1950s Abstract Paintings

Bay Area Abstract Expressionist Composition in Oil on Cardboard San Francisco Bay area abstract expressionist composition by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). Blue, red, and yellow-green patches swirl around each other, evoking the image of a nebula or body of water with leaves floating on top. The bold colors contrast with each other, creating a strong impression even from a distance. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Estate stamp on verso "Estate of Honora Berg - Miller Fine Art" Unframed. Paper size: 29.75"H x 22"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...

San Francisco Bay area abstract expressionist painting by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). A nocturnal setting adds more interest and dimension. Estate stamp on verso "Estate of Honora Berg-Larry Miller Fine Art" Unframed. 36"H x 30"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 form 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...

Richard Andres (American, 1927-2013) White & Yellow, c. 1953 oil on canvas signed lower right, signed and titled verso 30 x 20 inches Craquelure commensurate with age. Richard Andres was born in Buffalo, New York in 1927. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1950, he was immediately drafted and served for two years in the army as a mural painter. He received his Master of Arts from Kent State in 1961. A frequent exhibitor at galleries and museums and winner of multiple May Show prizes, Andres taught art in the Cleveland Public Schools for 28 years, as well as teaching the University of Buffalo, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Western Reserve University. Very little in Richard Andres’ childhood would have predicted his love of classical music, mid-century-modern architecture and certainly not his lifelong passion for art and in particular abstract art. Richard’s father, Raymond, had no more than a third-grade education, and his mother, Clara, was one of thirteen children – only three of whom lived into adulthood and none of whom attended high school. They lived, when Richard was a boy, in a dingy area of Buffalo, NY in a walk-up apartment situated above a tavern. Raymond and Clara supplemented the income from their factory jobs in the bar downstairs with Raymond playing ragtime on the piano and Clara serving drinks. This often left Richard and his two older brothers at home alone to fend for themselves. The two older boys, Raymond and Russell, were - unlike Richard- rather rough and tumble and entertained themselves with stickball, boxing and the like. Richard, on the other hand, from a very young age liked to draw, or better yet even, to paint with the small set of watercolors he received for Christmas one year. Paper, however, at the height of the depression, was hard to come by. Luckily, Clara used paper doilies as decoration for the apartment and Richard would contentedly paint and then cut up doilies, gluing the pieces together to create collages. At eight-years-old, he discovered the Albright-Knox Museum (then known as the Albright Art Gallery) and spent several hours a week there studying the paintings. He was particularly fond of Charles Burchfield‘s landscapes, enamored with their ‘messiness’ and thinking that they somehow captured more ‘feeling’ than works he was previously familiar with. For his tenth Christmas, he asked for and received a ‘how-to’ paint book by Elliot O’Hare. Through this self-teaching, he assembled the portfolio needed for acceptance to Buffalo Technical High School where he studied Advertising Arts. In his Junior year, he was encouraged to enter a watercolor painting, “Two Barns,” in the national 1944-45 Ingersoll Art Award Contest and was one of twelve grand prize winners – each one winning one hundred dollars. More importantly the painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Institute Galleries, which resulted in his winning a national scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art (The Cleveland Art Institute). He flourished at the art school under the tutelage of faculty members such as Carl Gaertner, as well as that of visiting artists such as William Sommer and Henry George Keller. He would say in later years that Gaertner, in particular, influenced his attitude toward life as well as art. “Gaertner,” Andres said, “believed that there was no need to be a ‘tortured artist’, that an artist should rather enjoy beauty, family, and life in general.” Free to spend his days as he chose, he wandered the Cleveland Art Museum for most of the hours he was not attending classes or painting; the remaining time was spent drinking coffee at a local hangout with art school friends – which is where he met fellow Henry Keller scholarship winner, Avis Johnson. Richard was immediately smitten with Avis, but being rather shy, it took him the entire summer of 1948 to build up his courage to ask her out. Over that summer he ‘thought about Avis’ and worked in a diner to save money. He also used the hundred-dollar prize money won in High School to visit the first Max Beckmann retrospective in the United States at the City Art Museum in St. Louis. Over a half century later he spoke of that exhibit with a reverence usually reserved for spiritual matters, “I walked in and it was like nothing I had ever seen before... the color...It just glowed.” Returning to campus in the Fall, the first thing he did was go to the coffee shop in hopes of finding Avis. He did, and she, upon seeing him, realized that she was also smitten with him. They quickly became known as ‘the couple’ on campus, and a year later, with Richard being drafted for the Korean war, they were quickly married by a Justice of the Peace, celebrating after with family at Avis’s Cleveland home. As a gift, faculty member John Paul Miller...

An original very large British Abstract Expressionist oil on canvas by Trevor Bell, the last of the St Ives modernists. Titled December in Anticoli and painted in 1959 after Mark Rot...

This superb British Abstract Expressionist oil painting is by noted artist Bernard Kay. It was painted in 1957 and is titled Cosmos. The composition is loose block forms of colour in...

This stunning Scottish Abstract Expressionist oil painting is by noted Scottish artist William Gear. Painted in 1950 it is an early and significant painting which dates to the early ...

Signed lower right Agnes Hart was born in Meridan, Connecticut. She studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida; at Iowa State University with Josef Presser, Paul Burlin and Lucile...

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...

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...

Charles Green Shaw (American, 1892-1974) By the Dawn's Early Light, 1955 Oil on masonite Signed lower left, dated and titled verso 35.5 x 23.75 inches 38 x 26.25 inches, framed Provenance: The estate of the artist to Charles H. Carpenter Charles Green Shaw, born into a wealthy New York family, began painting when he was in his mid-thirties. A 1914 graduate of Yale, Shaw also completed a year of architectural studies at Columbia University. During the 1920s Shaw enjoyed a successful career as a freelance writer for The New Yorker, Smart Set and Vanity Fair, chronicling the life of the theater and café society. In addition to penning insightful articles, Shaw was a poet, novelist and journalist. In 1927 he began to take a serious interest in art and attended Thomas Hart Benton's class at the Art Students League briefly in New York. He also studied privately with George Luks, who became a good friend. Once he had dedicated himself to non-traditional painting, Shaw's writing ability made him a potent defender of abstract art. After initial study with Benton and Luks, Shaw continued his artistic education in Paris by visiting numerous museums and galleries. From 1930 to 1932 Shaw's paintings evolved from a style imitative of Cubism to one directly inspired by it, though simplified and more purely geometric. Returning to the United States in 1933, Shaw began a series of abstracted cityscapes of skyscrapers he called Manhattan Motifs which evolved into his most famous works, the shaped canvases he called Plastic Polygons. The 1930s were productive years for Shaw. He showed his paintings in numerous group exhibitions, both in New York and abroad, and was also given several one-man exhibitions. Shaw had his first one-man exhibition at the Valentine Dudensing Gallery in New York in 1934, which included 25 Manhattan Motif paintings and 8 abstract works. In the spring of 1935 Shaw was introduced to Albert Gallatin and George L.K. Morris. Gallatin was so impressed with Shaw's work, he broke a policy against solo exhibitions at his museum, the Gallery of Living Art, and offered Shaw an exhibition there. In the summer of 1935 Shaw traveled to Paris with Gallatin and Morris who provided introductions to many great painters. Shaw regularly spent time with John Ferren and Jean Hélion. The following year Gallatin organized an exhibition called Five Contemporary American Concretionists at the Reinhardt Gallery that included Shaw, Ferren, and Morris, Alexander Calder, and Charles Biederman...

Work on canvas

Albert Heckman Untitled Signed lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at...

You are viewing a modernist American acrylic painting depicting a charming but rundown seaside town at night. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, paint...

Leopoldo Gonzales Jr Born 1921 San Antonio Artist Size: 36 x 22 Frame: 42.5 x 28 Medium: Casein Circa 1958 Mid Century Modern "Corrida" Biography Leopoldo Gonzales Jr Born 1921 Exh...

Very finely painted modernist landscape by Robert Noel Blair (1912 - 2002). Watercolor and gouache on paper. Signed Image size, 22 by 29 inches. In excellent original condition. ...

Antique Polish American impressionist flower still life oil painting by Edward Lis (1915 - 2011). Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 15H x 17L.

Genre: Modern Subject: Abstract Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States Sabina Teichman: (1905-1983) Studied at Columbia Univ. (BA, MA), also with Charles J. Martin and Arthur J. Young. Exhibits include WMAA, Art USA, 1958, PAAM, Butler Institute Amer. Art, Audubon Artists Ann., Womens Westchester Center. Sabina Teichman's paintings have a touch of fauvist vitality and responsiveness and color. Her Lyrical Paintings convey the great joy of life which is hers. the joy is so profound that it cannot be obtained in traditional art forms and so it has become necessary for Sabina to create new forms to express the euphoria. As the dynamic colors emerge from her luxuriously coated brush, she surrenders to a newly realized adventure in abstract expressionism. A boldness belies he femininity which yields an exciting style and a joyful freshness. Sabina Teichman illuminates the canvas with strokes of color that affect the very soul of the viewer , for she feels that color inspires the inner being of man. Her response to color elation. Dynamic colors emerge from the luxuriously coated brush of this artist, surrendering to her newly realized adventure in abstract impressionism. A boldness belies her femininity which yields an exciting style and a joyful freshness. Sabina Teichman illuminates the canvas with strokes of color that affect the very soul of the viewer, for she knows as did Goethe, that color inspires the inner being of man. Sabina Teichman's own response to color is elation. Widely known as a figurative painter, one reviews her earlier style only to find that all shapes lived within the surrounding of abstract settings which now dominate her most recent paintings. The Vatican Museum's collection of contemporary art has acquired Sabina Teichman's painting The Prophet given in response to an expressed desire of a representative of Pope Paul VI, who said that, to the best of his knowledge, it was the first painting by a living American to become part of the Vatican. Member of Audubon Artists, Provincetown Art Association Argent Galleries, New York, 1947. Salpeter Gallery, New York, 1949, 1952, 1954. Shore Galleries, Boston, 1955. A C A Gallery, New York, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1969. A C A Gallery, Rome, 1965. Orpheus...

Vintage abstract composition by John W. Hatch (1919 - 1998, American). Exhibited work with a tag lower left. Gouache and watercolor on paper. Signed. Framed.

Harold Nickerson "Cool Birches", Abstract/Landscape Oil on Canvas, 28 x 36, Mid 20th Century, 1958 Colors: Green, Yellow, Blue, White, Brown, Black

Signed lower left. “Abstract and Fractured Biomorphic and Geometric Forms” which was painted in the mid to late 1950’s is a nod to Picasso’s famous painting Guernica, which Hart may have seen when it was given to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1958. Several elements in the painting clearly reference Guernica: the black geometric and cut-out shapes, the biomorphic shapes, the abstracted horse’s head and body, with a district reference to the bull’s tail, along with the black and white pallet choice and various details throughout-all hallmarks of Picasso’s Guernica. The abstracted reality Hart presents in these references go beyond a simple nod and reflect a personal interpretation reflected in the splintered abstraction and her bespoke interpretation. Agnes Hart’s first began her career as a social realist artist in the 1930’s. She was also WPA artist. Her longtime friend Milton Avery encouraged her, and she exhibited in the same gallery in the late 1940’s, the RoKo Gallery. Her instinctive and personalized modernist periods often reflected a similar path of her compatriot artists during the first half of the 20th century. Her early works were influenced by her teachers Josef Presser, Paul Burlin and Lucile Blanch, and Reginald Neal, and reflected historical modern trends-at times showing the influence of Avery and other modernist. Like Elaine DeKooning, Lee Kraser, Michael Corrine West...

Stephen Pace Untitled, 59-A12, 1959 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 29 x 24 inches Born in Charleston, Missouri, Stephen Pace grew up in Indiana, where his parents operat...

An abstract Mid Century Marina scene with Boats, presenting a vivid use of paint and complex lines and color placement. A strong modernist oil painting depicted in 1955 with sailboat...

Sam FRANCIS (1923-1994) THE YELLOW AND WHITE SQUARE Signed, titled and dated 1959 on the reverse Watercolor on paper 11 by 10 in. (27.9 x 25.4 cm.) Executed in 1959 This work is identified with the interim identification number of SF58-133 in consideration for the forthcoming Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Unique Works on Paper. PROVENANCE Zoe Dusanne...

Antique French modern painting of a fall forest. Oil on board, circa 1950. Signed. Image size, 15.5L x 9.75H. Housed in a period giltwood f...

Unknown Artist - Fall Palette, Year: 1959, Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed, titled and dated in pencil on verso, Size: 15.5 x 9.75 in. (39.37 x 24.77 cm), Description: Signed "Frieda...

Early Morris Gluckman abstract painting of a black shadow figure holding a pink item. Artist Biography: Morris Gluckman was born in 1894 in Kiev, Russia. He was an active artist in...

Seascape view of a boat dock. Painting is in a cubist style with neutral tones. The artist uses color and shape to create depth in the painting. Placed in a thick wooden frame. Artis...

Jacques Zimmermann was born in Antwerp in 1929. He said: "The abstraction is not for me or a genre painting, nor a limit. It is a starting point. From there, by the automatic gesture...

We are proud to present the following suite of just discovered, mixed media paintings, c.1957, by American artist Robert McIntosh(1916-2010) Robert McIntosh was extremely prolific...

Presenting an original oil and sand on canvas by Italian artist Gastone Breddo, "L'Universo.". Born in Italy in 1915, Breddo worked throughout his life as an abstract/futurist art...

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

Abstract Composition is a small yet significant artwork realized by the artist Paul Henri Bony, a famous French artist, active in the mid-20th century. The artwork is in excellent co...

Original Sierra Mountain Cabin Abstract Expressionist Landscape Original acrylic painting depicting a cabin in the Sierra Mountains by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985), circa 1950....

Antique American modernist signed scene oil painting. Oil on paper. Signed. Framed. Image size, 20L x 15H.

Artist: Nicolas Ionesco, Romanian (1919 - ) Title: Untitled Year: 1956 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated l.r. and verso Size: 23.5 x 28.5 inches (59.7 x 72.4 cm) Frame: 24.75 x...

With Abstract Expressionist painting, one could argue that the earlier, the more historically important. This stunning non-objective action painting is characterized by vast swaths o...

Presenting a mid century mixed media painting by American artist Robert McIntosh, "Cubist Nude in Green:, an original oil and collage on panel, ...

Abstract Landscape is an original contemporary artwork realized by Maria Asnago. Signed in the bottom right. Hand signed on the back. Mario Asnago. A renewed architect and painte...

A Welsh artist, Morgan studied at Cardiff College of Art under Ceri Richards. He was a renowned imaginative artist and friend of Cedric Morris. He was influenced by the Benton End ar...

Wonderful oil on panel by Henriette Gremeret. Dated 1954, signed low left. The painting has been wonderfully framed on a glass support frmed in oakwood. Cette artiste peintre ( 1895...

Virginia Berresford Pond in Back of Her House Signed and titled on the reverse Oil on board 23 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches Virginia Berresford was an underrated American modernist who had ...

'Roofs of Ravello' by Margaret Wentworth, 1959. Mid-Century Abstract, Harvard Fogg Museum, San Francisco Art Association, Carmel, Art Institute of Chicago ------ Initialed lower rig...

Géométries is an original oil drawing on watermarked paper, realized by the French artist Ph. Ferrando. Signed and dated "4.12. 53" in black ink on the lower right margin. In very...

Antique American modernist signed oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 14L x 18H.

Artist: Jacquelinne White– American (1919-2008) Title: Sketch of Carla at the Age of 12 Year: 1957 Medium: Oil on canvas Sight size: 37.5 x 27.5 Framed size: 41 x 31 inches Signatur...

Antique American modernist signed abstract oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 24L x 20H.

Antique American impressionist pastel painting. Pastel on paper. Framed. Signed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1950. Signed on verso. Displayed in a period frame. Image, 18"L x 20"H.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed verso. Dated 1950.

Bay Area Abstract Expressionist Composition in Oil on Cardboard San Francisco Bay area abstract expressionist composition by Honora Be...

Oil on canvas depicting an abstract subject by Tristan Fabris. He is a painter from italy where he was born in 1927. He moved early to France and there he attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyon. His work is influenced by the cubism and surrealism. He worked with Le Corbusier and his activity was mostly making decors for theatres. He died 1989...

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...

Bela de Kristo Nature morte, circa 1956 Signed lower right Oil on board 19 5/8 x 11 3/4 inches Provenance: Alexander Kahan Fine Arts, New York Private ...

Small size watercolor image of shells. Painting is mainly blue, yellow and brown tones. Painting is framed in a painted wooden gold frame with a yellow matte. Dimensions without Fram...

Edward Zutrau An Orange Seducing a Lemon while a Bunch of Grapes Look On, 4/20/1953 Signed, dated and titled on stretcher bar, and on the side of the work Oil on linen 18 x 21 inches...

This set is composed of Two Autographs Signed by Virgilio Guzzi, addressed to Silvio Perina, the director of the C.I.M, Roman warehouses, during the Fifties. Excellent condition, pe...

Abstract Composition is a suggestive artwork realized by Piero Sadun (1919-1974) in 1953. Original Title: VII n.912. Tempera on heavy paper. Signed and dated by the artist on the...

The actors is an original artwork realized by Maurice Rouzée in the 1950's. Tempera on paper; signed by the artist on the upper left margin. Very good condit...

This is a Happy New Year Card Signed by Virgilio Guzzi, to Silvio Perina, the director of the C.I.M, Roman warehouses, during the Seventies. Rome, Febr...

Antique European flower field oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 24L x 18H.