1950s Abstract Paintings

Abstract Composition is a small yet significant artwork made by Paul Bony, a famous French artist active in the mid-20th century. The artwork is in excellent state of preservation. ...

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

Three masks abstract by Novak (American, 20th Century). Presented in a white wooden frame. Signed "Novak" lower right. Image: 28.5"H x 26"W.

'Coastline' by Alice Beamish. Expressionist California Landscape, San Francisco Woman Artist ----- Signed lower right, "Beamish" for Alice Beamish (American, 1922-2011), titled verso and painted circa 1960. Provenance: The Vincent Price Collection...

Warm-toned abstract figurative painting by an unknown artist. The painting depicts Galveston, TX boxer John Arthur Johnson in profile view. Unsigned. Unframed but framing options are...

Antique American modernist nocturnal starlit harbor painting. Watercolor on paper. Signed. Framed.

Mid century modern art with inscription in french verso. It was traded with another artist.

Vintage American modernist abstract Maine landscape painting. Watercolor and gouache on paper, circa 1960. Signed on verso. Image size, 30...

Albert Heckman Untitled, circa 1950 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 21 1/4 x 29 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...

Calvert Coggeshall Untitled, 1958 Oil on Canvas 38 H. x 36 W. inches Provenance: The artist's estate Calvert Coggeshall worked as an abstract painter and interior designer primarily in Maine and New York City. From 1951 to 1978, he exhibited regularly with the Betty Parsons Gallery, and later with its successor, the Jack Tilton Gallery. Born in Whitesboro, New York, Coggeshall started his career as an interior designer, working on commissions for clients in the New York City area. He later consulted on the interior designs for Henry Dreyfuss' line of cruise/cargo ships called American Export, popular from the 1940s through the 1960s. In the 1940s, he also worked with inventor Arthur Young to design interiors for the first full-sized scale of Bell helicopter models...

Antique American impressionist landscape painting by Genevieve Pierce Law (1906-1995). Oil on board. Framed. Signed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Majorie Shaw Kubach. Oil on canvas. Framed in a minimal white wood frame.

Vintage American modernist interior scene oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 30L x 24H. Great color and a nice period modern wood frame. Ready to hang.

Vintage modernist harbor view by Aksel Jorgensen (1883 - 1957). Oil on board, circa 1957. Signed. Displayed in a period frame. Image size, 24"L x ...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Celestial Tondo, Pointillist Composition, Gouache on Paper, apparently unsigned, artist estate stamp to verso, with red dot sticker...

Gouache, ca1950 Handsigned by the artist in pencil 22.00 cm. x 28.00 cm. 8.66 in. x 11.02 in. (image) Framed work Gouache on paper A certificate of authenticity etaliblished by Pie...

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 University of Caen. In 1939 at the be...

This painting is signed in ink by the artist "Antal Biro" in the lower left corner. It is also dated "20.6.1956" next to the signature. Provenance: The Bergman Collection, The Israel Museum Jerusalem. Charlotte Bergman, who died in Jerusalem on July 17 2003, one month before her 99th birthday, was unique among the museum's benefactors. She lived on the premises of the Israel Museum for three decades, and died there. When she made aliyah from New York to Israel in the 60's, the Belgian-born Bergman brought her collection of modern art with her and helped Jerusalem ex-mayor Teddy Kollek found the museum. As the childless widow of an English architect, she promised to bequeath her paintings, sculptures and ceramics by such 20th century masters as Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso to the museum. In return, she asked to build a home within the campus, sharing its security. She wouldn't have to put her treasures in a vault. She could live with them and savor them with her friends. After her death the museum plans to keep the white, single-story house and its 200 art works intact. Although he would not put a figure on it, they are believed to be worth many millions of dollars. They include a portrait in oils of a young Charlotte Bergman by Dufy, a personal friend, and a set of small-format Henry Moore bronzes...

This Untitled Abstract Composition signed by the Polish Born artist Zvi Mairovich, originating from Haifa Israel, Circa 1950. Features a highly gestural abstracted landscape in hues ...

Antique American modernist beach scene oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 20L x 16H.

A modern abstract painting by American female New York City artist Irene Zevon titled Nocturne created in 1956. This is an experimental work for Zevon. She utilized aerosol paint...

Small longitudinal dark green and yellow toned portrait by Houston, TX artist Pat Colville depicting a young pregnant woman with short hair and a sleeveless top. The subject's striki...

Captivating acrylic abstract painting using a vast array of colors to depict an abstract human face and hand with a landscape in the background under a setting sun and souls Flying o...

Arctic Light-Orange Sun Unsigned Gouache on Japanese fibrous paper Series: Tundra Paintings Exhibited: Karl Zerbe, Gouaches of the Artic Nordness Gallery, (Madison Avenue, NY) Feb 3 through Feb 23, 1958 Cat. No. 12 (label with work, see photo...

Gen Paul (1895-1955 Fr.) lived in Montmartre, Paris France. He is know for his action painting with quick brush strokes and this work of art was painted around 1955-1960. He was a mu...

Antique American abstract expressionist signed oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 26L x 20H.

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...

Vintage American modernist oil painting by Morris M. Shulman (1912 - 1978). Oil on board, circa 1955. Housed in a vintage frame. Signed. Image size, 28 by 20.

Antique American modernist oil painting by Victor De Pauw (1902 - 1971). Oil on board, circa 1950. Framing available. Image size, 24L x 27H. Signed.

This meticulously planned, designed, and executed work depicts an ultra-wide angle view of a rock quarry/mine. The viewer looks down at close-up-stylized rock formations and then out at a horizon line with rust-colored mine trestles. Atherton hints at perspective with a broken white line that is wider in the foreground and tapers to a hairline as it recedes to the background. The work was done in 1951 at the height of America's most important art movement: Abstract Expressionism. John Atherton absorbs its influences but retains elements of representation. Atherton was an in-demand commercial artist who worked for most blue-chip clients. It is possible that this was an editorial assignment for Fortune Magazine. At the same time, Atherton was also a fine artist and the work could be an expression of pure creative pursuits. The work looks better in person and one can look at it for hours and not get bored. Look carefully and you may discover a deeper meaning in this painting of precisely arranged rocks. Signed lower right. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, sold to benefit the acquisitions program ____________________ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Carlton Atherton (January 7, 1900 - September 16, 1952) was an American painter and magazine illustrator, writer and designer. His works form part of numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art,[1] Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[2][3][4] Early Years He was the son of James Chester Atherton (1868-1928) and Carrie B. Martin (1871-1909). He was born in Brainerd, Minnesota.[5] His father was Canadian born. His parents relocated from Minnesota to Washington State, with his maternal grandparents whilst he was still an infant. He attended high school in Spokane, Washington. Career During his early years he never displayed an aptitude for art; rather, his first love being nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. He enlisted in 1917, serving briefly in the U.S. Navy for a year during World War I. At the end of the war, determined to get an education he worked various part-time jobs, as a sign painter and playing a banjo in a dance band to pay his enrolment fee at the College of the Pacific and The California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Once there, he also worked in the surrounding studios developing his oil painting techniques. A first prize award of $500 at the annual exhibition of the Bohemian Club in 1929, financed his one way trip to New York City, which helped to launch his career as an artist.[6] Atherton had aspired to be a fine artist, however his first paid jobs were for commercial art firms designing advertisements for corporations such as General Motors, Shell Oil, Container Corporation of America, and Dole. However, by 1936, encouraged primarily by friends, such as Alexander Brook, an acclaimed New York realist painter, he returned to the fine arts. Atherton continued to accept numerous commissions for magazine illustrations; such as Fortune magazine, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post starting with his December 1942 design, “Patient Dog.” This picture is reminiscent of his friend Norman Rockwell ‘Americana style’ and captures a poignant moment of nostalgia, where a loyal dog looks toward a wall of hunting equipment and a framed picture of his owner in military uniform. Selected One person Exhibitions Atherton accomplished his first one-man show in Manhattan in 1936. His Painting, “The Black Horse” won the $3000 fourth prize from among a pool of 14,000 entries. This painting forms part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.[7] Atherton achieved recognition in New York City and elsewhere during the 1930s. Having exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York,[8] his paintings began to be collected by museums; including the Museum of Modern Art[9] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His reputation increased with his art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, his design won first place in the Museum of Modern Arts “National Defense Poster Competition”. Selected Public Collections Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[10] Buffalo, NY Art Institute of Chicago,[11] Chicago Wadsworth Atheneum,[12] Hartford, CT Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art,[13] New York Whitney Museum of American Art,[14] New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[15] Philadelphia De Young Museum,[16] San Francisco Smithsonian American Art Museum,[17] Washington DC Butler Institute of American Art[18] Youngstown, OH The Famous Artists School Founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by members of the New York Society of Illustrators (SOI), but due to the Society's legal status, could not be operated by it. SOI member Albert Dorne led the initiative to set up a separate entity, and recruited the support of Norman Rockwell, who was also an SOI member. For the founding faculty, Dorne recruited Atherton, as well as accomplished artists such as Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold von Schmidt and Jon Whitcomb.[19] He collaborated with Jon Whitcomb with the book “How I Make a Picture: Lesson 1-9, Parts 1”.[20][21] Society of Illustrators Atherton as an active member from his arrival in New York. The society have owned many of his works. Ex-collection includes: Rocking Horse (ca. 1949) [22] Atherton, as his peers had many of his works framed by Henry Heydenryk Jr.[23] Personal On November 2, 1926, he married Polly “Maxine” Breese (1903-1997).[24][25] They had one daughter, Mary Atherton, born in 1932. Atherton's often chose industrial landscapes, however found himself spending considerable time in Westport, Connecticut, with an active artistic community, and it became home for him, and his family. He then moved to Arlington, Vermont.[26] Norman Rockwell enlisted Atherton in what was to be the only collaborative painting in his career.[27] He was part of a group of artists including a Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer and George Hughes who established residences in Arlington.[28] Atherton and Mead Schaeffer were avid fly fishermen and they carefully chose the location for the group,[29] conveniently located near the legendary Battenkill River. In his free time, Atherton continued to enjoy fly-fishing.[30] He brought his artistic talent into the field of fishing,[31] when he wrote and illustrated the fishing classic, “The Fly and The Fish”.[32] He died in New Brunswick, Canada in 1952,[33] at the age of 52 in a drowning accident while fly-fishing.[34] Legacy The Western Connecticut State University holds an extensive archive on this artist.[35] His wife, Maxine also published a memoir “The Fly Fisher and the River” [36] She married Watson Wyckoff in 1960. Ancestry He is a direct descendant of James Atherton,[37][38] one of the First Settlers of New England; who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1630s. His direct ancestor, Benjamin Atherton was from Colonial Massachusetts...

Work on paper glued to cardboard Dimensions of the "passe-partout" frame 29 x 22.5 x 0.7 cm Work signed lower right and monogram F.V.S. and dated on the up...

An unsigned mid century modern American abstract painting

You are viewing a modernist acrylic painting by Robert Blair in which the artist has utilized a comb to create designs within the painting. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003)...

The texture of this artwork by Frederik Ottesen is mesmerizing. Seen from a distance, it invites the viewer to come closer and they are rewarded with the gorgeous encaustic surface O...

Gorgeous watercolor by Adine Stix. This piece was painted in the 1950s and was acquired directly from Adine's daughter. It is beautifully framed and matted in a gold cube frame under...

Oil on canvas, signed lower right The painting will be framed at the same price.

This stunning mid-20th century abstract figurative painting titled "Fertility Goddesses" by renowned Denver modernist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) features three stylized nude female f...

A lovely still vintage Impressionist still life that is almost all the way to abstraction, with the color passages around the fruit and flowers gently blending into one another. Comes framed, but I think it's worthy of a larger gold frame...

The Estate of the artist

Signed and dated lower right; inscribed, Dated and Signed on Verso Provenance: Ashley John Gallery

A great abstract composition by the well known french painter Pierre Jourda, (1931-2007), painted in 1958. An important dimension, it is not framed. Pierre Jourda À Paris, il décou...

Huguette ARTHUR-BERTRAND Title: Kablonn - Powanu Technique: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 92 x 73 cm Date: 1959 Signed Huguette Arthur-Bertrand was the leading female membe...

David Redpath Michie Scottish, 1928-2015 Modern City Scene Oil on board 30 by 40 in, w/ frame 33 ¼ by 43 ¼ in Signed lower right, dated 1955 Son of the painter Anne Redpath, David ...

Angelo Ippolito Untitled, 1952 Signed and dated on the reverse Oil on canvas 16 x 36 inches Provenance: Gloria Torrice Estate of the above Liana Torrice, West Orange...

Large colorful sculptural abstract painting by Texas artist Patrick Cronin. Painted with acrylic paint and mixed media, dated 1986.

Signed lower right: "Kupferman". Inscribed lower right: "1204". Titled, signed, dated, and inscribed verso: "EG: 1,204.J / "September Landscape, 1967" / Lawrence Kupferman". From the...

Josep María De Sucre 1950 Untitled Oil on canvas Signed :73 x 54 cm

Unique red, green and white abstract image on canvas. White portion of the canvas is elevated from the rest of the image. Canvas is not framed. Painting is signed by the artist on th...

Joachim Probst (American, 1913-1980), "Christ", Impasto Oil on Canvas, 1955, signed lower right "Probst" and inscribed to verso "Probst / 1955 / CHRIST", additionally inscribed "Owne...

Federico Castellon Boats in the harbor, ca. 1950 Oil on paper 25 1/5 × 17 3/10 in 64 × 44 cm (without frame) Frame included

Drip Abstract Composition Canvas 36x24 with frame 42x29.5 Artist signed illegibly lower right corner, Gallery Kabutaya Japan label on revers stretcher. Mid-Century Modern drip abstr...

This soft toned abstract expressionist watercolor painting, created by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968), is an exceptional example of his evolution as an artist. Featuring bold sw...

Provenance: Collection of the Artist Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Warner, Washington, Connecticut Collection of the Washington Art Association, Inc. Private Collection, California...

One of a kind painting by the Swiss artist Hugo Cleis. Cleis began his artistic career with Swiss Expressionism, which featured social content, although in the mid-1940s his work fo...

Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...

Born in Terrenoire in the Loire, France, self-taught painter Charles Marcon was encouraged by Madeleine Castaing and Paulette Jourdain. Marcon exhibited throughout Paris and in Arles...

Abstract Composition Oil on canvas 30x24, signed lower left. Judith Sobel was born in Lwow Poland in 1924. After World War II, she attended the Academy of...

Red to Black, 1954 Abstract Oil Mid-20th Century Modern Non-Objective. Published. Signed and dated upper left. 40 1/4 x 18 1/2 inches oil on canvas. Provenance: Estate of O. Louis Guglielmi. Robert Schoelopf Gallery. Andrew Crispo Gallery. Published in the artist's monograph as seen in the attached photos. BIO Painter O. Louis Guglielmi moved stylistically from a symbolic Social Realism, Precisionism, and Surrealism, ultimately to abstraction, but his subject matter, when it existed, dealt with society's underdogs. He had experienced slum living as a youth, moving from place to place because of his violinist father's need to find employment. Though Guglielmi was born in 1906 in Cairo, Egypt, his Italian parents moved the family to Italy. In 1914, they were living in New York City in Harlem's Italian slum. Guglielmi was involved in the political and artistic protests of the trial, conviction as anarchist bombers, and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti...

Salvatore Grippi was my art professor at Ithaca college from 1970- 1971 Who was doing paintings like this in 1950? Jackson Pollack, Willem De Kooning and Salvatore Grippi, and a few...

Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...