Art by Medium: Masonite

Mid Century Modern, American Abstract Expressionist Painting on masonite This lively abstract painting reads like an interior and still life with lemons on a tabletop in vivid shade...

"Self Portrait" is an original acrylic painting on masonite board by David Barnett. The artist signed the piece. This painting features a portrait of the artist, David Barnett, in gr...

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 42" x 2" About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...

Exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1947) and the University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary Painting (1948), this painting by Philip Evergood exemplifies the ...

Translated title: "Skull". Acrylic on masonite. It features a wooden frame, which is painted and decorated with gold leaves.

The Island Woman (La Mujer Isla) Artist signed lower right corner, also signed, titled and dated on reverse. Enrique Chavarría (1927-1998) was a Mexican painter and neo-surrealist, whose fantastic imagery carries forward the work of the Mexican Surrealists. He created hundreds of easel-sized oil paintings on masonite and numerous smaller works. For four decades his principal patron was Bryna Prensky, an American gallery owner from Florida who moved to Mexico City in 1954. She bought most of Chavarría’s known works for her gallery and her own collection. Prensky said she often found Chavarría in his pajamas at mid-day. He read widely and painted dreamlike images that reflect his wide-ranging scholarly interests. Much of his work is thought to have been inspired by poetry, especially the writings of André Breton, Paul Éluard, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Valéry; by the classic surrealism of Salvador Dalí; and by the paintings of Mexican neo-surrealist artists Remedios Varo...

A large, Cubist Mid-Century Modern abstract painting ("Four Chiefs") by notable Wisconsin artist, Robert R. Schuenke (Am. 1931-2024). Artwork size: 24 x 30 inches, Oil on Masonite,...

Emilio Trad (Argentinian, b. 1953) Untitled, 1978 Oil on Masonite 18 x 14 inches Signed and dated on the reverse Emilio Trad was born in 1953, in Buenos A...

Tierra, 2020

Kierstin Young's (US based) "Sol" is an oil painting that depicts a battered white moth and a black background with organic designs in rust tones. Artist Statement/Bio: (b. The Yea...

Voodoo Altar: Feast for the Loa This work represents a convergence of religion, craft, and design, as well as the need for individual artistic expression. It is a visual feast as muc...

Mystery Artist Untitled, 20th century Oil on masonite 16 x 20 in. Framed: 21 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 1 in. Signed lower right: Zartero

"Horses Feeding" is an Equestrian painting by American Impressionist painter Joseph Thurman Pearson, Jr. The 40.5" x 56.25" oil on masonite ...

In 1962, when Margritte was creating some of his most iconic Surrealist works, there was a lesser-known painter in Haiti who was also making some fantastically imaginative paintings ...

"Ucross Square III" is an original oil painting on masonite board signed by the artist in the lower right. It depicts three black cows against a yellow rolling field landscape. Foste...

"A Winter Stream - Virginia" Signed 1960 Oil Landscape in Oil on Masonite Peaceful winter landscape of a calm stream winding through a snowy forest by Lorenz Griffith (American, 188...

"She's Watching" Mixed media collage, assemblage, gestural painting on masonite. Hand Signed in ink and titled verso. It does not appear to be dated. I am estimating it is from the 1...

Artist: Emil Rizek, Austrian (1901 - 1988) Title: Village Scene Year: circa 1950 Medium: Oil on Masonite, Signed l.r. Size: 20 in. x 24 in. (50.8 cm x 60.96 cm)

Artist: Donald Roy Purdy, American (1924 - ) Title: Profile of a Young Girl Year: circa 1960 Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. Size: 12 x 16 in. (30.48 x 40.64 cm) Frame Size: 19....

In this work, Haitian Master Wilson Bigaud focuses on fleeting moments of a Voodoo scene. He depicts the sacrifices of two chickens to the spirits. It is a gift to the divine, a w...

Paul Sample Spanish Village, 1958 Signed lower right; titled on artist label affixed to the reverse Acrylic on Masonite 23 1/4 x 33 inches Provenace Milch Galleries, New York Privat...

Robertino Fatica was born in 1948 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1970 he completed a three-year program at the Cooper School of Art in Cleveland. Following that, Fatica served in the U.S. Ar...

Dramatically rendered skull by an unknown artist (20th Century). The skull is lit from multiple directions, creating intense shadows and highlights of different shades. Around the top of the skill is a halo with dripping hearts...

Signed lower right, 'J. Roig' for Jose Roig (Argentinian-Spanish, 1898-1968) and painted circa 1955. This Argentine-Spanish Modernist was born in Spain in 1898 and was painting in A...

"Wally's Pond" Rural Landscape in Oil on Masonite Idyllic rural landscape by Richard M. Bacon (American, 20th Century). A small pond is reflecting the nearby surroundings - birch tr...

Textured contemporary orange and green wall sculpture. The work is textured using masonite and sawdust. The work is titled, dated and signed by the artist on the back of the work. Michael Richardson...

Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed 'Hughes-' Lower Left This work was published as the cover of the June 17, 1950 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Literature: J. Cohn, ...

Haitian Artist Préfète Duffaut is part of a rare breed of painters who have an instantly recognizable style. This is no easy feat to have achieved. With tens of thousands of painter...

Dramatic mixed media composition of fabric, inlaid wood veneers, paint and gold leaf laid down on masonite. Circa 1950. Condition is very good. Ran Su Studio l...

Original oil on masonite painting of a winter thaw in a panoramic farm landscape with haystacks. Signed lower left by the artist. Circa 1950. Condition is excellent. The paintin...

"Road to Death Valley" Plein Air Landscape in Oil on Masonite, Signed Gorgeous plein air California desert scene titled, "Road to Death Valley" by Mike Wright (American, b. 1958). T...

American plein air impressionist Peter Mayer was born 1887-1993. Exhibited painting of Broadway and West 72nd street in New York, Verdi Square. T...

The present work depicts a voodoo healing ceremony unfolding. By mixing nature-based religion originating in West Africa with Christian beliefs, the ceremony serves as a surrogate fo...

Medium: Gouache and Tempera on Masonite Sight Size 14.50" x 11.25", Framed 20.50" x 17.25" Signature: Signed Lower Right Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, June 16, 1945

Artist Commentary: This painting of a Cape Cod house is made of 468 little paper squares that I pasted on the canvas. The window, flowers, and bushes were then added with oil paint. My friends and family say that gluing together hundreds of little squares together is slightly obsessional, but I think it actually demonstrates great patience! I love to lose myself into creating and pasting these repeating patterns. Then, I disrupt them with a disconnected and more loose painting on top. But as a whole, both parts are in fact united and harmonious, as they belong to the same Cape Cod house. This is how I feel about myself: one person with two very different cultures. From the outside, they can look quite disconnected, but they actually are not. In fact, I find that I unite both cultures by painting them. What about you? Do you feel like you are made of disconnecting parts? And what do you do to unite them? Words that describe this piece: window, flower, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, flower boxes, shrubs, greens, garden Artist Biography: Life is basically a huge collection of moments. Sometimes you have no idea how everything will end up tying together - Marion Buricatu...

Series 67, No. 4 (1955) Oil on masonite 48" x 24 ½" 49" x 25 ¼" x 1 ¾" framed About this artist: Jack Wolsky was born in 1930 in Rochester, New York. He taught in the Department o...

An image of a horned devil with pointy claws and bat-like wings emerges from a Voodoo drum. He has with arms stretched out like a Christ figure. The drum grows out of a yellow plant-...

Vintage Grand Canyon Impressionist Landscape Majestic impressionist landscape of the Grand Canyon in beautiful vivid colors by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). The viewer...

A bustling street scene of everyday life in front of the famed Marché in Cap-Haïtien is rendered in Sénèque This is a relatively early work by Obin's signature brightly colored and flat naive style. Signed lower right. Provenance: Galerie Issa - Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Owned by Issa El Saieh of later named El Saieh Gallery Sénèque Obin...

The present mid-century work features two taboos in one painting. In 1949, it was verboten to glamorize gay life and even more prohibited to show interracial love. This work by Dan A...

The present work was illustrated on the cover of the March 8, 1952 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The Post writes, "When Stevan Dohanos was a little boy he was sometimes gran...

Acrylic on Masonite

Lenz was born in Norwalk, OH on March 2, 1900. A twentieth century American painter, illustrator and commercial artist, Lenz received his artistic education at the Huntington Polyte...

Original oil paint on board of a single boat moored near a dock by the well known American artist, Rinaldo Skalamera. Signed lower right by the artist. Condition is excellent. The...

Signature: Signed Lower Left, "Hughes" Medium: Oil on Masonite Framed 24.50" x 26.50" Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, June 8, 1957. The Post described, “...

A historically significant 1942 American modernist oil painting by Martyl Schweig Langsdorf depicting Victor, Colorado, a high-altitude mining ghost town nestled within the Rocky Mountains. The composition captures the stark beauty and atmospheric stillness of a fading Western settlement, where abandoned structures, rugged terrain, and expansive mountain forms merge into a powerful narrative landscape. Painted in oil on masonite, the work features Schweig’s expressive plein-air brushwork and a richly grounded palette of deep greens, muted golds, earthy browns, and atmospheric grays. The paint handling is both fluid and structured, emphasizing light, elevation, and the emotional weight of the post–Gold Rush landscape rather than strict topographical accuracy. This early American modernist Western painting carries strong narrative presence while remaining visually balanced, making it highly effective in both traditional interiors and more contemporary, curated environments. Created in 1942 during Schweig’s Colorado painting trips with fellow artist Adolph Dehn...

Georges Saillant (20th century) Portrait of a Woman on Couch, 1968. Oil on sized textured paper applied to masonite panel, 24 x 36 inches. Framed measurement: 34 x 46 inches. Sig...

"East Sooke Point" Contemporary Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Masonite Vibrant landscape by Jack Duckworth (Canadian, 20th Century). This piece showcases the natural landscape ...

Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed 'John Falter' Lower Right Sight Size 7.00" x 9.375;" Framed 9.75" x 12.75" This piece was probably created as a preparatory work for a John...

Acrylic on Masonite

Mixed Media on Masonite

Uprising - a huge and incredibly powerful and topical painting by Jamaican master painter Barrington Watson (1931-2016). It depicts the 1865 Moran...

Beautiful oil on masonite painting of Fifth Avenue in New York City in winter by the Irish born artist, Philip Corley. Figures fighting against the a windy snowstorm. Signed by the a...

California Hills and Water Landscape Painting, Signed Skillfully rendered landscape of rolling hills, trees, and a water source by A. Meyer. This atmospheric piece utilizes layers o...

Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed Lower Left This piece was published as an illustration in True Magazine titled "Blondin Crossing Niagara" in 1953. Born Jean-François Grave...

"Milner Garden" Contemporary Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Masonite Vibrant landscape by Jack Duckworth (Canadian, 20th Century). A building with a purple roof is nestled in am...

Fredric Karoly (1898-1987). Etude III, 1950. Oil on masonite panel measures 18 x 24 inches. Unframed. Signed, titled, dated on reverse. Good condition with minor paint loss at edges. Biography: An abstract painter, Karoly was born in Hungary and studied painting in Paris, architectural eingineering in Berlin, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1926. He began a successful career as a fashion and fabric designer. In 1948 he was working as a fashion director for Simplicity Patters, when he had a solo exhibition of of his oil paintings, wire montages, dry-pen drawings and abstract photography. Solo Exhibitions: Hugo Gallery (Alexandre Iolas) New York 1948; Gallery Mai. Paris 1949; New Gallery (Eugene Thaw) New York 1950; Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil 1951; Miami Museum of Modern Art, Miami, Florida 1959; Loft Gallery, New York City, 1966.Group Exhibitions: Hugo Gallery, New York 1947; Salon des Realities Nouvelles, Paris 1949-1953; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Annual) 1951-1953, 1963; Biennale of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1951; International Independent Exhibition, Tokyo, 1951; Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1959; The Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1960; Stuttman Gallery, New York, 1960; The Art Institute of Chicago (Annual), 1960; International Watercolor Exhibition, Brookyln Museum, 1961; Westchester Art Museum, White Plains, NY, 1963; Whitney Museum, Annual, NY 1963; Cleveland Art Festival, Park Synagogue, Cleveland, 1963; Whitney Museum, Sculpture Annual, NY, 1964.Works in Institutional Collections: Museu de Arte, San Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; New York University, New York; Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; Finch College, NY; Barnard College, NY; Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum and Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL. Awards: National Council Arts Awards, 1968. Frederic Karoly died on December 15, 1987 at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Manhattan, where he had made his home for many years. Fredric Karoly was born in Budapest in 1893. According to Karoly’s own vitae, his exhibition history began in New York in 1947, when at the age of 54 he took part in a four-person group show at Hugo Gallery. His involvement with visual art however was apparently life long. In a brief introduction to his solo show at Galerie Mai in Paris in June of 1949, Jen Luc de Rudder, reports that Karoly began painting at the age of 12 in Budapest. After several years of studying, then working in London, Paris and Berlin, Karoly emigrated to the United States in 1925 or 1926 (he probably first came to the US on a work visa in 1925). In New York, Karoly worked in women’s fashion as a designer. In 1948 Karoly worked in a manner than was clearly influenced by the work of such European surrealists as Max Ernst, creating spiked automatic bi-chromatic paintings. His style progressed into a progressively more biomorphic vein, similar to explorations by Theodore Stamos, Daphnis, Milton Avery and Mark Rothko around the same period. He was supported with patronage during this period by Mrs. Mimi Baliff, who apparently supported the “Industrial Design Workshop” that she helped open to feature Karoly’s designs in 1948. By the early 1950’s (1951) Karoly started experimenting with the drip and splatter process as well. Drip paintings dominated his process until the late 50’s-early 60’s, when linear compositional elements began to reemerge. By the late 50’s multi-layered drip grid motifs asserted a masque of spatial organization over looser washed fields and splatters of paint that Karoly worked off of. This development was consistent with concurrent explorations into the grid by artist Agnes Martin and others. By the mid-50’s Karoly’s style began another transition into a more surface concerned “Color Field” style of painting. There are elements still reminding one of Abstract Expressionist concerns as such painters as Clifford Still. But the works that began to emerge from Karoly’s studio in 1958 presaged the Morris Lewis fan motifs and Friedl Dzubas’s epic and romantic color spewing expanses of canvas. In 1959 Karoly began experiments using washes of turpentine diluted oil paint directly onto raw linen, and all of these subsequently suffered the consequences of oil oxidation and acidity upon the surfaces. However, many of Karoly’s washes in color field happily occurred on lightly prepared primed canvas surfaces as well. By 1960 Karoly began reintroducing imagistic references to his visual content. There were also various references to Japanese and Zen influences. He experimented with a variety of processes that included mixed media and marbleized surfaces achieved by the intermixture of oil and water mediums. A calligraphic element also enter Karoly’s work in the early 60’s. Then in 1961 glued and assembled objects begin to show up in Karoly’s work in earnest. The influence of early POP artists, particularly Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, become apparent. From 1961-63, a series of the assemblage works transition from canvas to the sculptural to pieces obviously intended for full scale installation. Many of these pieces were among the most fragile of his works primarily due to their reliance upon the of gluing of objects such as plastic or paper cups on flexible surfaces of stretched linen or canvas. In the mid-60’s Karoly apparently produced a number of photo-silk screened series of Picasso, De Kooning and other significant artists of his generation. These were executed in a style somewhere between Rauschenberg’s and Roy Lichtenstein’s, primarily because of their reliance upon half tones and Ben-Day dot effects. Then Karoly began a series of paintings conflating his drip and grid styles with super imposed and painted over string. In the late 60’s Karoly embarked upon a series of multi-paneled stretched linen constructions often with slits and fiber optic back-lit elements that were prescient of the work of Dan Flavin and others. It was this body of work that was shown at Hofstra University’s Emily Lowe Gallery, and it was these works that suffered perhaps the most irreparable damage from a steam/water infiltration in a space where they were being stored. The late professional start that Karoly had into the art world was balanced by his long life span and early immersion into the design issues of modernism as it emerged in turn of the century Europe and later evolved in America. He was clearly an artist who subscribed to the ethos of the new in abstraction and was obviously impressionable and in some instances prescient with regard to various trends in abstraction. Several noteworthy and influential collectors and institutions during his 40 years of professional engagement acquired his work. The Whitney Museum of American Art had and may still own a large Karoly canvas from 1960, but this is doubtful as the artist failed to list it on the vitae he filed with MoMA in 1965. His work was recognized and honored by the Whitney with its inclusion in four of their annual survey shows (1951,1953, 1963 and 1964). The artist’s surrealist influenced paintings from 1948-1950 were the focus of a solo exhibition held of his work by the Museo de Art in Sao Paulo and eight years later a ten year survey of his work was the focus of a solo show at the Miami Museum of Modern art. The Sao Paulo Museum in Brazil, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina each acquired Karoly paintings for their collections in the 1950’s. One of Karoly’s surrealist pieces was apparently purchased by Christian Zervos, Picasso’s designated chronicler, who apparently also wrote a piece on Karoly in Cahiers D’Art in 1949. A 60’s piece of Karoly art that is in the New York University’s permanent collection is included in the MoMA Library’s catalog...

Beautiful American photorealist view of Pack River in Sandpoint, Idaho by Laura Lindberg (American, 1904-1976). Signed lower right corner "64 L Lindberg" "26 Pack River Laura Lindb...

Signed and dated lower right. Lohman studied at John Herron Art Institute, and Cranbrook and Yale for graduate work. Assisted Carl Milles at Cranbrook Academy before becoming Direct...

Charles Shepard Chapman Hoback River, Wyoming Signed lower right, titled on the reverse Oil on masonite 15 1/4 x 19 inches Chapman was born in Morristown, New York. He studied at t...