngster. These two places introduced him early on to the theater. Additionally, his father toured the United States in a wire walking act with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Gates began his association with the theater in 1919 when just out of high school. He initially worked with scenic artist, Jack Stein, at the old Tabor Theater in the Tabor Grand Opera House (demolished in 1964) in downtown Denver. Soon after that, he became an assistant scenic artist to George Bradford Ashworth, a famous New York stage set designer, who during the summer designed sets for the Elitch Gardens Theater in northwest Denver. Gates later produced the sets there until 1928. He was offered a scholarship to Colorado A & M College (now Colorado State University) in Fort Collins but declined because of his growing commitment to the theater. He followed his tenure at Elitch’s with positions at the Denham Theater in Denver and the Palm Theater in Pueblo. Upon returning to Denver, he became a free-lance artist for studios producing scenery for stage shows at the city’s Tabor, Denver, Paramount, Alladin, Rivoli, Broadway, Orpheum and Empress Theaters. He moved to California, perfecting his craft at the Pasadena Playhouse, a training school for young actors and actresses pursuing stardom in the movies. Later associated with the Technicolor Corporation, he helped to produce the film used in early color movies such as Becky Sharp (1935) and the Garden of Allah...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Untitled, Kirsten Hawthorne
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Kirsten Hawthorne received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she lives and works in New York City. Hawthorne is a master oil pastellist creating works on p...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Graphite

1950s Abstract Expressionist Watercolor Composition by Charles Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Abstract expressionist watercolor painting of blue, black, orange, and green signed by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968). Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials an...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

Abstract Cityscape Mid 20th Century Modern Cubist Work on Paper Drawing Ariel
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Cityscape Mid 20th Century Modern Cubist Work on Paper Drawing Ariel 11 x 4 1/2 inches. Framed by Heydenryk. Provenance: Gary Snyder Fine Art B...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Tango (Abstract painting)
Located in London, GB
Tango (Abstract painting) Ink and acrylic on Wasli paper - Unframed. Laura Newman's paintings combine geometric delineations of space, ephemeral color fields, dynamic...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic

Tango (Abstract painting)
Located in London, GB
Tango (Abstract painting) Ink and acrylic on Wasli paper - Unframed. Laura Newman's paintings combine geometric delineations of space, ephemeral color fields, dynamic...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic

Brown and baby blue Abstract Geometric Watercolor/Acrylic small painting
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Baby Blue and brown geometric square and rectangle abstract artwork. Canvas shadow box frame.
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic

Simon Lewty, Visions of a non-resident
Located in Harkstead, GB
An extraordinary work from an extraordinary mind expressed through unique imagery, poetry and calligraphy. Simon Lewty (1941-2021) Visions of a non-resident Signed and dated 1988 an...
Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Crayon, Ink, Acrylic, Tissue Paper

Windswept (Abstract Expressionism painting)
Located in London, GB
Windswept (Abstract Expressionism painting) Acrylic and mixed media on paper - Unframed. Werfel employs expressive, lyrical gestures ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic

MARKINGS SKETCH #2
Located in Detroit, MI
Oil Pastel on Paper, Framed
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel

1950s Abstract Composition in Brown, Orange and Blue with Black Parallel Lines
Located in Denver, CO
Watercolor and ink on paper of an abstract composition of brown, orange and blue shapes between black parallel lines throughout the the piece by Herbert Bayer (1900-1985). Presented in a custom black frame with all archival materials. Framed dimensions measure 17 ⅞ x 22 ⅝ x 1 inches. Image size is 10 ¼ x 15 ½ inches. Painting is clean and in very good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Herbert Bayer enjoyed a versatile sixty-year career spanning Europe and America that included abstract and surrealist painting, sculpture, environmental art, industrial design, architecture, murals, graphic design, lithography, photography and tapestry. He was one of the few “total artists” of the twentieth century, producing works that “expressed the needs of an industrial age as well as mirroring the advanced tendencies of the avant-garde.” One of four children of a tax revenue officer growing up in a village in the Austrian Salzkammergut Lake region, Bayer developed a love of nature and a life-long attachment to the mountains. A devotee of the Vienna Secession and the Vienna Workshops (Wiener Werkstätte) whose style influenced Bauhaus craftsmen in the 1920s, his dream of studying at the Academy of Art in Vienna was dashed at age seventeen by his father’s premature death. In 1919 Bayer began an apprenticeship with architect and designer, Georg Schmidthamer, where he produced his first typographic works. Later that same year he moved to Darmstadt, Germany, to work at the Mathildenhöhe Artists’ Colony with architect Emanuel Josef Margold of the Viennese School. As his working apprentice, Bayer first learned about the design of packages – something entirely new at the time – as well as the design of interiors and graphics of a decorative expressionist style, all of which later figured in his professional career. While at Darmstadt, he came across Wassily Kandinsky’s book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and learned of the new art school, the Weimar Bauhaus, in which he enrolled in 1921. He initially attended Johannes Itten’s preliminary course, followed by Wassily Kandinsky’s workshop on mural painting. Bayer later recalled, “The early years at the Bauhaus in Weimar became the formative experience of my subsequent work.” Following graduation in 1925, he was appointed head of the newly-created workshop for print and advertising at the Dessau Bauhaus that also produced the school’s own print works. During this time he designed the “Universal” typeface emphasizing legibility by removing the ornaments from letterforms (serifs). Three years later he left the Bauhaus to focus more on his own artwork, moving to Berlin where he worked as a graphic designer in advertising and as an artistic director of the Dorland Studio advertising agency. (Forty years later he designed a vast traveling exhibition, catalog and poster -- 50 Jahre Bauhaus -- shown in Germany, South America, Japan, Canada and the United States.) In pre-World War II Berlin he also pursued the design of exhibitions, painting, photography and photomontage, and was art director of Vogue magazine in Paris. On account of his previous association with the Bauhaus, the German Nazis removed his paintings from German museums and included him among the artists in a large exhibition entitled Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) that toured German and Austrian museums in 1937. His inclusion in that exhibition and the worsening political conditions in Nazi Germany prompted him to travel to New York that year with Marcel Breuer, meeting with former Bauhaus colleagues, Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy to explore the possibilities of employment after immigration to the United States. In 1938 Bayer permanently relocated to the United States, settling in New York where he had a long and distinguished career in practically every aspect of the graphic arts, working for drug companies, magazines, department stores, and industrial corporations. In 1938 he arranged the exhibition, “Bauhaus 1919-1928” at the Museum of Modern Art, followed later by “Road to Victory” (1942, directed by Edward Steichen), “Airways to Peace” (1943) and “Art in Progress” (1944). Bayer’s designs for “Modern Art in Advertising” (1945), an exhibition of the Container Corporation of America (CAA) at the Art Institute of Chicago, earned him the support and friendship of Walter Paepcke, the corporation’s president and chairman of the board. Paepcke, whose embrace of modern currents and design changed the look of American advertising and industry, hired him to move to Aspen, Colorado, in 1946 as a design consultant transforming the moribund mountain town into a ski resort and a cultural center. Over the next twenty-eight years he became an influential catalyst in the community as a painter, graphic designer, architect and landscape designer, also serving as a design consultant for the Aspen Cultural Center. In the summer of 1949 Bayer promoted through poster design and other design work Paepcke’s Goethe Bicentennial Convocation attended by 2,000 visitors to Aspen and highlighted by the participation of Albert Schweitzer, Arthur Rubenstein, Jose Ortega y Gasset and Thornton Wilder. The celebration, held in a tent designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, led to the establishment that same year of the world-famous Aspen Music Festival and School regarded as one of the top classical music venues in the United States, and the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in (now the Aspen Institute), promoting in Paepcke’s words “the cross fertilization of men’s minds.” In 1946 Bayer completed his first architecture design project in Aspen, the Sundeck Ski Restaurant, at an elevation of 11,300 feet on Ajax Mountain. Three years later he built his first studio on Red Mountain, followed by a home which he sold in 1953 to Robert O. Anderson, founder of the Atlantic Richfield Company who became very active in the Aspen Institute. Bayer later designed Anderson’s terrace home in Aspen (1962) and a private chapel for the Anderson family in Valley Hondo, New Mexico (1963). Transplanting German Bauhaus design to the Colorado Rockies, Bayer created along with associate architect, Fredric Benedict, a series of buildings for the modern Aspen Institute complex: Koch Seminar Building (1952), Aspen Meadows guest chalets and Center Building (both 1954), Health Center and Aspen Meadows Restaurant (Copper Kettle, both 1955). For the grounds of the Aspen Institute in 1955 Bayer executed the Marble Garden and conceived the Grass Mound, the first recorded “earthwork” environment In 1973-74 he completed Anderson Park for the Institute, a continuation of his fascination with environmental earth art. In 1961 he designed the Walter Paepcke Auditorium and Memorial Building, completing three years later his most ambitious and original design project – the Musical Festival Tent for the Music Associates of Aspen. (In 2000 the tent was replaced with a design by Harry Teague.) One of Bayer’s ambitious plans from the 1950s, unrealized due to Paepcke’s death in 1960, was an architectural village on the outskirts of the Aspen Institute, featuring seventeen of the world’s most notable architects – Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei, Minoru Yamasaki, Edward Durrell Stone and Phillip Johnson – who accepted his offer to design and build houses. Concurrent with Bayer’s design and consultant work while based in Aspen for almost thirty years, he continued painting, printmaking, and mural work. Shortly after relocating to Colorado, he further developed his “Mountains and Convolutions” series begun in Vermont in 1944, exploring nature’s fury and repose. Seeing mountains as “simplified forms reduced to sculptural surface in motion,” he executed in 1948 a series of seven two-color lithographs (edition of 90) for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Colorado’s multi-planal typography similarly inspired Verdure, a large mural commissioned by Walter Gropius for the Harkness Commons Building at Harvard University (1950), and a large exterior sgraffito mural for the Koch Seminar Building at the Aspen Institute (1953). Having exhausted by that time the subject matter of “Mountains and Convulsions,” Bayer returned to geometric abstractions which he pursued over the next three decades. In 1954 he started the “Linear Structure” series containing a richly-colored balance format with bands of sticks of continuously modulated colors. That same year he did a small group of paintings, “Forces of Time,” expressionist abstractions exploring the temporal dimension of nature’s seasonal molting. He also debuted a “Moon and Structure” series in which constructed, architectural form served as the underpinning for the elaboration of color variations and transformations. Geometric abstraction likewise appeared his free-standing metal sculpture, Kaleidoscreen (1957), a large experimental project for ALCOA (Aluminum Corporation of America) installed as an outdoor space divider on the Aspen Meadows in the Aspen Institute complex. Composed of seven prefabricated, multi-colored and textured panels, they could be turned ninety degrees to intersect and form a continuous plane in which the panels recomposed like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. He similarly used prefabricated elements for Articulated Wall, a very tall free-standing sculpture commissioned for the Olympic Games in Mexico...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor

1950s "Abstract #4" Ink and Gouache Painting Univ of Paris
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Abstract #4" c.1950s Ink & Gouache on paper 10.5x19.5" brown, ripple, wood frame 11.5”x1”x20.75” Signed in pencil lower right with label on reverse Came from artist's e...
Category

Early 20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache

Mid century modern ink wash painting Abstract Expressionist COA signed by artist
Located in New York, NY
MARK DI SUVERO Abstract Expressionist drawing with artist signed COA, ca. 1963 Pen and black ink and brush and black ink wash on paper. Hand signed on the front. Framed, with separa...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, India Ink, Mixed Media

Composition - Ink Drawing by Rafael Alberti - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Composition is an original drawing in ink, realized by Rafael Alberti in 1970s. Hand-signed and dated on the lower right margin. The state of preservation is good except for diffus...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

"Hydrozoa Study", Watercolor, Abstract, Contemporary Art, Emerging Artist
Located in Houston, TX
"Hydrozoa Study", is a contemporary abstract painting made with watercolor on paper, and was painted by emerging artist from Houston, Texas, Grayson Chandler...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Bobine
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Bobine" is a gouache and ink on paper by Alexander Calder. The work is signed in the lower right "Calder 72". 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...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Paper, Ink

'Migration: In Flux Pandemic Collection, ' by Peter Healy, Painting, 2020
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
This framed 27" x 37" watercolor painting by Irish artist, Peter Healy is from the 'In Flux' Pandemic Collection. The painting comes vibrantly alive as the...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Venice - Pastel Drawing by Zoran Mušic - 1959
Located in Roma, IT
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...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Little Gardens #4
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Little Gardens #4" 2001 is a watercolor with gold addition on heavy rag paper by American artist Phil Gallagher. It is hand signed,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Untitled, Kirsten Hawthorne
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Kirsten Hawthorne received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she lives and works in New York City. Hawthorne is a master oil pastellist creating works on p...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Graphite

Pions (Abstract work on paper)
Located in London, GB
Watercolour on paper - Unframed. Artwork exclusive to IdeelArt. French abstract artist Jérémie Iordanoff blends the visual languages of Western Modernist Abstraction with earlier, ...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Color is Life — Mid-Century Abstract Expressionism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Ernest A. Dieringer, Untitled ('Color is Life'), watercolor, 1959. Initialed 'ED' and dated ' '59' in red pencil at the top and bottom sheet edges—the artist's indication that the work can be viewed from either side. Signed 'Dieringer' in pencil, in the bottom support board margin. A fine abstract expressionist work; watercolor on white wove paper, with fresh, bright colors; the image extending to the sheet edges, spot glued to the original cream wove backing board, in very good condition. Image size 9 x 10 15/16 inches; backing board size 13 1/2 x 16 3/4 inches. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Provenance: ex. Collection Alexander Raydon. The collector/dealer's well-known 'Raydon Gallery' was established in 1962 on 82nd Street and Madison Avenue, New York City. ABOUT THE ARTIST Ernest Dieringer studied at the Art Institute of Chicago on a National Scholastic Scholarship, beginning his career with the Chicago-based Wells Street Gallery in 1957. He showed his work with other abstract artists, including Robert Natkin and John Chamberlain. The gallery was considered a vanguard space in Chicago for exhibiting emerging abstract artists from the surrounding area. Artists associated with the gallery eventually became known as the Wells Street Group. Due to the success of the gallery, Dieringer and other group members were invited by the Manhattan-based contemporary art dealer...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Untitled, Kirsten Hawthorne
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Kirsten Hawthorne received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she lives and works in New York City. Hawthorne is a master oil pastellist creating works on p...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Graphite

Gathering of Monarchs, Painting, Watercolor on Watercolor Paper
Located in Yardley, PA
hanging from the foliage in your hundreds repainting the leaves in bright shades of black and orange with your waterproof gossamer wings of four ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Luna's Tire Shop, hand cut collage bright limited color
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Collage: Hand cut color-aid paper on gessoed heavyweight watercolor paper framed in a flat gray painted wood frame with plexi. Philomena is a daughter of Brooklyn. She holds a BFA fr...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

'In France, On A Bike' - organic abstraction - monotype - rainbow - Agnes Pelton
Located in Atlanta, GA
"In France, On A Bike" is a monotype with gouache on kozo paper featuring hues of yellow, purple, blue and pink. This work is framed in a gold frame measuring 1...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Lithograph, Monotype

Fragment (Abstract Expressionism painting)
Located in London, GB
Fragment (Abstract Expressionism painting) Acrylic and mixed media on paper - Unframed Werfel employs expressive, lyrical gestures that create bursts of movement and energy. Her co...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Abstract Composition - Original Drawing by Loris Ferrari - 1987
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract composition is an original contemporary artwork realized by Loris Ferrari in 1987. Tempera and chalk on paper. Hand signed and dated by the artist.
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Chalk, Tempera

Two Crosses
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"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...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache

'Rhythm of Color, ' by David Mladjovic, Screen Print, 2021
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
This 27.5" x 39" silkscreen print by artist David Mladjovic explores a vibrant colorful composition of lines and shapes providing the composition with an interesting rhythm. Mladjovi...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Screen

Grayscale Abstract Figurative Drawing of a Lounging Woman
Located in Houston, TX
Grayscale abstract charcoal drawing of a lounging female figure. The work features loose, expressive linework with light red accents. Signed in pencil in front lower right corner. Cu...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Pencil

Tsakli 11-07-21, abstract water media painting
Located in New York, NY
The latest watercolors from Ray Kass strike a balance between audacity and contemplation. Drawing from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Tsakli - sets of miniature paintings feat...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Wax, Watercolor, Wood Panel, Pigment, Mica

"Seraph", Watercolor, Abstract, Contemporary Art, Emerging Artist
Located in Houston, TX
"Seraph", is a contemporary abstract painting made with watercolor on paper, and was painted by emerging artist from Houston, Texas, Grayson Chandler....
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Rhodes: modern Italian watercolor of abstract Greek landscape & architecture
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This is a minimalist watercolor painting depicting abstracted architectural features (windows & doorway) in red and blue with the landscape and ocean of Rhodes, Greece visible. The watercolor itself measures 9.5"x6.5" and is floated in a double-mat 16.5" x 13" narrow, contemporary wood (maple) frame. Signed, titled, and dated on the back of the watercolor paper. Diego Esposito...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

CDV 16 - earth tone, abstract geometric circle with burn holes on paper
Located in New York, NY
Nathalie Palomino is a French self-taught artist practicing pyrography on paper. Her perpetual quest for light and transparency in her works pushes her to multiply the perforations o...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

"Terra Study", Watercolor, Abstract, Contemporary Art, Emerging Artist
Located in Houston, TX
"Terra Study", is a contemporary abstract painting made with watercolor and gouache on paper, and was painted by emerging artist from Houston, Texas, ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Indian Contemporary Art by Sumit Mehndiratta - Composition No. 389
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylics on Yupo paper, diptych Sumit Mehndiratta is an Indian artist born in 1986 who lives & works in New Delhi, India. He has pursued Master...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic

Untitled 2
By Danielle Hacche
Located in Phoenix, AZ
pastel and micro pen on paper b. 1979, Poole, Dorset, UK Danielle Hacche was born in Poole, Dorset in the Southwest of the United Kingdom. After moving to the United States with he...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel, Pen

Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add abstract drawings and watercolors created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Martin Reyna , Mila Akopova, Jaanika Peerna, and Sumit Mehndiratta. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 0.5 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract drawings and watercolors made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1 and tops out at $400,000, while the average work sells for $1,502.

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