1950s Abstract Paintings

Vintage realist barn landscape oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a wood molding. Excellent condition, ready to ha...

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

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...

A rare color lithograph by late French artist, Éliane Thiollier. Edition of 275, certificate of authentication is provided. Minor acid staining from the old mat. Éliane Thiollier s...

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

Seymour Franks No. 4, 1952 Signed upper left Dated on verso Oil on canvas American painter and designer, Seymour Franks, was born in New York City in 1916. Seymour Franks contracte...

This stunning post-cubist and colorist still life oil on board painting is by A. Rigollot (France, 20th Century). Colorist painting is characterized by intense color use, which becom...

Monochrome Bay Area Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper San Francisco Bay area abstract expressionist composition by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). Although this piece only uses black and white paint, the blue paper creates an additional layer of depth. Lines dance across the paper, implying movement and expression, yet the piece is well-balanced and harmonious. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Unframed. Paper size: 25.5"H x 20"W Larry Miller 1958-2003, Larry was a specialist in bay area abstract artists and purchased numerous bay area artists estates. He purchased the entirety of the Honora Berg Estate and we purchased many of those works directly from Larry. Honora Berg, an Abstract Expressionist and Bay Area Figurative School artist, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with David Park, Elmer Bischoff and James Budd Dixon...

Roger Lersy, "Abstract Seascape with Boats," Circa 1958. A vibrant lithograph on paper by French artist Roger Lersy (1920–2004), this stunning Cubist-inspired composition features an...

Gertrude Greene Byzantine, 1955 Signed and dated lower right; signed titled and dated on verso Oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches A political leftist and social activist, Gertrude Greene...

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

Norman Carton Mid Century Modern Cityscape, ca. 1951 Oil on canvas painting (signed twice) Signed twice: hand signed on the front and also signed on the back Unique Frame included: T...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Adele Becker. Framed. Oil on canvas.

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...

Modernist abstract composition signed Geist. Oil on board, circa 1950. Signed lower right. Displayed in a wood frame. Excellent ready to hang condition.

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...

Georges Dayez (French, 1907-1991). “Vendimia” Vintage / Grape Harvest / Wine Harvest , Oil on paper, 20”x 26 1/3, framed 27 1/4 x 33 1/4. Dayez was a...

Vibrant mid century modern abstracted figurative in orange, red and black by Bay Area artist Paul Sheppard. Dated 1959 and signed "Sheppard." Presented i...

Work from the second school of Paris.

2901 City Landscape ,acrylic on canvas Displayed in a custom gilt wood frame Image size 18x24" overall 21x26.5" Signed Varen

Antique American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. No signature found.

Vintage American abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 19 by 25 inches overall, and 12.5 by 18.5 painting alone. In excellent original cond...

Vintage European impressionist coastal town oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a wood molding. Excellent condition...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Adele Becker (1929 - 2021). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

Taro Yamamoto, (American, 1919-1994) "La Gatta Miso" Oil or Acrylic/Canvas 32" x 50" Hand signed lower right, dated 1990, Titled on the stretcher verso, unframed. Taro Yamamoto (...

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

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 American abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 20L x 16H.

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

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...

Dynamic French abstract fusing various shapes and patterns with bright and bold hues, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archival ...

Abstracted River Canyon Landscape in Oil on Canvas Dramatic landscape by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). Three large cliffs tower over a river, creating a massive canyon. The landscape is represented in colors reminiscent of fauvism - greens, yellows, and magentas. Signed "Honora Berg" at the bottom edge. Acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Initialed and numbered "HB 103" on verso Unframed. This piece is on canvas that has been stretched over cardstock by the artist. Board size: 20.5"H x 25.75"W Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985) was an Abstract Expressionist and Bay Area Figurative School artist who studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with David Park, Elmer Bischoff and James Budd Dixon. Berg's friend Edith Truesdell — David Park's aunt — suggested a move to California in 1951 to study under Park. She exhibited at the 25th Annual Drawing, Print and Sculpture Exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Provenance, Estate of Honora Berg - David Carlson Gallery, Larry Miller...

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

Abstract Composition in Pink and Black in Acrylic on Cardboard Dynamic abstract in black and pink by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). This piece is composed of multiple layers, with bright, bold colors at the bottom, building to black on top. Pink, magenta, yellow, and orange shine through a net of black. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Estate stamp on verso "Estate of Honora Berg - Miller Fine Art" Numbered "246" on verso Unframed. Art size: 21.25"H x 14"W Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985) was an Abstract Expressionist and Bay Area Figurative School artist who studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with David Park, Elmer Bischoff and James Budd Dixon. Berg's friend Edith Truesdell — David Park's aunt — suggested a move to California in 1951 to study under Park. She exhibited at the 25th Annual Drawing, Print and Sculpture Exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Provenance, Estate of Honora Berg - David Carlson Gallery, Larry Miller...

Masaaki Yamada, Work B.0., 1957 Oil on Wooden Panel 22.50 x 15.50 cm (8.86 x 6.10 in) Work B.0. from 1957 is an exemplary piece from Masaaki Yamada's crucial early period, vividly ...

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...

Antique American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canas. Framed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a wood molding. Excellent condition, read...

Vintage American modernist landscape oil painting by Frank Barry. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Measuring 27 by 31 inches overall and 18 by 22 painting alone. Nicely framed in a wood...

Original, highly textured oil on canvas painting by Jacques Gandon. Signed lower right and dated 1953. The painting has the visual appearance of a woven fabric abstract. Can be hung horizontally or vertically. Condition is very good, no issues. Original artist pine strip frame. Frame has wear consistent with its age. Overall framed measurements are 24.5 by 37 inches. Vintage Jonathan Adler...

Abram Abraham Krol was born January 22, 1919, in Pabianice (Lodz), Poland. Abram Krol went to France in 1938 to study civil engineering at the Universit...

Vivid mid century landscape of autumn trees blurring into colorful abstraction by Helen Gleiforst (American, 1903-1997). Presented in a giltwood frame. Image size: 10" H X 8" W. G...

Vintage American modernist southern school painting. A family portrait on a New Orleans porch. Beautiful detail in the wrought iron. Brilliant color palette here. Signed verso. ...

Leonard Lieb (American, 1912-1977) Abstract in Green and Black, c. 1950 Oil on masonite Signed lower center 48 x 24 inches Leonard Lieb was a Pittsburgh painter of genre scenes who ...

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...

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...

This superb British 1950's abstract oil on board painting is by noted Slade School trained contemporary artist Leo Davy. Davy was born in Yorkshire but settled in Cornwall in 1968 an...

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...

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), ...

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...

This vibrant and dynamic original abstract oil painting by Paul Kauvar Smith (1893–1977) showcases the artist’s bold use of color and modernist technique. Executed in oil on board, t...

Antique American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed "Lee Tang".

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

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

Stephen Pace Untitled, 58-26, 1958 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 56 x 40 inches Born in Charleston, Missouri, Stephen Pace grew up in Indiana, where his parents operate...

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

This is an interesting abstract work done with handmade Japanese Kozo or Washi type fiber paper mounted on board. Hand signed and dated in wonderful muted earth tones of fall foliage. Taro Yamamoto (1919 – 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and others became a leading art movement of the post World War II era. He was also associated with Action painting Yamamoto was born in Hollywood, California. He lived in Japan from age six to age nineteen. In 1936 he returned to the USA and began studies in cubism at Los Angeles City College. In 1941 he joined the U.S. Army and served during WWII. After being discharged from the service he returned to California where he studied at the Santa Monica City College. 1950-1952 at The Art Students League of New York, under Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Morris Kantor, Reginald Marsh, Byron Browne and Vaclav Vytlacil; 1951-1953 at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in New York City. In 1952 he won a John Sloan Fellowship from the Art Students League. The next year he traveled to Europe under a Edward G. MacDowell Traveling Fellowship where he studies in Stuttgart, Germany with Willi Baumeister. He also exhibited at Galerie Huit in Paris. In 1954 Yamamoto was invited to a residency at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. There he worked alongside Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko developing his unique abstract expressionist style. Later in his life he devoted himself to a more hard-edge geometric style of painting. He married Gwyneth Cotton, a naturalized English woman, in 1955, and they lived in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. They were active at the Universalist Church of Provincetown. (He descended from a long line of Shinto priests) Yamamoto died in Provincetown in 1994. Selected Solo Exhibitions 1953: Galerie Huit, Paris; 1955: The Art Students League of New York, NYC; 1960-1962: Krasner Gallery, NYC; 1963-1964: 371 Gallery, Provincetown, MA; Selected Group Exhibitions 1951: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; 1952: NY Contemporary Gallery, NYC; 1952, 1955, 1956, 1962: Provincetown Art...

Composition is an original contemporary artwork realized in the mid-20th Century by Mario Asnago. Mixed colored oil painting. Hand signed on the lower margin. Includes frame: 90x5...

A Colorful 1956 Gouache Titled "Sunday in Torromolinos, Spain" by Samuel Butnik. Artwork size: 18" x 25". Archivally matted to: 24" x 30". Biography...

Impressive European impressionist summer beach scene oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 20H by 24L.

Here I have for sale a rare Avant-Garde painting by Minna Wright Citron (October 15, 1896 – December 21, 1991). She was wife of the famous social realist Bernard Koopman. Reginald Marsh and Raphael Soyer. She moved on to start teaching in the early 1950’s Abstract...