Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
CONTEMPORARY STYLE
Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.
Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.
The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.
Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.
Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Contemporary
Period: 1980s
Eight of Hearts, mixed media silkscreen with hand applied acrylic, signed unique
Located in New York, NY
Robert Petersen
Eight of Hearts, 1989
Mixed media silkscreen with hand applied acrylic on paper with deckled edges
Hand signed, numbered 6/21, dated, and inscribed on the front
Uniqu...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Pencil, Graphite, Screen
Abstract Composition - Mixed Media by Paolo Pasotto - 1986
Located in Roma, IT
Astract composition is an artwork realized by Paolo Pasotto in 1986.
50 x 35 cm.
Hand signed bottom right.
Mixed techinique on paper.
Good conditions!
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media
Topkapi Pullman (based on Mural for Lobby, Suburban Train Station, Philadelphia)
Located in New York, NY
Joyce Kozloff
Topkapi Pullman, 1985
Watercolor and acrylic on paper (bears original gallery labels: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Gallery Camino Real, Boston University Art Gallery)
Sig...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Acrylic, Watercolor
Untitled (Wasserzeichnung / Water drawing)
Located in New York, NY
In her 1980s series of 'Wasserzeichnungen' (Water Drawings), Heidi Bucher used gestural marks in gouache on paper to create what can be described as "wate...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Untitled (Wasserzeichnung / Water drawing)
Located in New York, NY
In her 1980s series of 'Wasserzeichnungen' (Water Drawings), Heidi Bucher used gestural marks in gouache on paper to create what can be described as "wate...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Untitled (Wasserzeichnung / Water drawing)
Located in New York, NY
In her 1980s series of 'Wasserzeichnungen' (Water Drawings), Heidi Bucher used gestural marks in gouache on paper to create what can be described as "wate...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Untitled (Wasserzeichnung / Water drawing)
Located in New York, NY
In her 1980s series of 'Wasserzeichnungen' (Water Drawings), Heidi Bucher used gestural marks in gouache on paper to create what can be described as "wate...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Untitled (Wasserzeichnung / Water drawing)
Located in New York, NY
In her 1980s series of 'Wasserzeichnungen' (Water Drawings), Heidi Bucher used gestural marks in gouache on paper to create what can be described as "wate...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Gouache
Giotto
Located in New York, NY
Robert Petersen
Giotto, 1989
Mixed Media: Silkscreen with Watercolor and Acrylic on paper
Hand signed, numbered and dated on front A.P 2/3
Frame Included
This vivid hand signed mixed...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Watercolor, Screen
"Vacation in a Cabin, " Oil Pastel by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Vacation in a Cabin" is an original oil pastel drawing by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. In Vacation in a Cabin, 1989, Gee presents a complex and wildly c...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel
"Rainy Day, " Abstract Oil Pastel Drawing on Pink Paper by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Rainy Day" is an original oil pastel drawing on pink paper by Reginald K. Gee. This piece features abstract marks in red, blue, orange, white, yellow, and black on pink.
12" x 18" ...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel
May 1987, Signed collage, gold leaf, acrylic painting, Framed w/ Castelli label
Located in New York, NY
Robert Petersen
May 1987, 1987
Pure pigment collage, gold leaf, acrylic painting and drawing
Signed, titled and dated on the front. The back of the frame bears the label of Castelli ...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold Leaf
"Black Lemon" original Charcoal Drawing - signed & dated 1988 - Iconic
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Signed, titled & dated in pencil along the left edge of the paper.
In excellent condition
Provenance: McIntosh/Drysdale, Washington, D.C. 1988; Private Collection, Bethesda, Maryland; Private collection, San Diego, CA
Exhibition History: The Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C. "Donald Sultan: In The Still Life Tradition" May 10-July 7...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Charcoal, Archival Paper
Pressure
By Robert Longo
Located in New York, NY
Robert Longo
Pressure, 1983
Acrylic and Graphite on Paper
Signed and dated 'Robert Longo 83’ (lower right) in graphite
Frame included:
Floated and framed in a museum quality frame with UV plexiglass
This is a unique painting
"Pressure " [on God], Robert Longo's unique acrylic and graphite work on paper, was created during the same period as his iconic work, simply labeled "Pressure", now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y. Whereas the latter depicts a young man, the present work, titled "Pressure on Heaven", then deliberately changed to "Pressure on God", is more ethereal in subject matter, though the lone youth's image is still present in the composition.
From Lexander magazine:
"In the excerpt from Neal Benezra’s article about 1980s art in the previous post, he writes, “Robert Longo’s Pressure might well be the most representative work of art of the 1980s.” I would go further and state that it is the definitive work of the 1980s—the penultimate visual anthem of the era—and most especially the period between 1979—1987, during which the musical genres of gothic rock and deathrock flourished and achieved their greatest artistic successes through the work of a variety of diverse bands including Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Abstract Art, Vivid Watercolor - Rolling Colors, Kemija, 1980
Located in Houston, TX
Transfixing and vivid watercolor of abstract striated colors, rolling together like leaves in the wind or waves of sand dunes. Signed lower right by Kejima, 1980.
Original artwork o...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Untitled 1985 (Colorful Sculptural Drawing) Black, Pink, Brown, White & Gray
By Joel Shapiro
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
A lovely 1985 sculptural drawing by Joel Shapiro utilizing shades of pink, brown, white, gray and black. Signed on the verso. Framed
Provenance: McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Archival Paper
"Frozen Lake" Abstracted Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Evocative abstract landscape by Martin Kallman (American, 1925-1992). This piece has large sections of light and shadow that overlap each other, as if c...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Crayon, Ink, Monotype
House and Sky
By Murray Reich
Located in Long Island City, NY
An original painting by contemporary American painter, Murray Reich. Nicely framed.
House and Sky by Murray Reich, American (1932–2012)
Date: 1980
Acrylic and Collage on Paper, sign...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Acrylic
Theatre with Signals - Drawing by Leo Guida - 1986
By Leo Guida
Located in Roma, IT
Theatre with Signals is an original Contemporary artwork realized in 1986 by the italian Contemporary artist Leo Guida (1992 - 2017).
Original drawing in beautiful colored tempe...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Tempera
Ghosts - Drawing by Leo Guida - 1980s
By Leo Guida
Located in Roma, IT
Ghosts is an original watercolor realized by Leo Guida in the 1980s.
Good condition.
Leo Guida (1992 - 2017). Sensitive to current issues, artistic movements and historical techni...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
'Orange/Black abstract' original signed pastel drawing, blue and salmon 1980s
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Valerie Christell's large pastel drawings from the early 1980s take the landscape and make it abstract. In them, she tries to emulate the experience of seeing the land while driving at high speed on the back of a motorcycle. The resulting imagery is rendered in energetic and gestural line work that morphs into large fields of color. This example, 'Orange/Black abstract,' takes on the appearance of nighttime, lit only by the light of the motorcycle headlight...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Paper
SF 89-153.
By Sam Francis
Located in Malmo, SE
Artwork size: 67 x 51 cm.
Frame size: 112 x 97 cm.
Free shipment worldwide.
Archive number SF 89-153 in the Sam Francis Foundation.
Stamped with the Sam Francis Estate logo and stamped signature on verso.
Sam Francis’s paintings are a journey into a dream, a voyage into the landscapes of the soul where colours are lights on fire.
Alongside names such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, Sam Francis is an artist who has succeeded in demonstrating a total mastery of abstract expressionism’s impassioned and spontaneous genre.
The explosions of colour – red, blue, green and yellow – the streaks, strokes and bold lines of his pictures are the physical synthesis of the deepest crevices of the soul. His colours create rhythmical motifs that, characteristically enough, can be called the “musicality” of his paintings.
The work of Sam Francis provides a visible meeting place for the conscious and the unconscious. His pictures are the cross-fertilisation of what has already been experienced with what exists still only as desire, a struggle between melancholy and merrymaking.
Influenced by C.G. Jung, the father of psychoanalysis, Sam Francis spent a large portion of his life exploring the premise that dreams, instincts and intuition provide, the keys which unlock the mysteries and meaning of our inner lives. He was also fascinated by the four ancient elements – earth, water, air and fire – which developed into a leitmotif in his work.
Sam Francis was born in San Mateo in California, USA in 1923. After starting to paint at the age of around twenty, he soon found himself increasingly consumed by the power of art.
He spent much of the 1950s in Paris, from where he not only made frequent excursions to a number of European cities, but also embarked on many journeys to South America and Asia.
He continued to move from place to place, primarily in the USA and Japan, right up until his death in 1994.
Sam Francis’s first...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Acrylic
"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" by Kim Jones
By Kim Jones
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kim Jones, American (1944 - )
Title: Don't Cry For Me Argentina
Year: 1988
Medium: Ink and Gouache, signed and dated verso
Size: 20 x 15.5 in. (50.8 x 39.37 cm)
Frame Size: 2...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Gouache
"Untitled, " Oil Pastel Drawing on Pink Paper by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Untitled" is an original oil pastel drawing on pink paper by Reginald K. Gee. This piece features abstract, simplified figures in black and white dancing o...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel
"The First Bird with Egg, Duckling Abstraction, " Oil Pastel by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"The First Bird with Egg, Duckling Abstraction" is an original oil pastel on board by Reginald K. Gee. The artist initialed the piece on the back. It features an abstracted duckling ...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel, Board
"Some More of Those Toothbrushes - Part 2, " Abstract Oil Pastel by Reggie K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Some More of Those Toothbrushes - Part 2" is an original oil pastel drawing by Reginald K. Gee. The artist created this piece with gestural, abstract marks in yellow, blue, red, gre...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel, Illustration Board
"Amay, " Oil Pastel and Watercolor on Red Paper signed by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Amay" is an original oil pastel and watercolor drawing on red paper by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It features abstracted figures and mountain shapes i...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel, Watercolor
"Untitled, " Abstract Oil Pastel on Ragboard signed by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Untitled" is an original oil pastel drawing on ragboard by Reginald K. Gee. It features surreal drawings on a background of color fields in blue, green, purple, red, and yellow. The...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel, Board, Rag Paper
"Mouse Trap in Lions Den" Abstract Oil Pastel on Board signed by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Mouse Trap in Lions Den" is an original oil pastel drawing on rag board by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right. This colorful, gestura...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel, Board
"Freelance, " Oil Pastel on Illustration Board signed by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Freelance" is an original oil pastel drawing on illustration board by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It depicts an artist walking through an abstracted wo...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel, Illustration Board
Contemporary abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary 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 David Barnett, Renato Garza Cervera, Michael Alan, and Reginald K. Gee. 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 Contemporary abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 2.96 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 $60 and tops out at $190,000, while the average work sells for $1,402.
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