1950s Abstract Paintings

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed.

Vintage abstract original oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Wonderful early American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed.

Forest Landscape in Sumi Ink on Paper High contrast abstracted landscape by an unknown artist "Shmitt" (20th Century). The edge of a forest is shown in bold strokes of sumi ink, cre...

Signed lower right, 'Gilberg' for Robert George Gilberg (American, 1911-1970) and dated '58'. Born in Oakland, Robert George Gilberg first studied at the Oakland Art Center during t...

An original abstract expressionist oil painting by American female artist Irene Zevon created and dated in 1959. This piece entitled "Musical" is a prime example of Zevon's relation...

Diana Kurz Thelo #5, circa 1959 Oil on canvas 22 x 20 inches Diana Kurz (born 1936) is an Austrian-born feminist painter. In 1938, Diana Kurz's family fled Austria, first to Englan...

An original oil on board painting by American modernist John W. Hatch. This incredible cubist painting was created in the 1950's. Estate stamped on the reverse. The painting comes housed in a modern black frame presentation. John Woodsum Hatch 1919-1998 During his fifty-year career as an artist, John Woodsum Hatch explored the people, the landscape, and the seascape around him. From his extensive travels to his years in New Hampshire, he developed a body of work that captures a sense of place. Through watercolor, ink and sand, he depicted the grandeur of the White Mountains. The crisp light and distinct topography of the Isles of Shoals and Great Bay Estuary are precisely and clearly documented in acrylic and tempera paintings. His ability to convey the sheer scale and longevity of the mountains and sea, and by comparison the fleeting nature of human life, conveys in a not-so-subtle way that the natural environment is to be revered and preserved. Hatch took his first teaching job at the University of New Hampshire in 1949, the same year he graduated from Yale University. He never left. A former student, Sam Cady, described his contributions: “He was a wonderful mix of jokester and sage. A teacher who obviously loved people, loved teaching, and had a great gift for it.” After retiring in 1985, he was made an honorary Professor Emeritus at UNH. Hatch contributed to New Hampshire's cultural life in three areas: his teaching, his art, and his community service. His effectiveness in these three areas can be traced his commitment to give something of himself to help others. Many artists teach by necessity and resent it as a drain on their creative energies but Hatch found his greatest fulfillment from a combination of teaching, making art, and being deeply involved with his community as an art historian and as an environmentalist. Hatch’s work can be seen in numerous public collections, including: the Addison Gallery of American Art; DeCordova Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; State of New Hampshire's Living Treasures Collection, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. John Woodsum Hatch, New Hampshire's 1997 Living Treasure Award recipient, died on August 6, 1998, at the age of 78. Hatch was a draftsman, an artist and a muralist. His works can be found in public and private collections throughout the region. He exhibited at the New Hampshire Art...

Antique American signed abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed.

A dynamic & colorful Mid-Century painting (ca. 1950) by French Artist Michel Patrix, in purples, yellow and reds. The painting is titled "Coings au Plateau Noir" or (Quinces on a bl...

Oil on canvas. Signed Verso. Harriet was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived with her husband in Park Slope for over 35 years. She attended the Brooklyn Museum Scho...

This exceptional oil on canvas by master Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is an exceptional and unique example of his early pre-pop work. It is signed by the artist, upper right. After m...

Monumental modernist oil on panel painting by Louis Demott Bunce (1907-1983), from an installation for the Oregon Centennial Exposition, 1959. A rare & important and monumental abstract painting by the celebrated Oregon artist Louis Bunce, the artist was commissioned to paint a mural for the 1959 Oregon Centennial & Trade Fair in Portland, the installation was titled " Gay Garden Way ", it was painted for the exterior of the Horticultural building. The mural having abstract plant abstractions, according to Bunce in his own words it was "the rounded shapes of flowers and the sun", the mural created a major furor from the conservative art public. The painting signed and dated by the artist lower left, the work was sold in the late 1980s through the celebrated Laura Russo Gallery, this painting is featured in Roger Hull's book; "Louis Bunce, Dialogue with Modernism". The painting is in good condition and ready to grace your wall. Louis Bunce attended high school and the Museum Art School before leaving for the Art Students League in New York. He established a New York connection that began when he first attended classes there in 1927 and continued over the years with frequent visits. He became friends with many promising artists, including Jackson Pollock and David Smith. In 1939 he worked for the WPA Easel Project in New York and by the time he returned to Portland he was an established artist on the East Coast. He worked at the WPA art center in Salem as an Instructor and Assistant Director. His work included murals, two of which are in the Post Offices in Grants Pass and St. Johns. Their subjects, mining and orchard farming, are activities of each region. "I have always been visually drawn to the landscape, at first the desert and mountain regions of Wyoming; then the lush and gentle color of the Pacific Northwest and the urban landscape of New York." From 1942-1945 he worked as an illustrator, a tool designer, and in assembly for the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation. After WWII, Bunce joined the faculty of the Museum Art School in Portland, where he had been a student in 1925-1926. He taught there until his retirement in 1972. He excelled at producing screen-prints and introduced this technique to Oregon. While maintaining a national reputation throughout the 1950s and 1960s, some of New York's most prestigious galleries represented him. Theater buffs will remember his murals and portraits for Portland Civic Theater's 1938 production of Pride and Prejudice. In a career that made him one of the most recognized names in Oregon's art history, Bunce had many styles: cubism, expressionism, surrealism and abstractionism. His 1958 mural in the Portland International Airport presents this abstract style: "whirling propellers and shadows of the concourse as seen from above." It was controversial at the time as being too abstract for a public art project. Louis and wife Eda opened a full-time art gallery in Portland in 1949, called the Kharouba. Located first at 1016 SE Morrison, then at SW 11th and Alder, the gallery represented many of the leading artists of the day: Josephine Cameron, William Givler, Clifford Gleason, Jack Hammack, Charles Heaney, Frederick Heidel, George Johanson, Jack McLarty, Rick Norwood, C.S. Price, Arthur Runquist, Jolan Torok, Charles Voorhies...

Untitled (Highrise), 1954, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 20 inches, presented in its original frame Karl Benjamin was a California-based artist who is best known...

"Abstraction" Mid-20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Modernist James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) "Abstraction" 58 ¼ x 41 ¾ inches Signed and dated 1957 lower left Oil on...

Very nicely painted American modernist harbor oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 16H by 20L.

Albert Heckman Untitled, circa 1950 Signed lower left Oil on canvas 25 x 32 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art world in 1915 after graduating from high school and landing a job at the Meadville Post Office. In 1917, at the age of 24, Heckman enrolled part-time in Teachers' College, Columbia University's Fine Arts Department to begin his formal art education. He worked as a freelance ceramic and textile designer and occasionally as a lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the early 1920s, at the age of almost 30, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia Teachers College. He was especially impacted by his instructor at Columbia, Arthur Wesley Dow. After graduating, he was hired by the Teachers' College as a Fine Arts instructor. He stayed with Columbia Teachers' College until 1929, when he left to attend the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany. Isami Doi (1903-1965), who was born in Hawaii, was arguably his most impressive student at Columbia. Doi is now regarded as one of the most prominent artists hailing from Hawaii. Heckman became an active member and officer of the Keramic Society and Design Guild of New York in the 1920s as part of his early commercial art career. The Society's mission was to share knowledge and showcase textile and ceramic design exhibits. In 1922, Heckman married Florence Hardman, a concert violinist. Mrs. Heckman's concert schedule during the 1920s kept Albert and Florence Heckman apart for a significant portion of the time, but they spent what little time they had together designing and building their Woodstock, New York, summer house and grounds. A small house and an acre of surrounding land on Overlook Mountain, just behind the village of Woodstock, were purchased by Albert and Florence Heckman at the time of their marriage. Their Woodstock home, with its connections, friendships, and memories, became a central part of their lives over the years, even though they had an apartment in New York City. Heckman's main artistic focus shifted to the house on Overlook Mountain and the nearby towns and villages, Kingston, Eddyville, and Glasco. After returning from the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in 1930, Mr. Heckman joined Hunter College as an assistant professor of art. He worked there for almost thirty years, retiring in 1956. Throughout his tenure at Hunter, Mr. Heckman and his spouse spent the summers at their Woodstock residence and the winters in New York City. They were regular and well-known guests at the opera and art galleries in New York. Following his retirement in 1956, the Heckmans settled in Woodstock permanently, with occasional trips to Florida or Europe during the fall and winter. Mr. Heckman's close friends and artistic career were always connected to Woodstock or New York City. He joined the Woodstock art group early on and was greatly influenced by artists like Paul and Caroline Rohland, Emil Ganso, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andre Ruellan, and her husband, Jack Taylor. Heckman operated a summer art school in Woodstock for several years in the 1930s with support from Columbia University, where these and other Woodstock artists gave guest lectures. The Potter's Shop in New York City hosted Mr. Heckman's first art show in December 1928. The exhibit received some positive reviews from critics. The American Institute of Graphic Arts chose the plate of "Wehlen, Saxony" as one of the "Fifty Prints of the Year in 1929." There were sixteen etchings displayed. The remaining plates depicted scenes in Saxony, Germany, while five of the plates were based on scenes in Rondout, New York. Heckman started switching from etching to black and white lithography by the early 1930s. A lifelong admirer of Heckman's artwork, Mr. Gustave von Groschwitz organized a significant exhibition of Heckman etchings and lithographs at the Ferargil Gallery in New York City in 1933. The exhibition traveled to the Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles (May 1933), the Charles Lessler Gallery in Philadelphia (May 1933), J.L. Hudson in Detroit (June 1933), and Gumps in San Francisco (July 1933). Together with his early etchings, the exhibition featured brand-new black and white lithographs depicting scenes in and around Woodstock as well as "A View from Tudor City...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Very nicely painted American modernist harbor oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 16H by 20L.

Antique American school signed abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 19L x 13H.

Very impressive mid 20th century modernist interior view. So well painted with great color and bold expressive strokes. Signed illegibly. Housed in a period modernist frame. Oil ...

Stephen Harty, Untitled (Bird Abstraction), gouache, 1953. Signed and dated lower left. A fine, meticulously rendered, mid-century, modernist gouache painting, with fresh colors on 1...

Very nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Great colors and bold brush strokes.

Antique American school modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1950. Unsgned. Image size 36L x 60H.

Shulman, Morris (American, 1912-1978). UNTITLED. Casein on paper, circa 1951. Signed, lower left. 14 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches, framed to 23 x 30 inches. In excellent condition. Shulman st...

Wonderful example of Houston Artist David Adickes's early work. This heavily textured still life features 2 apples and 3 bottles. Most likely this work was framed at Dubose Gallery o...

An original oil on linen mounted to board by American modern female artist Harriet Holden Nash. The piece will come with custom framing either black or natural wood based on the buy...

Stephen Pace Untitled, 57-10, 1957 Signed and dated lower right Oil on canvas 47 x 38 inches Born in Charleston, Missouri, Stephen Pace grew up in Indiana, where his parents operat...

Very nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Great colors and bold brush strokes.

Impressive early American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas board.

Antique American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.

Signed lower right, 'Max Gunther' (German, 1934-1974); additionally signed verso, dated 1958 and titled 'Cité Décomposée'. Provenance: Estate of David Rockefeller...

Discover the vibrant world of Martin Saldana, a talented Mexican-American folk artist known for his captivating rustic and naïve style. This original painting, titled "The Train", wa...

Harriet was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived with her husband in Park Slope for over 35 years. She attended the Brooklyn Museum School at...

This superb Abstract Expressionist Scottish oil painting is by noted artist William Gear. It was painted in 1959 and is entitled Red Idol 2. This abstract com...

Charming and well painted rural New England modernist landcape by Vern Henry Smith (1927 - 2007. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

This vibrant abstract oil painting by Paul Kauvar Smith (1893-1977) features a striking composition in blue, pink, yellow, green, and black. The work is oil on board and has been fra...

Original Bay Area Figurative of Mother and Baby in Oil Paint on Laid Paper Original oil painting depicting a modern twist of a mother and baby by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985), ...

"Moonrise Over Colorado Springs" is a striking 1950s abstract expressionist oil painting by renowned artist Charles Ragland Bunnell. Created in 1952, this captivating piece features ...

Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Oil on canvas. Unsigned. 63 x 51.25 in. 64.5 x 52.5 in. (framed) Custom framed in an ebonized solid walnu...

"Abstraction" Mid-20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Modernist James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) "Abstraction" 58 ¼ x 41 ¾ inches Signed and dated 1957 lower left Oil on...

Antique American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.

Vintage American signed interior scene oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. Signed. Framed. Image size, 14L x 11H.

Vintage and usual American school painting. Oil on board.

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...

Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 15H by 19L.

Antique American modernist oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. Signed.

Oil on canvas. Signed Verso. Harriet was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived with her husband in Park Slope for over 35 years. She attended the Brooklyn Museum Scho...

A mid-century gouache on board painting by American female artist Harriet Holden Nash depicting an abstract Matisse like floral composition in shades of green and black. The board i...

Antique American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

Very rare and well painted Formula Two racing painting. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Nicely framed.

3809 Floating world surreal figurative painting signed on verso Mury

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. No signature found. Framed. Image size, 24L x 18H.

From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedmann Opper Yellow Cubist FIgure c. 1940-1950's Gouache 15" x 18", silver wood frame 16"x19" Unsigned This striking gouache painting featur...

Antique modernist abstract painting by Elsie Orfuss (Born 1913). Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Nicely framed. `

This stylish abstract cubist oil on board painting with a monogram signature "M.J." is from a German artist (20th Century). The colorful painting features a stylized abstract composi...

Thelma Corbin Moody Blue Mountains c. 1960's Gouache on Arches Paper 19 1/4" x 24 3/4", Unframed Unsigned Lovely, mid century gouache painting, b...

Very nicely painted mid century modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 26H by 19L.

Impressive early American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas board.

Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.

Dora Maar è lo pseudonimo di Henrietta Theodora Markovitch (Parigi 1907 - 1997). Avvolta nell'ombra monumentale di Picasso, è stata a lungo - e riduttivamente - conosciuta come la su...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Ervin B. Nussbaum (1914 - 1996). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Dated 1950. Artist Bio: Ervin B. Nussbaum was born in Co...

Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting by Ken Munowitz. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Meditation on African Sculpture, 1957 Oil on found wood panel Signed and dated lower left 20 x 15 inches Charles Elmer Harris...

Very nice painting attesting to an artistic freedom of the artist, it is signed at the bottom right.

Edward Zutrau Untitled, 1957 Oil on linen 44 x 60 1/2 inches Edward Zutrau is among the American artists who worked within the whirlwind of diverse abstraction that blossomed in th...

A dynamic & colorful, Abstract Expressionist Painting in Reds, Blues & Yellows by Artist Harold Haydon, Dated 1957. Framed in a dark, wood cube frame. Image size: 12" x 16". Fra...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 30L x 24H.

Work from the second school of Paris.

Sewell Sillman Green, circa 1958 Acrylic on masonite 21.5 x 28 inches Upon attending Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, Sewell Sillman’s life was arguably altered...

Vintage American school signed modernist cubist still life oil painting and collage. Oil and mixed media on board. Signed. Framed. I...