Masonite Abstract Paintings

Untitled Abstraction, 1958, oil on board, signed and dated lower left, 24 x 35 inches, presented in a newer frame Oscar Edmund Thalinger was an American painter, draftsman, printma...

Wesley Lea (1914-1981). Cubist Composition, ca. 1960. Oil on masonite panel, measuring 14.5 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 19.5 x 27 inches. Signed lower left.

This painting makes a bold statement! A large, dynamic and colorful Abstract Expressionist painting by notable Post-War artist, Lee R. Chesney (Am. 1920-2016). Executed in a palett...

Earl Hill (1927-1985). Gas Station Attendant, 1966. Oil on masonite panel, 10.5 x 13.5 inches, 15 x 18 inches framed. Signed and dated lower right. Inscribed...

Colorful abstract expressionist piece by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009) that lends itself to either vertical or horizontal orientat...

A Lively 1950s Surrealist Mid-Century Modern Sporting- Themed Abstract Painting, "Swimmers", by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). Oil on Masonite, dating from 1...

Autumn Trees - Mid Century Small-Scale Landscape, Signed Oil Painting Vivid mid century landscape of autumn trees blurring into colorful abstraction by Helen Gleiforst (American, 19...

Original oil painting on masonite by noted Mexican abstract artist Leonardo Nierman (1932 - ), signed lower right. In its original gilt wood frame measuring 38.5 x 30.5 inches. Ar...

Signed lower right, 'Paul England' (American, 1918-1988) and painted circa 1965. With old label, verso, bearing title, 'Gutenburg'. Framed in a period wh...

Mid Century Modern, American Abstract Expressionist Painting on Masonite. This wonderful work in exciting colors is housed in a contemporary white wood frame presentation.. The art...

Moody figurative abstract expressionist painting of a Victorian couple with an angel by artist David Rosen (American, 1912-2004), c. 1970. Signed "Rosen" lower right. Unframed. Image...

A Large, Colorful, Modernist Art Deco Cubist Painting, "The Dancers" by Famed Chicago Painter and Printmaker, Charles Turzak (Am. 1899 - 1986). A large, vertical composition relating to the artist's notable 1930s woodcut of the same title. The painting is completed in a vividly textured Cubist style, with striking hues of rich greens and yellows, deep blues and rose pinks. The painting is oiI on canvas mounted to Masonite (artist's original mount), and offers a superb visual appeal. A perfect complement to any Mid-Century Modern home or collection. Artwork size: 38 x 24 inches (Framed size: 38 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches). Signed "Turzak" lower right. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Charles Turzak was one of Chicago’s greatest printmakers of the Art Deco-era. Son of a coal miner, Turzak was born in Streeter, IL in 1899. In 1920, Turzak won the first prize a cartoon contest sponsored by the Purina company and he used his prize money to enroll in the Art Institute of Chicago. Best known as a print maker, in the 1920s & 30s, he created woodcuts of many of Chicago’s most notable buildings, including the Merchandise Mart, Palmolive Building and the Old Water Tower, among others. In 1933, he was commissioned to create woodcuts of many of Chicago’s most iconic buildings to illustrate a guidebook called “All About Chicago” by John and Ruth Ashenhurst” that featured the upcoming Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago. During the 1933 World’s Fair...

Mexican Modernist Oil Painting - Double Sided Abstract Figures and Buildings Dynamic abstract pieces by Ernesto Butterlin, aka Linares, (Mexican, German b. 1917 d. 1964.) The front ...

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled portico, from the estate of gallerist Andre Zarre, 1977 Acrylic and graphite on masonite Signed and dated '77 in graphite on the front Unique Provenance: Acqu...

Double sided figurative abstract by San Jose, California area artist Daniel David Fuentes (American, 20c-2017). San Francisco bay area abstract expressionist and landscape artist dur...

Vivid and evocative abstracted painting of 9/11 by artist Jocelyn Audette (American, b. 1952), circa 2001. Impasto adds texture and interest. Label on verso with artist's name. Pres...

Signed upper right, 'Graham' for Ellwood Graham (American, 1911-2007) and painted circa 1985; additionally signed, verso, and titled, 'View Study'. This early California Modernist ...

Jean Krillé’s paintings are known for their expressive use of color and dynamic, abstract forms, blending realism with abstraction in his depictions of nature. His landscapes often f...

Oil, acrylic, resin on masonite

It’s time to bury the so-last-century idea that folks are either "right-brained,” i.e., naturally creative, or (boringly) "left-brained," always operating logically. And here’s just ...

Mid-Century Abstract Expressionist Composition with Blue, Purple, and Pink Colorful mid-century abstract expressionist painting by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009...

Sylvia Rutkoff (1919-2011) 26-1 "The Schoolgirl" c.1950s Oil paint, sand on Masonite 36x48 wood period frame Unsigned Collection acquired from family estate Sylvia Weinreb Rutkoff (...

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted Tiffany Blue background, black abstract portrait. Here you ...

Bold abstract painting with pink, yellow, black, brown and white forms by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). From the es...

Mid-Century Modern Abstracted Cubist Table Still-Life in Acrylic on Masonite Vibrant mid-century modern still life with abstracted synthetic cubist elements in warm colors, highligh...

A Colorful, Dynamic 1930s Modern Boxing Scene by Notable Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 2 3/4 x 4 inches, oil on Masonite mounted to original board; accompanied wit...

Edward Pechmann Renouf (1906-1999). Oil on panel measures 16 x 24 inches. Signed lower margin. Excellent condition. Provenance: Allan Stone Pr...

Jean Krillé’s paintings are known for their expressive use of color and dynamic, abstract forms, blending realism with abstraction in his depictions of nature. His landscapes often f...

Impressive early American impressionist landscape painting by Will S. Taylor (Born 1882). Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Image size, 12 by 13 inches.

Arresting and evocative oil abstract titled "Female Priests" by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). Unframed. Signed "Les Anderson" on...

Coral Bouquet - Abstracted Underwater Scene in Acrylic on Masonite High contrast abstract composition by an unknown artist (20th Century). Vibrant scene composed of abstract shapes ...

Kimono with Rope Texture - Collagraph Master Plate Master plate for collagraph printmaking featuring a kimono with rope texture in warm neutral peach tones, by California artist Pat...

Gorgeous mid century modernist abstract combining earth-tones and subtlest metallic silver background by Corban LePell (American, b. 1933), 1955. Signed ...

A dynamic, abstract expressionist image with lavender and earth tones by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). From the estate of Les Anderson in Monterey, California....

Sylvia Rutkoff (1919–2011) "The Cowboy" c. 1950s · Oil, gesso, on masonite · Period wood frame About this work Few paintings in the Rutkoff estate cache reveal her range as ...

Acrylic on masonite. This is a pivotal work in deep and radiant cobalt blue from 1950. It dipicts calligraphic and hieroglyph structures over a grid and pyramidal base by the first generation abstract expressionist. Provenance: Skinner: November 13, 1992 [Lot 00219}, The entry in the Skinner catalog indicates that the painting came directly from the artist to the family of the consignor to Skinner. Kaminsky Auctions. There is an unbroken paper trail that traces the ownership of the painting from the current owner, through two auction houses to the artist. Perfect unbroken provenance. Pousette-Dart was among the most inventive of the Abstract Expressionist generation, His uncanny talent was to expand the nature of abstraction and still make each mark each element very much his own; a reflection of what he called   "the concealed power of the spirit," he said, “not of the brute physical form."   His was not aiming for a singular, realized aesthetic formula but to expand the possibilities of painting; the transcendental in painting. Typical of such invention and exploration is this  painting  Untitled 1950 when the artist was only 34 years old and represented by one of the champions of the new American painting, Betty Parsons.  
A banner year for Pousette-Dart, the Museum of Modern Art acquired their first painting by the Minnesota born artist.  He worked on easel size works such as this painting an oil on masonite. At the same time Pousette-Dart was also working on larger scale works such as Path of the Hero, running over ten feet in length now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Both contain fields of color articulated by a highly sophisticated white hieroglyphic vocabulary. Rather than demonstrate an expressionist sensibility, Pousette-Dart harnesses his more cerebral ideas transforming thick areas of paint into a more refined composition of geometric forms akin to the pattern and forms of say a stained glass window. In a way he is looking back at Fugue, 1940 a black and white composition which makes use of a similar format of painting albeit smaller. Color and form are minimal, but what Pousette-Dart has maximized is the rhythmic and syncopated character of painting casting his ideas into purely symbolic terms that one might link to the pictograms of Adolph Gottlieb. Nonetheless, nature is always at the core of Pousette-Dart’s thinking and dreaming. Here he has transformed the local Ramapo Mountains—where he will eventually move with his family to live and work— into a complex series of articulated fragments linked by style, scale and color.  The painting’s imagery built on two large triangles and reduced to just two colors, cobalt blue and white all outlined in black.  Pousette-Dart symbols stacked in horizontal and vertical rows:  blue is ground, white is language, symbolic of light, consciousness and awareness . The painting maintains a mystical character images compounded that formulate a secret code and linked to the series of white paintings Pousette-Dart authored in the first half of the 1950s. Get up close to the picture and you discover images within images a kind of picture puzzle...

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 cubist still life painted in jewel tones. ca. 1970. Oil on masonite panel measuring 20 x 24 inches. Unfrmaed. Signed "Galbrun" lower right.

A textural, earth tone abstract landscape evocative of rolling hillsides in brown and white neutrals by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). Unsigned. Unframed. Image, 24"H x...

An abstract collage on wood by Kenneth Morrow Martin, American (1911-1983). Exhibited: 1st Knoxville Art Center National Exhibtion, 1961 White Landscape by Keith Morrow Martin...

Medium - Acrylic on Wood Panel Year - 2025 Style - Contemporary Subject - Architecture, France Dimensions - 24 H x 13 W in Condition - New, Ready to Hang French Beauty, a conte...

Bold abstract composition by RH Barnard (American, 20th Century). The backdrop of this piece is composed of rectangular sections of brown, red, blue, and tan. In the center of the composition, there is a black object...

Carl Robert Holty (American 1900-1973) Abstract Expressionism Oil on Masonite board. Abstract with greens blues and red, Dimensions 12 x 9-1/2 inches. Framed 17 X 14 inches Hand...

James Earl Ray (1928-1998). Landscape with Orange Sky. ca. 1975. Oil on masonite panel measures 6.5 x 8.5 inches, 10.5 x 12.5 inches framed. Signed lowe...

Jean Krillé’s paintings are known for their expressive use of color and dynamic, abstract forms, blending realism with abstraction in his depictions of nature. His landscapes often f...

It's 1951. Who was doing painting like this? Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Lee Kra...

Double-sided Latin American Post War Geometric Abstract Dynamic abstract pieces by Ernesto Butterlin, aka Linares, (Mexican, German b. 1917 d. 1964.), 1946.The use of shape and lig...

A dynamic, 1950s Mid-Century Modern horse race painting by noted Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. Artwork size: 27" x 23"; oil on Masonite. Framed size: 27 1/2" x 23 1/2". Signed "Pe...

"Stillborn Dreams" - Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Composition in Oil Colorful mid century abstract expressionist painting by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009...

Mid Century Modern, American Abstract Expressionist Painting on Masonite. This wonderful work in exciting colors is housed in a contemporary white wood frame presentation.. The art...

A dymanic mid century abstract expressionist painiting with geometric shapes in cool tones and two figures by Leslie Luverne Anderson (American, 1928-2009). Oil on masonite. Titled "...

Ben Wilson Byzantium, 1975 Oil on Masonite painting Hand signed reverse, Titled, "Byzantium", dated 1975 by the artist and also with estate stamp - in addition to Ben Wilson's hand s...

Signed lower right 'G. Pisani' for Gianni Pisani (Italian, born 1935), titled verso 'Paesaggio con Valigia' (Landscape with Luggage) and dated 1963. Provenance: Galleria El Centro, ...

Mixed Media on Masonite

Expressive and raw large-scale modernist portrait of the timeless film actress Alida Valli (Italian, 1921-2006) by an unknown artist "Millá" (not to be con...

Seated Woman Abstract Expressionism Painting, Oil on Masonite, Signed Figurative abstract painting by San Jose, California area artist Daniel David Fuentes (American, 20th Century). ...

Ben Wilson Rock Candy Mountain, ca. 1970 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed, titled and dated) Hand signed, titled and dated by Ben Wilson on the back Frame Included: held in artist'...

Like a Comet - Nocturnal Sky in Oil on Masonite Surrealistic oil painting landscape of comet by listed San Francisco, California artist Eleanor Perry (American, 1928-2014). Signed ...

Mid Century Modernist Sailboat Geometric Abstract Oil Painting This dynamic mid-century piece features bold geometry and a strong sense of movement. White triangular shapes parade a...

His first name sounds like a concerto. Vivacious, its name is reminiscent of an aperitif or a cyclist. The addition of the two evokes the Italianate. Indomitable and unavoidable. Mor...