20th Century Abstract Paintings

Abstract expressionist CoBrA style acrylic on card of a humanised figure attributed to French artist, A Nuchy. The work is signed bottom right and stamped with the Atelier stamp to t...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Gilbert Pelissier (French born 1924) signed oil painting on canvas, unframed inscribed verso dated 68' canvas size: 35 x 46 inches condition: ov...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 10 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ha...

Vintage modernist abstract expressionist painting. Oil on canvas. Housed in a period frame. Image size, 24L x 36H. Signed.

San Francisco Bay Area Seascape with Ships in Oil on Cardboard Seascape with large ships by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). The ocean is shown in...

MARK DI SUVERO Abstract Expressionist drawing with artist signed COA, ca. 1963 Pen and black ink and brush and black ink wash on paper. Hand signed on the front. Framed, with separa...

Impressive early American modernist landscape oil painting by Harold Saxton Burr (1889 - 1973). Framed. Oil on board. Signed verso. Image size, 16H by 16L.

4093 Multi colored abstract on artist board Set in a vintage hand painted wood frame Signed on verso by P.Russo

Lynton Wells Landscape, 1984 Oil on Canvas (with original Sable Castelli Label back of frame) Hand signed, titled, dated 1984 with artist's copyright symb...

Signed lower right. A major exponent of non-objective painting, Rolph Scarlett's career and artistic philosophy is closely linked with the early history of the Solomon R. Guggenhei...

Cubist Composition by Armand Rottenberg (French 1903-2000) signed lower corner, oil painting on card, unframed painting: 13 x 10.75 inches Stunning original Cubist painting by the...

Fredric Karoly (1898-1987). Etude III, 1950. Oil on masonite panel measures 18 x 24 inches. Unframed. Signed, titled, dated on reverse. Good condition with minor paint loss at edges. Biography: An abstract painter, Karoly was born in Hungary and studied painting in Paris, architectural eingineering in Berlin, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1926. He began a successful career as a fashion and fabric designer. In 1948 he was working as a fashion director for Simplicity Patters, when he had a solo exhibition of of his oil paintings, wire montages, dry-pen drawings and abstract photography. Solo Exhibitions: Hugo Gallery (Alexandre Iolas) New York 1948; Gallery Mai. Paris 1949; New Gallery (Eugene Thaw) New York 1950; Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil 1951; Miami Museum of Modern Art, Miami, Florida 1959; Loft Gallery, New York City, 1966.Group Exhibitions: Hugo Gallery, New York 1947; Salon des Realities Nouvelles, Paris 1949-1953; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Annual) 1951-1953, 1963; Biennale of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1951; International Independent Exhibition, Tokyo, 1951; Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1959; The Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1960; Stuttman Gallery, New York, 1960; The Art Institute of Chicago (Annual), 1960; International Watercolor Exhibition, Brookyln Museum, 1961; Westchester Art Museum, White Plains, NY, 1963; Whitney Museum, Annual, NY 1963; Cleveland Art Festival, Park Synagogue, Cleveland, 1963; Whitney Museum, Sculpture Annual, NY, 1964.Works in Institutional Collections: Museu de Arte, San Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; New York University, New York; Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; Finch College, NY; Barnard College, NY; Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum and Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL. Awards: National Council Arts Awards, 1968. Frederic Karoly died on December 15, 1987 at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Manhattan, where he had made his home for many years. Fredric Karoly was born in Budapest in 1893. According to Karoly’s own vitae, his exhibition history began in New York in 1947, when at the age of 54 he took part in a four-person group show at Hugo Gallery. His involvement with visual art however was apparently life long. In a brief introduction to his solo show at Galerie Mai in Paris in June of 1949, Jen Luc de Rudder, reports that Karoly began painting at the age of 12 in Budapest. After several years of studying, then working in London, Paris and Berlin, Karoly emigrated to the United States in 1925 or 1926 (he probably first came to the US on a work visa in 1925). In New York, Karoly worked in women’s fashion as a designer. In 1948 Karoly worked in a manner than was clearly influenced by the work of such European surrealists as Max Ernst, creating spiked automatic bi-chromatic paintings. His style progressed into a progressively more biomorphic vein, similar to explorations by Theodore Stamos, Daphnis, Milton Avery and Mark Rothko around the same period. He was supported with patronage during this period by Mrs. Mimi Baliff, who apparently supported the “Industrial Design Workshop” that she helped open to feature Karoly’s designs in 1948. By the early 1950’s (1951) Karoly started experimenting with the drip and splatter process as well. Drip paintings dominated his process until the late 50’s-early 60’s, when linear compositional elements began to reemerge. By the late 50’s multi-layered drip grid motifs asserted a masque of spatial organization over looser washed fields and splatters of paint that Karoly worked off of. This development was consistent with concurrent explorations into the grid by artist Agnes Martin and others. By the mid-50’s Karoly’s style began another transition into a more surface concerned “Color Field” style of painting. There are elements still reminding one of Abstract Expressionist concerns as such painters as Clifford Still. But the works that began to emerge from Karoly’s studio in 1958 presaged the Morris Lewis fan motifs and Friedl Dzubas’s epic and romantic color spewing expanses of canvas. In 1959 Karoly began experiments using washes of turpentine diluted oil paint directly onto raw linen, and all of these subsequently suffered the consequences of oil oxidation and acidity upon the surfaces. However, many of Karoly’s washes in color field happily occurred on lightly prepared primed canvas surfaces as well. By 1960 Karoly began reintroducing imagistic references to his visual content. There were also various references to Japanese and Zen influences. He experimented with a variety of processes that included mixed media and marbleized surfaces achieved by the intermixture of oil and water mediums. A calligraphic element also enter Karoly’s work in the early 60’s. Then in 1961 glued and assembled objects begin to show up in Karoly’s work in earnest. The influence of early POP artists, particularly Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, become apparent. From 1961-63, a series of the assemblage works transition from canvas to the sculptural to pieces obviously intended for full scale installation. Many of these pieces were among the most fragile of his works primarily due to their reliance upon the of gluing of objects such as plastic or paper cups on flexible surfaces of stretched linen or canvas. In the mid-60’s Karoly apparently produced a number of photo-silk screened series of Picasso, De Kooning and other significant artists of his generation. These were executed in a style somewhere between Rauschenberg’s and Roy Lichtenstein’s, primarily because of their reliance upon half tones and Ben-Day dot effects. Then Karoly began a series of paintings conflating his drip and grid styles with super imposed and painted over string. In the late 60’s Karoly embarked upon a series of multi-paneled stretched linen constructions often with slits and fiber optic back-lit elements that were prescient of the work of Dan Flavin and others. It was this body of work that was shown at Hofstra University’s Emily Lowe Gallery, and it was these works that suffered perhaps the most irreparable damage from a steam/water infiltration in a space where they were being stored. The late professional start that Karoly had into the art world was balanced by his long life span and early immersion into the design issues of modernism as it emerged in turn of the century Europe and later evolved in America. He was clearly an artist who subscribed to the ethos of the new in abstraction and was obviously impressionable and in some instances prescient with regard to various trends in abstraction. Several noteworthy and influential collectors and institutions during his 40 years of professional engagement acquired his work. The Whitney Museum of American Art had and may still own a large Karoly canvas from 1960, but this is doubtful as the artist failed to list it on the vitae he filed with MoMA in 1965. His work was recognized and honored by the Whitney with its inclusion in four of their annual survey shows (1951,1953, 1963 and 1964). The artist’s surrealist influenced paintings from 1948-1950 were the focus of a solo exhibition held of his work by the Museo de Art in Sao Paulo and eight years later a ten year survey of his work was the focus of a solo show at the Miami Museum of Modern art. The Sao Paulo Museum in Brazil, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina each acquired Karoly paintings for their collections in the 1950’s. One of Karoly’s surrealist pieces was apparently purchased by Christian Zervos, Picasso’s designated chronicler, who apparently also wrote a piece on Karoly in Cahiers D’Art in 1949. A 60’s piece of Karoly art that is in the New York University’s permanent collection is included in the MoMA Library’s catalog...

Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 16H by 24L.

This stunning Modernist Untitled Color Field Oil Painting in Earth Tones signed Herbert MacDonald originates from the United States, Circa 1968. Features a rectangular composition in...

Still life with tulips. Cardboard, oil, 85x74 cm Aleksandr Rodin (1922-2001) Painter Born in a family of farmers. Wife Rasma Lace - art scholar. Studied at the Stalingrad School of ...

MODERNIST ABSTRACT Mid-Century New Hope Non-Objective oil American Modern WPA Louis Stone (1902-1984) "Abstract," 16 X 12 inches. Oil on canvas, signed lower right. An abstract pai...

Passages of ice blue and grey move upward to flood a central square that contains an ochre line drawing of a single fish. Ovals in ochre and grey and dots in black, rust and green li...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Gilbert Pelissier (French born 1924) signed on back, inscribed verso oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas size: 16 x 24 inches condition: ove...

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...

Vintage American modernist abstract signed oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

Stamped, verso, with certification of authenticity for Suzanne Gertz (American, 1938-2003) and painted circa 1985, partial signature lower right. Suzanne Gertz first studied at the...

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

Joseph Kardonne (1911-1985). Nude Woman, 1966, 9 x 14 inches. Watercolor on paper, sheet measures inches. Signed, dated and titled lower right. Excellent condition. Born in Newark...

George Dannatt (1915-2009) Small Black Abstract (Xanadu) 1963 Gouache & pencil on paper 19.6 x 25.4 cm Exhibitions 1981 May. Wills Lane Gallery, St. Ives 2001 Jly. Maltby Co...

Abstract (57) John F. Leonard American (1921–1987) Date: 1977 Oil on Board, signed l.r. Size: 16 in. x 20 in. (40.64 cm x 50.8 cm) Frame Size: 18.5 x 22.5 inches

Carmen Louis Cicero, American (1926 -) - Untitled, Year: 1972, Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated on verso, Size: 38 x 44 in. (96.52 x 111.76 cm)

Artist unknown "Black & White Abstract" May 29, 1988 Acrylic on Strathmore paper 25.75"x40.5" unframed Unsigned

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

Julian Stanczak (American, 1928-2017) Twist and the Rain, 1975 acrylic on canvas signed verso 30 x 24 inches Julian Stanczak (American, b. November 5, 1928) was an American painter...

The French City French School, circa 1970's, signed lower corner oil painting on canvas: 31 x 38.5 inches framed: 23.5 x 32 inches condition: sound condition though with minor crack...

Beautiful abstract painting by American artist, Harris Strong (1920-2006). Acrylic and pins on folded handmade paper, 1970's. Measures 30 x 40 inches framed. Weighs 22 lbs. Color ...

Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto Abstract expressionist figurative composition of a nude woman by California artist Harald "Harry" Dr...

A. Zviedris was a member of the Latvian Artists’ Union since 1945 and had more than 50 solo exhibitions in Latvia. He travelled extensively by yacht around Scandinavia and Western Eu...

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...

5123a Black and white letters oil on paper by Deidra Framed Image Size 17.5x11.5"

Cubism Abstract Oil Painting, Multi Coloured, British Artist British School, 20th century Oil painting on board, unframed Board size: 16 x 24 inche...

The Harbor signed by Léon Schwartz -Abrys ( 1905 - 1990) French School, expressionist dated 1983 verso oil on board, unframed board: 25.5 x 21.5 inches Provenance: private collecti...

"Harvest Moon" by Edmund E. Niemann is a striking example of Abstract Expressionism, a movement known for its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic, or subconscious creation. Niemann's ...

Title: French Impressionist Sunset Seascape with Boat and Lighthouse Marker By Fanch Lel Signed: Yes Size: 19.75 x 24 inches (height x width) Oil painting on cardboard, unframed Condition: Good condition overall with minor surface handling marks and light wear to edges, consistent with its medium and vintage character. Painted on corrugated card, which adds visible texture and depth. Provenance: All the paintings we have for sale by this artist have come from the artists estate and have had no previous owners at all. Description: This evocative Impressionist oil painting by French artist Fanch Lel captures a sunset along the coast of Deauville, Normandy—a region renowned for its refined seaside charm, sailing culture, and painterly light. Titled "Impression Soleil couchant du Deauville St Aumare", the piece channels the rich traditions of French seascape painting...

Title: Impressionist Lighthouse Scene with Beached Fishing Boats and Dramatic Sky By Fanch Les Size: 15 x 18.25 inches (height x width) Oil painting on cardboard, unframed Condition:...

Abstract Expressionist Composition signed by Gilbert Pelissier (French born 1924) oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas size: 18 x 22 inches condition: overall very good, a few min...

Antique American modernist abstract painting. Watercolor, and pastel on paper. Framed. Signed. Image size, 6.5H by 10L

Abstract Composition signed by Serge Guerin (b. 1916), French oil painting on canvas, unframed size: 20 x 26 inches provenance: private collection, Paris, France condition: overall g...

Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Untitled, 1983. Ink on paper, measures 17 x 23 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower left. Ayers holds the distinction of having participated in the first important survey of African-Americans, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a 1971 show at The Whitney. Biography: Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...

This captivating oil painting on burlap, titled "Winter Witches in an Upside World Interfering with Each Other", was created by renowned artist Edward Marecak in 1990. The piece is s...

'Abstract Composition', oil on board (circa 1960s), by Edgar Stoëbel (1909-2001). In his very original style, artist Stoëbel's abstract image seems to form a human torso with the lively colours of a modernist work. The image has a pop art quality to it and was created just as that movement was emerging. Pop art challenged traditional painting by embracing colourful images from advertising, popular culture, comic books and mundane objects from everyday life. This artwork has a powerful intensity of tone and colour having somewhat faded with time. It speaks to Stoëbel's very distinctive style which remains completely approachable and appealing. In fact, this is not pop art. This is part of the post-war concrete abstract movement, or Constructive Art...

"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat Abstract expressionist portrait of a woman wearing a hat by California artist Harald "Harry" Dry Schmidt (America...

Joyce Kozloff Tepoztlan II, 1973 Gouache and colored pencil on paper Signed, dated and titled twice: once on the back of the work (shown) and once on the original board which has bee...

Margaret Layton. Wellfleet #3, ca. 1950. Watercolor on paper, image measures 5.5 x 16.5 inches in a frame measuring 13 x 24.5 inches. Signed lower left. Beautiful abstract study of...

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...

Mid Century Modern Abstract Landscape - San Francisco Hills in the Fog Beautiful mid-century modern abstract landscape evoking ...

Abstract composition is a contemporary artwork realized by Hardu Keck in 1967 Mixed colored collage on paper. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin.

Norman Carton (1908 – 1980) was an American artist and educator known for abstract expressionist art. He was born in the Ukraine region of Imperial Russia and moved to the United States in 1922 where he spent most of his adult life. A classically trained portrait and landscape artist, Carton also worked as a drafter, newspaper illustrator, muralist, theater set designer, photographer, and fabric designer and spent most of his mature life as an art educator. Carton showed in and continues to be shown in many solo and group exhibitions. His work is included in numerous museums and private collections throughout the world. Norman Carton was born in the Dnieper Ukraine territory of the Russian Empire in 1908. Escaping the turbulence of civil war massacres, he settled in Philadelphia in 1922 after years of constant flight. While attending the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, Carton worked as a newspaper artist for the Philadelphia Record from 1928 to 1930 in the company of other illustrator/artists who had founded the Ashcan School, the beginnings of modern American art. From 1930 to 1935, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Henry McCarter, who was a pupil of Toulouse-Lautrec, Puvis de Chavanne, and Thomas Eakins. Arthur Carles, especially with his sense of color, and the architect John Harbison also provided tutelage and inspiration. Following his time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Carton studied at the Barnes Foundation from 1935 to 1936 where he was influenced by an intellectual climate led by visiting lecturers John Dewey and Bertrand Russell as well as daily access to Albert C. Barnes and his art collection. Carton was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1934 which allowed him to travel through Europe and study in Paris. There he expanded his artistic horizons with influences stemming from Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Chaim Soutine, and Wassily Kandinsky. While at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Carton was also awarded the Toppan Prize for figure painting as well as the Thouron Composition Prize. He received numerous commissions as a portrait artist, social realist, sculptor, and theatrical stage designer as well as academic scholarships. During this time, Carton worked as a scenery designer at Sparks Scenic Studios, a drafter at the Philadelphia Enameling Works, and a fine art lithographer. From 1939 to 1942, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project employed Carton as a muralist and easel artist. He collaborated with architect George Howe. The WPA commissioned Carton to paint major murals at the Helen Fleischer Vocational School for Girls in Philadelphia, the Officers’ Club at Camp Meade Army Base in Maryland, and in the city of Hidalgo, Mexico. Throughout the 1940s, Carton exhibited and won prizes for his semi-abstract Expressionist and Surrealist paintings. He socialized with and was inspired by Émile Gauguin and Fernand Leger. During World War II, Carton was a naval structural designer and draftsman at the Cramps Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey. Here, he created non-objective sculpture with metal. After the war, Carton co-founded a fabric design plant in Philadelphia. He produced hand-printed fabrics for interiors and fashion that were featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily. Original fabric designs were commissioned by notable clients including Lord & Taylor, Gimbels, and Nina Ricci. Some of these designs are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Carton traded his partnership in the fabric design company in 1949 to focus full-time on painting. Carton had his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. This show was followed closely by solo exhibitions at the Laurel Gallery (New York City) and Dubin Gallery (Philadelphia). At this time, his exhibited work was Abstract impressionism. In addition to painting, he taught classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was the Founder and first President of the Philadelphia chapter of Artist’s Equity Association. The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the organization of the National Museums of France commissioned Carton to travel to Europe, mainly France, in 1950 for a color photography study of continental masterpieces. He was granted access to study the restoration of the Mona Lisa and was one of the very few to be given permission to remove the painting from its frame. During his three year stay in Paris, he had solo exhibits at La Sorbonne and Gallery Rene Breteau and was in 15 group shows in Paris salons including Les Sur Independants, Salon d’Automne, and Realities Nouvelles. He also exhibited at the Musee d’Art Juif where he won the Prix d’Art. The Cercle Paul Valery twice sponsored Carton to present lectures at the Sorbonne. He conducted seminars at the Louvre for the Cercle Esthetique Internationale and taught classes in and directed stage and costume design for the Theatre de Recherche at the Paris Opera. Among his Paris artist colleagues were Chana Orloff, Earl Kerkam, Sam Francis, Claire Falkenstein, Lawrence...

Nude Abstract by Therese Hummel (French, 1911-1999) oil on canvas, unframed canvas : 10.75 x 14 inches Provenance: private collection of this artists work, Paris Condition: sound and...

Yoko Matsumoto Work 1, 1965 Signed and dated lower left; signed on reverse and inscribed extensively in Japanese Oil on canvas 36 x 35 3/4 inches Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1936. Mats...

Antique American oil painting by Elaine Crawley. Oil on canvas board. Signed. Framed. Measuring 21 by 25 inches overall and 20 by 24 painting alone.

Abstract Expressionist Composition signed by Gilbert Pelissier (French born 1924) oil painting on canvas, unframed dated 96' canvas size: 24 x 18 inches condition: overall very good,...

Dorothy Heller "Little Sun" 1962 Oil on Canvas 22 1/2" x 17 3/4", Framed 24 1/2"x 19 1/2" Signed in paint lower right and on reverse Abstract expressionist painting by "the finest w...

Vibrant Shoreline - Abstract Impressionist Landscape in Oil on Canvas Gorgeous, vibrant abstract impressionist shoreline landscape by artist Kristin Cohen (American, b. 1963). The s...

Rare and finely painted French modernist abstract painting by Jacques Doucet (1924 - 1994) . Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Artist Bio: Jacques Doucet's work is inextricably bo...