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Abstract Paintings For Sale
Period: 1980s
Period: 1940s
This Week's Listings Only
"Two Figures, " Louis Stone, Abstract, American WPA Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Louis K. Stone (1902 - 1984) Two Figures, 1980 Mixed media on paper Sight 52 x 42 inches Signed and dated lower right Louis King Stone was born in Findlay, Ohio in 1902 and received...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

"Ole Swimmin Hole" Southern California Pond and Hills Oil on canvas board 1930s
By Clyde Eugene Scott
Located in Soquel, CA
"Ole Swimmin Hole" Southern California Oil on canvas board 1930s Elegant mid century landscape depicting a lake and hillside in summer by well known and collected California artist ...
Category

1940s American Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas, Illustration Board

'Burmese Dancers', Large Modernist Oil, Myanmar, Rangoon, SFMA, SFAI, PFA
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Aung Aung Taik' (Burmese, born 1948) and dated 1981. Exhibited: San Francisco Cultural Center, 1981. A major work by this celebrate...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist New York Cityscape Pink Hotel Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist cityscape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 30H by 26L.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Expressionist American Modernist Oil Monotype Monoprint Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Larry Brown Long-time established New York painter as well as faculty member the The Cooper Union, Brown works in oil on canvas and tempera paints on paper. He deals with themes of science and universality. EDUCATION: 1970 M.F.A. in Painting, University of Arizona 1967 BA in Painting, Washington State University SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS: Mixed Company: Women Choose Men, AIR Gallery, New York, NY Easy Breezy, Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, NY From Stone and Plate: Contemporary Prints from Tamarind Institute, California State University Change of View Tamarind Institute Gallery, Albuquerque, NM Animal As Muse, The Norton Museum of Art, W. Palm Beach, FL Painting--Larry Brown, Joseph Haske, David Schoffman, Helander Gallery, New York, NY Paper Houses, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY Curators Choice, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Current Trends in Abstraction-- Larry Brown, Bill Drew...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Monoprint, Monotype

L’horizon mensonger
Located in PARIS, FR
Georges Mathieu (1921 - 2012) L’horizon mensonger Alkyde sur toile / Alkyd on canvas Signé en bas à gauche, titré au dos / Signed lower left and titles on the back Circa 1990 Size : ...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Alkyd

Untitled
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Untitled, 1983. Ink on paper, measures 17 x 23 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower left. Ayers holds the distinction of having participated in the first important survey of African-Americans, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a 1971 show at The Whitney. Biography: Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Duino Elegies study
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Richard Mann (1940-1990). Duino Elegies, 1981. Mixed media on rag paper, consisting of 3 sheets, each measuring 18 x 24 inches. Each vertical edge is hinged with mounting tape, resulting in a triptych presentation. Entire measurement: 24 x 54 inches w. Biography: Playwright, poet and visual artist, Rev. Richard Mann was born and educated in Melbourne Australia. At the height of America's counter-cultural revolution, Mann moved to New York City where he lived and worked in Harlem. He was influenced by surrealism, abstract expressionism, and calligraphy at the time of his arrival. Beginning in the mid-1970's, the extreme living conditions of Harlem and demands of his religious calling provided subject matter for his painting. Urban decay and ubiquitous public graffiti provide inspiration for compositions that include highly stylized writing. By the late 1970's many works incorporate writing exclusively, with areas of layered, obscured and illegible words, very much like repeatedly tagged walls. Education: Studied painting with Maurice Cantlon, Melbourne, Australia 1961-62. Liberal Arts Studies, Christ the King...
Category

1980s Neo-Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Acrylic, Pencil

"Israeli Road Block" - 1980 Original Abstract
Located in Soquel, CA
"Israeli Road Block" - 1980 Original Abstract Rich 1980's abstract oil painting titled "Israeli Road Block" by Bay Area artist Helen Konkoff (American, 1912-1988). Hues of browns, g...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Important Early American School Abstract Geometric Precisionist Signed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Step into the enigmatic world of abstract art with this captivating original oil painting from 1945. This masterpiece, signed with a mysterious monogram by an unknown artist, embodie...
Category

1940s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Patricia Zippin "Study for Anaganaga 2/6" 1980s Abstract Painting
Located in Arp, TX
Patricia Zippin Study For Anaganaga 2/6 1980s Mixed Media 30"x 23", unframed Signed in pencil bottom right and titled bottom left and signed and titled in pencil on reverse Patricia...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Encaustic, Acrylic, Pencil

Architecture
Located in Genève, GE
Collage, mixed technique Work on paper Black wooden frame with glass pane 75.3 x 93.2 x 3.7 cm
Category

1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Adhesive, Gouache, Tissue Paper

Large Antique American Modernist Interior Kitchen Still Life Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist interior view still life painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 34 by 40 inches.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Waiting for the Barbarians, Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944-2002) Title: Waiting for the Barbarians Year: 1985 Medium: Acrylic on double layered Masonite Size: 37 x 31 inches Condition: Good Provenance: Estate of Ian ...
Category

1980s Photorealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Acrylic

Portrait of a Woman with Short Hair
Located in London, GB
'Portrait of a Woman with Short Hair', oil on board, by Peter Robert Keil (1983). A wide-eyed woman gazes out to the viewer with a tranquil smile. The colou...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Jacob's Well
Located in New Orleans, LA
Richard Saba Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1946 Education: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, B.F.A. 1968 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, 1967 University of Washington...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Landscape. Oil on canvas by Tetsuo Mizu (1987) (abstract geometric painting)
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Tetsuo Mizu (1944) Landscape Executed in 1987 Oil on canvas 80.3 x 100 cm (39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in) Dated and Signed “1987 MIZU” (lower left) Signed, dated, an...
Category

1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Landscape, large mid-century green painting, COBRA art movement
Located in Beachwood, OH
Erik Ortvad (Danish, 1917 - 2008) Abstract Landscape, 1946 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 32 X 37.5 inches 35 x 40.5 inches, framed Born in 1917 in Copenhagen, Erik Ortvad was a surrealist painter and a founding member of the COBRA art...
Category

1940s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Four Winds" Blue House with White Roof in Yellow Field Abstract Landscape
Located in Houston, TX
Abstract drawing of a blue house in a yellow field by German-American painter, Wolf Kahn. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corner. Framed and matted in a silver wood...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Antique American Modernist Surreal Beach Scene Still Life Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist sunset beach scene oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 24H by 20L.
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Canadian Modernist Framed Lake Landscape Rare Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique Canadian modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Measuring 15 by 17 inches overall and 10 by 12 painting alone.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Musicians and dancers from Mallorca oil on board painting Spain
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Josep Coll Bardolet (1912-2007) - Musicians and dancers Mallorca - Oil on panel Oil measurements 33x41 cm. Frame measurements 44x52 cm.
Category

1980s Post-Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Toucan" Edward Zutrau, 1949 Abstracted Bird by Abstract Expressionist Artist
Located in New York, NY
Edward Zutrau Toucan, 7/29/1949 Dated on verso Oil on linen 30 x 23 inches Edward Zutrau (1922–1993) was an American painter whose career spanned from the 1940s through the early 1...
Category

1940s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Ouverture, with Cypress Forms" Stephen Edlich, Abstract Geometric Painting
Located in New York, NY
Stephen Edlich Ouverture, with Cypress Forms, 1982 Signed, dated and titled on the stretcher Acrylic paint, mixed media, and burlap on canvas 60 x 40 inches An artist who worked in the post-cubist and constructivist traditions, Stephen P. Edlich gained a considerable amount of acclaim in the 1970s and 1980s for his collages, sculpture, and paintings. His promising career was cut short due to his untimely death at age 45 in 1989. Edlich was born in New York City. He received his undergraduate degree with a major in fine arts studies from New York University in 1967. During his college years, he traveled to London, where he met the art dealer Victor Waddington and created his first white on white collage. In that same year, he attended a major exhibition of the work of Ben Nicholson, which would be influential source in his art. Edlich returned to England in 1967, where he met Barbara Hepworth and Patrick Heron in London and traveled to St. Ives, Cornwall, long a favorite artists' haunt. Edlich began creating acrylic reliefs...
Category

1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Burlap, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Duino Elegies study
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Richard Mann (1940-1990). Duino Elegies, 1981. Mixed media on rag paper, consisting of 3 sheets, each measuring 18 x 24 inches. Each vertical edge is hinged with mounting tape, resulting in a triptych presentation. Entire measurement: 24 x 54 inches w. Biography: Playwright, poet and visual artist, Rev. Richard Mann was born and educated in Melbourne Australia. At the height of America's counter-cultural revolution, Mann moved to New York City where he lived and worked in Harlem. He was influenced by surrealism, abstract expressionism, and calligraphy at the time of his arrival. Beginning in the mid-1970's, the extreme living conditions of Harlem and demands of his religious calling provided subject matter for his painting. Urban decay and ubiquitous public graffiti provide inspiration for compositions that include highly stylized writing. By the late 1970's many works incorporate writing exclusively, with areas of layered, obscured and illegible words, very much like repeatedly tagged walls. Education: Studied painting with Maurice Cantlon, Melbourne, Australia 1961-62. Liberal Arts Studies, Christ the King...
Category

1980s Neo-Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Acrylic, Pencil

4.84
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil and wax on canvas 1927 - 2017 Mala Breuer grew up attending classes in painting and drawing from a young age at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After high school sh...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wax, Oil

Judy Rifka, Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting MIxed Media 3D Construction
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand signed verso, mixed media on two sections of joined canvas Work is titled "Ego Wall with Mess," circa 1983. Provenance: Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York, New York. bearing their label verso. 24 x 30 x 3-3/4 inches (61.0 x 76.2 x 9.5 cm) Hand signed on the reverse: Judy Rifka Judy Rifka (born 1945) is an American woman artist active since the 1970s as a painter and video artist. She works heavily in New York City's Tribeca and Lower East Side and has associated with movements coming out of the area in the 1970s and 1980s such as Colab and the East Village, Manhattan art scene. A video artist, book artist and abstract painter, Rifka is a multi-faceted artist who has worked in a variety of media in addition to her painting and printmaking. She was born in 1945 in New York City and studied art at Hunter College, the New York Studio School and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Rifka took part in the 1980 Times Square Show, (Organized by Collaborative Projects, Inc. in 1980 at what was once a massage parlor, with now-famous participants such as Jenny Holzer, Nan Goldin, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kiki Smith, the roster of the exhibition reads like a who’s who of the art world), two Whitney Museum Biennials (1975, 1983), Documenta 7, Just Another Asshole (1981), curated by Carlo McCormick and received the cover of Art in America in 1984 for her series, "Architecture," which employed the three-dimensional stretchers that she adopted in exhibitions dating to 1982; in a 1985 review in the New York Times, Vivien Raynor noted Rifka's shift to large paintings of the female nude, which also employed the three-dimensional stretchers. In a 1985 episode of Miami Vice, Bianca Jagger played a character attacked in front of Rifka's three-dimensional nude still-life, "Bacchanaal", which was on display at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. Rene Ricard wrote about Rifka in his influential December 1987 Art Forum article about the iconic identity of artists from Van Gogh to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, The Radiant Child.The untitled acrylic painting on plywood, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, demonstrates the artist's use of plywood as a substrate for painting. Artist and writer Mark Bloch called her work "imaginative surfaces that support experimental laboratories for interferences in sensuous pigment." According to artist and curator Greg de la Haba, Judy Rifka's irregular polygons on plywood "are among the most important paintings of the decade". In 2013, Rifka's daily posts on Facebook garnered a large social media audience for her imaginative "selfies," erudite friendly comments, and widely attended solo and group exhibitions, Judy Rifka's pop art figuration is noted for its nervous line and frenetic pace. In the January 1998 issue of Art in America, Vincent Carducci echoed Masheck, “Rifka reworks the neo-classical and the pop, setting all sources in quotation for today’s art-world cognoscenti.” Rifka, along with artists like David Wojnarowicz, helped to take Pop sensibility into a milieu that incorporated politics and high art into Postmodernism; Robert Pincus-Witten stated in his 1988 essay, Corinthian Crackerjacks & Passing Go that "Rifka’s commitment to process and discovery, doctrine with Abstract Expressionist practice, is of paramount concern though there is nothing dogmatic or pious about Rifka’s use of method. Playful rapidity and delight in discovery is everywhere evident in her painting." In 2016, a large retrospective of Rifka's art was shown at the Jean-Paul Najar Foundation in Dubai. In 2017, Gregory de la Haba presented a Rifka retrospective at the Amstel Gallery...
Category

1980s Pop Art Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Marigold Joy
Located in Toronto, Ontario
It is hard to reconcile Gershon Iskowitz's (1921-1988) aesthetic with his personal history. Born to a religious family in Poland, Iskowitz was allowed to leave Yeshiva (Jewish relig...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Boathouse at Night, Modernist Two Toned Color-field Abstracted Seascape
Located in Soquel, CA
Boathouse at Night, Modernist Two Toned Color-field Abstracted Seascape Nocturnal seascape by Vasil (Victor) Papkov (20th Century). At the top of the piece, the moon is obscured beh...
Category

1980s Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Untitled (Cubist Portrait)
By Jerre H. Murry
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Cubist Portrait), 1945, oil on masonite, signed and dated lower middle, 20 x 16 inches, remnant of exhibition label verso, perhaps exhibited at Murry's solo exhibition at the Los Angeles's Screen Cartoonists' Gallery, July , 1945, presented in its original frame Jerre Murry was a California modernist painter. Born in Columbia, Missouri, Murry studied at the Detroit Academy of Art and worked as an artist for the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Murry traveled to the Bahamas, where he was inspired to paint modernist scenes of island life and people. By the early 1930s, Murry had relocated to Los Angeles, where he caught the attention of Synchromist painter Stanton Macdonald Wright, State Supervisor for the Federal Art Project (FAP) in Southern California. MacDonald Wright enrolled Murry into the FAP. Murry’s Gauguin-influenced painting Sun Image was exhibited together with other FAP artists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1936, and Murry was also included in the FAP exhibit at the Paris Exposition in 1937. Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles, the Chamber of Commerce Gallery in Santa Barbara, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art also showed Murry’s work during the 1930s. Murry created a murals for Los Angeles Water & Power Company, the Boise, Idaho Post Office, and Glendale Junior College. In 1939, Murry's work was exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition and the New York World's Fair. He also was included in the All California Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of art that same year. He went on to exhibit in Los Angeles at the Foundation of Western Art's Trends in Southern California Art shows in 1940 and 1941, at Raymond and Raymond Gallery in Hollywood and USC’s Elizabeth Holmes...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

"El Innombrable" Fernando de Szyszlo, Red Mysticist Abstract Composition
Located in New York, NY
Fernando de Szyszlo El Innombrable, 1980 Titled inscribed dated verso: Orrentia 1980 "El Innombrable" Signed lower bottom edge center "Szyszlo" Oil on canvas 59 1/2 x 59 inches Fernando de Szyszlo was a Peruvian painter...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Torino, TO
The work was created with enamel and pastel on canvas; it is signed and archived by the Schifano Archive
Category

1980s Pop Art Abstract Paintings

Materials

Enamel

Antique American Modernist Framed Flower Still Life interior Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist still life painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Abstract painting accented in bright hues of red, blue and a soft lavender by French artist AM Vivent, 1986. Signed and dated lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Vintage Signed Israeli American Modernist Beach Scene Framed Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist abstract landscape painting by Abraham Pariente. Oil on canvas, circa 1990. Signed. Displayed in a giltwood impressionist frame.
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American School Modernist Surreal Cityscape Landscape Signed Regional Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nice modernist American school painting. Oil and watercolor and gouache on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 18L x 23H.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flowers of life. Bilateral. Oil on cardboard, 73x65 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Flowers of life. Bilateral. Oil on cardboard, 73x65 cm Aleksandr Rodin (1922-2001) Painter Born in a family of farmers. Wife Rasma Lace - art scholar. Studied at the Stalingrad Sch...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Workers
Located in Riga, LV
Aleksandr Rodin (1922-2001) Painter Born in a family of farmers. Wife Rasma Lace - art scholar. Studied at the Stalingrad School of Art, Saratov Art School, graduated from the Depar...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard, Canvas

Star Fighter
Located in Henderson, NV
Star Fighter evolved out of Clifford Singer's work during the 1980s using arcs and straight lines.
Category

1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Naturalistic Fanciful Townscape
Located in Houston, TX
Fanciful landscape with buildings that look like castles. Trees fill the landscape with a path that curves through it. The painting is mainly grey and pink tones. The painting has th...
Category

1980s Naturalistic Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Domenick Capobianco Color Field Oil on Canvas
Located in Astoria, NY
Domenick Capobianco (American, b. 1928), Abstract Color Field Composition in Yellow and Orange, Oil on Canvas, 1980, apparently unsigned, dated to verso and with "Studio Domenick Cap...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Black Cat and Vase Still Life
By Joseph Tanous
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming mid century still life of fruit, vase and black cat by Monterey artist Joseph Tanous (American, b. 1925), c. 1940-50. Signed lower left corner. Presented in rustic painted w...
Category

1940s American Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Russian Cubist Portrait of a Woman
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Beautiful cubist portrait of a woman by unknown Russian artist. Oil on canvas measures 17 x 25 inches. Signed and dated lower right. Label fragments affixed on verso.
Category

1980s Cubist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Florentine Expressions: A Portrait Series XX (circa 1980s-90s)
Located in London, GB
"Florentine Expressions: A Portrait Series XX", oil on canvas mounted on board, Florentine School (circa 1980s-90s). This gallery has acquired a number of paintings through an interm...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Composition to machines and tools
Located in Genève, GE
Work on cardboard Golden wooden frame 41 x 50.5 x 6 cm
Category

1940s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Plant-like
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
James Brooks (1906-1992). Plantlike, c.1945. Oil on canvas measures 18 x 24 inches; 24 x 30 inches in a painted wood frame of the period. Signed "J. David Brooks" lower right, Signed...
Category

1940s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Large American Impressionist Abstract Framed Modern Flower Still Life Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive large American school modernist flower still life painting. Oil on canvas. Handsomely framed. Signed illegibly. Very nice impasto and color.
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bright Country Barns - Abstracted Modern Farm Landscape in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Bright Country Barns - Abstracted Modern Farm Landscape in Acrylic on Paper Vivid abstracted landscape of brightly colored barns in the countryside by San Francisco artist Michael W...
Category

1980s Pop Art Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Laid Paper

Antique American School Signed Cubist Abstract Expressionist Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American abstract mixed media painting. Oil gouache and crayon on board. Signed. Framed. Measuring 24 by 29 inches overall and 15 by 20 painting alone.
Category

1940s Cubist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Passages in Light III - Abstract Oil Painting Like a Tiepolo Sky
Located in New York, NY
Ruggero Vanni's Passages in Light III is a 49 x 35 inch abstract oil painting. The main colors are red, pink and gray. There is a reference to nature, like clouds up in the sky. It ...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mountains in the Clouds in Tuscany Italy by 20th Century Italian Artist
Located in Preston, GB
Mountains in the Clouds in Tuscany Italy by 20th Century Italian Artist Armando Romano Art measures 20 x 16 inches Frame measures 26 x 22 inches In...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Composition Abstraite by Franz Stirnimann - Oil on canvas
Located in Geneva, CH
Swiss painter Artist born in 1915, says Franz Sti. Died in 1997. Work on canvas Black American case with golden edges 65,5 x 75,5 x 3 cm
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage Signed Abstract Expressionist Framed Minimalist New York Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract painting. Signed. Framed.
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

4-Seasons: Fall
Located in Kansas City, MO
Ronald Slowinski 4-Seasons: Fall Watercolor, paper Year: circa 1987 Size: 46x94x2.25in Framed in an acrylic box COA provided Comes with original papers and photographic slide Ref.: 9...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Large Abstract Oil Painting Belgian American Artist Roger Van Ouytsel Menorah
By Roger Van Ouytsel
Located in Surfside, FL
Roger Van Ouytsel (American, b. 1941) Title: "The Things I liked About Larry Wise," 1987. Oil painting on canvas, signed and dated. Framed. Provenance: Exhibited at Allan Stone Ga...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Affection Mixed Media
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Affection 1989 Artist signed lower right Oil, graphite on linen canvas 38x30, framed 52x44 inches. Jurgen Gorg was born in 1951 in​, Dernbach Germany. His formative years were spen...
Category

1980s Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Graphite

Chanson - large, colourful, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Harold Feist’s gloriously colorful acrylic abstract painting called Chanson radiates joy. Known for his innovative color field work, Feist has chosen a bright rainbow palette in broa...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Inevitable Day – Birth of the Atom oil and tempera painting by Julio De Diego
Located in Hudson, NY
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.” Bibliography Art in America, April 1951, p.78 About this artists: 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...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Tempera

Original Abstract Paintings for Sale on 1stDibs

Bring audacious experiments with color and textures to your living room, dining room or home office. Abstract paintings, large or small, will stand out in your space, encouraging conversation and introducing a museum-like atmosphere that’s welcoming and conducive to creating memorable gatherings.

Abstract art has origins in 19th-century Europe, but it came into its own as a significant movement during the 20th century. Early practitioners of abstraction included Wassily Kandinsky, although painters were exploring nonfigurative art prior to the influential Russian artist’s efforts, which were inspired by music and religion. Abstract painters endeavored to create works that didn’t focus on the outside world’s conventional subjects, and even when artists depicted realistic subjects, they worked in an abstract mode to do so.

In 1940s-era New York City, a group of painters working in the abstract mode created radical work that looked to European avant-garde artists as well as to the art of ancient cultures, prioritizing improvisation, immediacy and direct personal expression. While they were never formally affiliated with one another, we know them today as Abstract Expressionists.

The male contingent of the Abstract Expressionists, which includes Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, is frequently cited in discussing leading figures of this internationally influential postwar art movement. However, the women of Abstract Expressionism, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell and others, were equally involved in the art world of the time. Sexism, family obligations and societal pressures contributed to a long history of their being overlooked, but the female Abstract Expressionists experimented vigorously, developed their own style and produced significant bodies of work.

Draw your guests into abstract oil paintings across different eras and countries of origin. On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive range of abstract paintings along with a guide on how to arrange your wonderful new wall art.

If you’re working with a small living space, a colorful, oversize work can create depth in a given room, but there isn’t any need to overwhelm your interior with a sprawling pièce de résistance. Colorful abstractions of any size can pop against a white wall in your living room, but if you’re working with a colored backdrop, you may wish to stick to colors that complement the decor that is already in the space. Alternatively, let your painting make a statement on its own, regardless of its surroundings, or group it, gallery-style, with other works.

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