Mid-20th Century Abstract Paintings

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

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

Antique American modernist landscape painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1930. Signed. Housed in period frame. Image size 45L x 32H.

American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on board. Housed in a period modernist frame. Image size, 12L x 16H. Attributed to Margaret Crawford.

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...

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

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

Impressionistic Landscape Suzanne Vattier, French 1901-1996 watercolor painting on artist paper, framed size: 9.75 x 6.5 inches inscribed verso and dated 1971 Suzanne Vattier (1901-...

"Special Green, 1967" by Gordon Smith, signed on the reverse. Dive into the vibrant world of "Special Green," a captivating painting from 1967 by the celebrated Canadian artist, G...

Colorful Indian metallic thread abstract wall hanging or shisha . Enormous amount of hand work. Excellent quality. Shisheh or abhla bharat embroidery (Persian شيشه, abhala bharat; ...

Expressionist Abstract by Armand Rottenberg (French 1903-2000) Signed oil painting on board, unframed Board size: 29 x 21 inches provenane: the artists estate, France Stunning origi...

Paul Delapoterie, born in 1930, is a painter from Geneva, Switzerland. His work spans various styles, including abstract landscapes, figurative portraits, and surrealist pieces. Know...

Title: 1960's British Surrealist Oil Painting - The Phoenix Among Trees Medium: Oil on board, unframed Size: 4.75 height x 6 width Condition: Good Provenance: all the paintings we h...

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

Blue Gaze, 1977, by Robert Natkin (1930-2010) Acrylic on canvas 66 x 66 inches framed 25.98 x 25.98 cm) Signed on bottom right Exhibitions: In 1957, Momentum, Chicago, IL In 1968, Pointdexter Gallery, New York, NY (solo) In 1969, San Francisco Museum of Art (retrospective 1952-1969), San Francisco, CA (solo) In 1974, Within the Decade: Selections from the Guggenheim Museum Permanent Collection, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY In 1980, Masters of American Watercolor, The Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK In 1992, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, UK (solo) In 2007, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe...

Ralph Rosenborg (American, 1913-1992) Mountain Weed with Two Clouds, oil on jute canvas, canvas is hand signed recto and verso, artists label and Snyder Fine Art gallery label, The p...

Cubist Portrait of a Musician Marcel Seignobos (1892-1972) signed oil on canvas, unframed Canvas : 22 x 15 inches Provenance: private collection, Cote d'Azur, France Condition: very...

Remo Farruggio (Italian/American, 1905-1981), Abstracted Architectural Composition, Oil on Canvas, 1952, signed and dated lower left, wood frame. Image: 26.25" H x 32.75" W; frame: 2...

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...

Blue and green-toned modern abstract figurative portrait painting by Houston, TX artist David Adickes. The work features two men figures standing side by s...

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

Antique American school modernist mixed media painting. Oil on board with gold leaf assemblage, circa 1930. Unsigned. Image size, 13L x 17H. Housed in a period wood frame most li...

The Cock Fight French School, circa 1960's period oil on board, framed framed: 25 x 48.75 inches board: 24 x 48 inches provenance: private collection condition: very good and sound c...

Absolutely stunning original French abstract oil painting, dating to 1961. The work is on a large scale, measuring 36 x 25.5 inches. It is by the 2...

5-3365 Oil on artist board of on enchanted lily pond Set in an ornate hand painted wood frame Image size 12.5x15.5"

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...

Richard Andres (American, 1927-2013) Blue Wall, c. 1959 oil on canvas signed and titled verso 42 x 60 inches 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 designed and made the simple gold wedding ring Avis wore for their 65 years of marriage. During those 65 years neither wavered in their mutual love, nor in the respect they shared for one another’s art. The couple lived in a converted chicken coop in Missouri while Richard was in boot camp. At the camp, he would volunteer for any job offered and one of those jobs ended up being painting road signs. His commander noticed how quickly and neatly he worked and gave him more painting work to do - eventually recommending him for a position painting murals for Army offices in Panama. Until her dying day, Avis remained angry that “The army got to keep those fabulous murals and they probably didn’t even know how wonderful they were.” In Panama, their first son, Mark, was born. After Richard’s discharge in 1953, they moved back to the Cleveland area and used the GI bill to attend Kent State gaining his BA in education. The small family then moved briefly to Buffalo, where Richard taught at the Albright Art School and the University of Buffalo – and their second son, Peter, was born. Richard had exhibited work in the Cleveland May Show and the Butler Art Museum during his art school years, and during the years in Buffalo, his work was exhibited at the gallery he had so loved as a child, the Albright Art Gallery. In 1956, the family moved back to the Cleveland area and Richard began teaching art at Lincoln West High School during the day while working toward his MA in art at Kent State in the evenings. Avis and Richard, with the help of an architect, designed their first home - a saltbox style house in Hudson, Ohio, and in 1958, their third son, Max (after Max Beckmann) was born. Richard enjoyed the consistency of teaching high school as well as the time it gave him to paint on the weekends and during the summer months. In 1961, he received his MA and his daughter, Claire, was born. With a fourth child, the house was much too small, and Avis and Richard began designing their second home. An admirer of MCM architecture, Richard’s favorite example of the style was the Farnsworth house – he often spoke of how the concepts behind this architectural style, particularly that of Mies van der Rohe, influenced his painting. Andres described himself as a 1950’s...

Impressive early American modernist cityscape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 30H by 26L.

Bold San Francisco Abstracted Still Life Composition in Oil on Board Bold still life composition by Frank Koci (Czech-American, 1904-1983). A table is set with a jug of wine and a bowl of fruit and a landscape in the background. It is composed of several layers of paint, with bold outlines. In some areas, paint has been scraped away to create additional texture. In broad terms, you can describe Koci’s paintings as a series of “people-scapes,” wherein people are shown having relationships (some fleeting, some enduring) with fellow humans. A better term is probably “preludes” — wherein each painting sets the stage for something momentous that will occur in the very next frame. In the best Kocis, the tension is palpable. Signed in the lower right corner "Koci". Presented in a wood frame. Board size: 13"H x 30"W x .5"D Born in 1904 in Pilsen Czechoslovakia to a widowed mother. Koci grew up in poverty. Leaving Pilsen at 17 he was already too sophisticated about arts and literature, drama, and polished...

Artist: Semour Zayon American (1930 - ) Title: Construction Composition (After Kandinsky) Medium: Oil on Board, signed Size: 10 x 9.5 inches Frame: 14 x 11.25 inches

Mid-Century "The Horse Race" #50 B Pierre Bosco (Italy/France, 1909-1993) Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches, frame size “The savage art of Bosco bears its rudeness and its mystery. It i...

Impressive early American modernist beach scene oil painting by Brooks Kelly (1935 - 2012). Framed. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Signed. Image size, 12H by 16L.

Martin Rosenthal "Stained Glass" c. 1960s Gouache on paper 16"x11.25" unframed Unsigned Martin Rosenthal 1899-1974 Artist Martin Rosenthal was born in Woburn, MA. He completed milit...

3809 Floating world surreal figurative painting signed on verso Mury

Nicely painted early American modernist abstract landscape. Oil on canvas. Framed.

An extra-large red abstract composition that invigorates the bystander with its powerful red and black color play. This oil painting is an exquisite example of a mid-century modern a...

Signed lower right, 'Savo' for Joan Savo (American, 1918-1992) and dated 1960. Additionally signed, verso, on old label and titled, 'City Lights'. Accompanie...

Abstract by Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) oil on artist paper, unframed painting : 26 x 19.5 inches provenance: artists estate, France condition: very good ...

Gurevich Anatole Anatol Gurevitch Anatol Gurewitsch (1916-2005) Per the hebrew label on the back, this was exhibited in 1951. I believe at the Tel Aviv museum of art (as per the Israel Museum (Jerusalem) website)m in a manner reminescent of Bezalel Schatz, Moshe Castel, Jean david and other Israeli artists of the New Horizons prominent in that period ts a nude crouching figure against a colorful abstract background. Israeli Painter and stage designer. Yakir of Tel Aviv. Born in Russia, Moscow in the mid-teens of the twentieth century. Studied painting in Berlin. Immigrated to Palestine from Germany in 1934. Served in the British Army (1941-1946). Known for his pantings of Jewish rabbis and other Judaica subject matter. He specialized in stage design for dance troupes: the dance troupe led by Gertrude Kraus, Inbal, the Batsheva Dance Company, the international black dancer tali bati. His first wife was the late dancer and choreographer - the girl Kesten, His son is theater director Michael Gurevich. His second wife was the actress - Rivka Gur, who gave birth to his second son, Eyal. He died at the age of 89 after a serious illness. He left behind two sons: Michael (Miki) Gurevitch and Eyal Gurevitch. He was the uncle of the artist and sculptor - Igael Tumarkin. He was a stage designer in the theaters The brothel of Hunzo from Kibbutz Givat Haim, the British military band of this type, the British army, Gertrud Kraus, the Inbal Dance Theater, the Israeli Ballet, the Batsheva Dance Company and more. He designed a stage for plays The girl and the Negro, the Threepenny Opera, a band on the Thames, the singer of the land (in the military band of 1944), the banknote to Shlomo, the tea department, Nathan the Wise, Herod and Miriam. Awards Yakir Tel Aviv Prize, on behalf of the Tel Aviv Municipality. Anatol Gurewitsch, painter and Stage designer, born 1916, Moscow. After Second World War worked as stage designer. Designed costumes for dancer Gertrud Krausz. Uncle of Igael Tumarkin, and father of the theater Director Miki Gurewitsch. Education Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin, art 1936 with Frenel Frankel 1937 with Miron...

Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Exhibited at the Butler Art Institute.

Boys in Blue French School, Mid 20th century Oil painting on board, framed Signed on the lower right hand corner Framed size: 34.5 x 23 inches This artist was clearly inspired by Pi...

Hayward King (1928-1990). Untitled, ca,. 1955. Mixed media on masonite panel. Panel measuring 22 x 28 inches. Measuring 29 x 35 inches in a chestnut frame with linen liner. Pai...

"Pan of Bolts" and on Verso Joan Brown Swimming W/Manuel Neri Walking on Water Sally Wilt studied with Joan at California School of Fine Art Stunning lar...

Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. 47.25 x 47.25 inches 48.75 x 48.75 inches (framed) Custom fram...

Stylized depiction of a harbor scene in monochrome blues with abstracted elements by Martha Scurlock (American, 20th Century). Signed lower left "M. Scurlock" and on verso in pencil "Martha Scurlock". Rustic, vintage painted frame...

Abstract watercolor composition bearing the influence of the earlier color-block compositions of Paul Klee. Pawel August Kontny, (Polish-German-American artist) He was born in Laurahuette, Poland, in 1923, the son of a wealthy pastry shop owner. In 1939 he began studying architecture in Breslau where he was introduced to the European masters and to the work of some of the German Expressionists, soon afterward banned as "degenerate artists" and removed from museums throughout Germany by the Nazi regime. His studies were interrupted by World War II. Drafted into the German army, traveling in many countries as a soldier, he sketched various landscapes but in 1945, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Italy. After the war, he studied at the Union of Nuremberg Architects to help design buildings to replace ones destroyed in the war. He recorded his impressions of the local population and the landscapes through his watercolors and drawings. Pawel Kontny thereafter moved to Nuremberg, Germany, becoming a member of the Union of Nuremberg Architects and helping to rebuild the city's historic center. He soon decided to concentrate on his professional art career. He married Irmgard Laurer, a dancer with the Nuremberg Opera. Pavel Kontny 's career as an artist was launched with his participation in an all German exhibition, held at the Dusseldorf Museum in 1952. He held one-man shows in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. During his trip to the United States in 1960, Kontny became instantly enamored with Colorado, and decided to relocate to Cherry Hills with his wife and two children. He quickly established himself in the local art community, being affiliated for a time with Denver Art Galleries and Saks Galleries. His subject matter became the Southwest. During this time he received the Prestigious Gold Medal of the Art Academy of Rome. His extensive travel provided material for the paintings he did using his hallmark marble dust technique. he also worked equally in pastel, watercolor, charcoal and pencil-and-ink. in a style which merged abstraction and realist styles, influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and South Western American landscapes. In the early 1960s he was one of only a few European-born professional artists in the state, a select group that included Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), a member of the prewar Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany, and Roland Detre (1903-2001), a Hungarian modernist painter. As a Denver, Colorado resident, Pavel Kontny exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, Germany and Japan. There, he was inspired by frequent trips to Native American pueblos in the Southwest, as well as by the study of the Plains Indians of Montana and Wyoming. Over the years Kontny had a number of students and generously helped young artist by hosting exhibitions at his Cherry Hills home. For many years he generously donated his paintings to support charitable causes in Denver. Influences during his European years included German pastelist C.O. Muller, German Informel painter Karl Dahmen and Swiss artist, Hans Erni. In the early 1950s his painting style showed the influence of the Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905 who had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the twentieth century in Germany. By the middle of the decade his style incorporated more referential abstraction and total abstraction, resulting in part from his study of Hans Hartung, a German artist based in Paris who exhibited his gestural abstract work in Germany. The American moon landing in 1969 inspired Paul Kontny...

"Danger" - Original Modernist Oil Painting on Canvas Striking modernist painting by Bay Area artist Jean Hyson (American, 1928-2023). Hard edge oil on canvas depicting a black square to the left of the canvas with a lit up cinema projector. A mans face can be seen appearing in the light coming from the projector. An orange square is seen parallel to the projector, with a yellow circle inside. The number "13" can be seen in the lower right of the orange square. Purple and light blue take up the background. Signed "Hyson" lower right in black square. Titled, signed and dated "Jean Hyson" "Danger 1966" verso. Presented in a purple wooden frame. Frame: 20 1/2"H x 24 1/2"W Image: 19 3/4"H x 24"W Born in Texas, Jean Hyson (American, 1928-2023) is best known for her modernist, sharp edge, paintings. Hyson attended the Art Student League in New York with George Grosz, Yaso Kumiyoshi and William Baziotes and Beaux Artes, Paris, France from 1954-59. She was an Artist in Residence and Instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland from 1970-1974. Her work is held in the Oakland Art Museum, Oakland California, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California and the California Container Corp. of America, Chicago, Illinois. Jean Hyson and her then-husband Jacques Fabert (who typically painted under the name “Jean Faber Himbert”) were an important force within the midcentury San Francisco art scene. Her work has been featured in countless Bay Area gallery and museum exhibitions—including SFMOMA, the de Young, and the Legion of Honor—and is in numerous public and private collections. In a fantastic in-depth interview with Hilda Pertha...

Artist: Claude Lagouche (French 1943-2020) Claude Lagouche was born January 2, 1943 in Naves, died January 16, 2020. He quickly gained recognition for his talent and his work, exh...

Post-Impressionist Oil Painting of Donegal Wetlands Landscape in Ireland by 20th Century Irish Artist, Charles McNeill Caldwell. Signed, Ori...

Dynamic jungle drummer scene by unknown NYC American artist. Oil on canvas measuring 20 x 26 inches. Signed "T 42" in ink on verso. Anco stretchers and Grumbacher NYC store stamp con...

GEOMETRIC GATHERING Size: 43 x 72 cm (including frame) Oil on board A striking mid-century modernist semi-abstract figurative painting, executed in oil onto board and dated 1964. T...

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

Apple Still Life by Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) oil on artist paper, unframed painting : 19.5 x 14.5 inches provenance: artists estate, France condition: very good and sound condi...

Up for sale is a wonderful 1968 Henry Vranesh American oil painting Painting Depicts a Post-war Modernist painting, a boat at sea, probably from his Alaskan series. A student of Wi...

Work on wood

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...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. No signature found. Framing is available.

Work on canvas Flush frame in silver-colored metal 15,5 x 15,5 x 2,5 cm