Mid-20th Century Abstract Paintings

Vibrant Modernist Landscape Suzanne Vattier, French 1901-1996 signed gouache painting on artist paper, framed size: 8 x 10.75 inches Suzanne Vattier (1901-1996) was a pupil of the ...

Stunning original oil painting by Elvic Steele depicting this surrealist fantasy abstract painting. Elvic Steele is a fascinating English painter. Her works entrance the observer, d...

Title: Abstract Still Life with Pink and Orange Vases - Contemporary Oil Painting Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Bottom right Medium: Oil on oi...

Perle Fine: 1905-1988. Very well listed American abstract and geometric abstract artist. Her high auction result was $57,600 in September 2024. She studied with Hans Hoffman, and was...

Title: Abstract Diptych: Still Life with Bottle and Chairs - Contemporary Oil Paintings Artist: Roland Pichard Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: Left piece: 13 (heig...

"Picking Wild Flowers" by Fernand Audet (French, Tarascon 1923- Mulhouse 2016) signed, oil painting on canvas canvas: 25.5 x 36 inches Superb and very large oil painting by Ferna...

This strikingly etherial Mid-Century Modernist Vera Idelson 'Composition Biomorphique' Tempera on masonite Painting originates from Israel, created in 1946. A unique and gorgeous pi...

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...

This original 1960s oil on canvas by American artist Florence V. Mercolino Graziano exemplifies the dynamic energy of the Abstract Expressionist movement. The composition showcases b...

Artist/ School: Albert Coste (French 1896-1985), signed lower right. Born 8 November 1895, in Marseilles; died 22 August 1985, in Marseilles. Albert Cos...

Bertha G. Davis (1911-1997) Untitled, ca. 1960's Oil on cradled masonite panel. 16 x 20 inches; 24 x 28 inches framed. Signed lower left. Artist estate stamp on verso. Vintage custom wormy chestnut frame. A painter of cityscapes, landscapes, and abstracts in Texas, Bertha G Davis was primarily a self-taught artist whose style was influenced by her early life experiences in pre-World War II Lithuania and later Mexico. Her style is expressionistic*, relying on color to denote her profound feelings. She works primarily in watercolor and acrylic with some mixed media*. She is the daughter of Abraham and Dvora Germaize of Vilna, Lithuania and grew up in Jewish ghettos in Vilna, Alita, and Kovno. Davis was influenced by her father who was a decorative wood-worker and carpenter in Lithuania. The family of five daughters and a son escaped to Mexico City in the late 1920’s because of Jewish oppression. The images and emotions she experienced had no outlet. She was known as a beauty, and at age 17 was named Jewish Miss Mexico, barely able to speak Spanish having just emigrated from Eastern Europe. Irving Davis, a merchant from Texas who had also come from Eastern Europe via Cuba, saw her at this event where she was crowned Jewish Miss Mexico, and three days later asked for her hand in marriage. They moved to a small town in Texas, raising a family. Her daughter, Sylvia, was born when Davis was 20 and they were inseparable. As Sylvia became an actress, painter, and sculptor, Davis was amazed at the capacity for creativity. Davis didn’t begin her own artistic journey until she was 47, when her daughter Sylvia Caplan encouraged her to try. She was inspired by this daughter who gave her a drugstore palette of watercolors, paper and brushes and told her to “just try.” Davis did not put down her palette and brushes until her death in 1997. Bertha G Davis was primarily self-taught but maintained a style oriented toward color and texture that reflected her strong feelings. Most of her early work was done while she lived in McAllen, Texas where she was known for her contribution to art and showed her work and the work of other artists at the Bertha Davis Gallery. She studied with Stewart Van Orden, at Pan American College in 1960-61; and was a student at the Art Institute San Miguel Allende, Mexico, 1965. She was also a student of Harold Phenix...

His first name sounds like a concerto. Vivacious, its name is reminiscent of an aperitif or a cyclist. The addition of the two evokes the Italianate. Indomitable and unavoidable. Mor...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Gilbert Pelissier (French born 1924) signed and dated on verso 74' oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas size: 24.5 x 20 inches condition: ove...

This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Cubist Portrait), 1945, oil on masonite, signed and dated lower middle, 20 x 16 inches, remnant of exhibition label verso, perhaps exhibited at Murry's solo exhibition at the Los Angeles's Screen Cartoonists' Gallery, July , 1945, presented in its original frame Jerre Murry was a California modernist painter. Born in Columbia, Missouri, Murry studied at the Detroit Academy of Art and worked as an artist for the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Murry traveled to the Bahamas, where he was inspired to paint modernist scenes of island life and people. By the early 1930s, Murry had relocated to Los Angeles, where he caught the attention of Synchromist painter Stanton Macdonald Wright, State Supervisor for the Federal Art Project (FAP) in Southern California. MacDonald Wright enrolled Murry into the FAP. Murry’s Gauguin-influenced painting Sun Image was exhibited together with other FAP artists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1936, and Murry was also included in the FAP exhibit at the Paris Exposition in 1937. Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles, the Chamber of Commerce Gallery in Santa Barbara, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art also showed Murry’s work during the 1930s. Murry created a murals for Los Angeles Water & Power Company, the Boise, Idaho Post Office, and Glendale Junior College. In 1939, Murry's work was exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition and the New York World's Fair. He also was included in the All California Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of art that same year. He went on to exhibit in Los Angeles at the Foundation of Western Art's Trends in Southern California Art shows in 1940 and 1941, at Raymond and Raymond Gallery in Hollywood and USC’s Elizabeth Holmes...

This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness. Oil on canvas, 29 x 22 inches, Signed on frame verso “Painted by Charles L. Goeller” Exhibited: (Perh...

Title: Figurative Nude with Floral Still Life - Abstract Contemporary Oil Painting Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Bottom right Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: 13....

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

Important cubist still life oil painting by Douglas Warner Gorsline (1913 - 1985). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.

Vintage signed abstract landscape painting by Gabriel Godard (Born 1933). Oil on canvas. Framed. Exhibited.

Title: Countryside Landscape with Red Roofed Cottages and Rolling Hills Artist: Roland Pichard Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: 14 (height) x 10.75 (width), (Includ...

Street and houses is a contemporary artwork realized by Sante Monachesi in the mid-20th century Mixed colored oil painting. Includes frame Hand signed on the lower marign

Nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed. Signed. Oil on canvas.

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

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...

Matt acrylic-painted wood relief Éditions Denise Rene Paris Edition n° 37/50, Signed. Presented at the exhibition “Vasarely - Le partage des Formes”, in 2019 at the Centre Pompidou. ...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ...

Impressive early American modernist interior view still life painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 34 by 40 inches.

Vintage modernist abstract painting by Suzanne McCullough (b.1916). Oil on canvas. Housed in a period frame. Image size, 24L x ...

“PORT CORSE” BY CHARLES LEVIER (1920-2003) Oil on Canvas ⚜ Signed ⚜ Framed A MASTERPIECE OF POST-IMPRESSIONISM & CUBISM An exquisite example of Charles Levier’s signature style,...

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...

Nicely executed early 1900s American impressionist coastal seacape painting. Oil on canvas. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a period giltwood molding. Excel...

American school abstract painting. Watercolor on paper, circa 1960. Unsigned. Image size, 12"L x 9"H.

Serbian artist Dordevic (or Djordjevic) Miodrag (1936 -), known as "Miodrag," designed this stunning abstract drawing. This work is a charcoal on paper depicting a brutalist abstract...

Fanciful mid-century modern abstract of trapeze artists by Brooklyn artist Hilda Dora Pape Arp (b. 1909). This 1962 highly abstracted depiction of trape...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ...

Mary Kiisel Greenwood (b.1924) Studied: PAFA Exhibited: Gross McCLeaf Gallery, Philadelphia Landscape with Pond, ca. 1950. Oil on canvas measuring 24 x 29 inches. Signed on st...

Title: Abstract Still Life with Pink and Orange Vases - Contemporary Oil Painting Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Bottom right Medium: Oil on oi...

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...

Aaron Levy was born in New York City in 1899. After retiring in 1951 from a career as president of E. Milius & Company, a textile company, Levy began a new career as a fine artist. ...

Very nicely painted American modernist harbor oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 16H by 20L.

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

This stunning Scottish Abstract oil painting is by much noted artist William Gear. It was painted in 1949, not long after Gear de mobbed in 1947, moved to Paris and established a one room studio at 13 Quai des Grands Augustins, hence the title Interieur, Forme Blanche. At the same time, Gear was introduced to CoBrA, allowing him to exhibit in important early CoBrA shows in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam in 1949. The same year saw an exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, alongside Jackson Pollock. Gear remained in Paris until the early fifties. This bold abstract mixes blocks of solid colour with more geometric lines and is an excellent and important example of his period in Paris. Signed and dated '49 lower left. Provenance: Private London collection. Condition. Oil on canvas, 24 inches by 20 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed in a wooded white painted frame, 34 inches by 30 inches and in good condition. Few British painters have played an active role in the modern abstract movement of post-war Europe. William Gear was the most passionate and committed exception. He continued the tradition of the Edinburgh-Paris axis established by J.D. Fergusson, Samuel Peploe and others, spending vital years between 1947 and 1950 living and working in Paris. Significantly, in recent years, he received the greatest acclaim in France, Germany and the Netherlands. He was born in 1915 in Methil, Fife, into a mining family; the particular landscape of "pitheads, the sea, rocks, castles, trees, storms and poverty" marked his earliest identity with a place and probably remained the most influential to his art. Years later he recalled as a schoolboy visiting the local art gallery in Kirkcaldy and seeing 12 colourful still-lifes by Peploe. Art-history lessons during student years at Edinburgh College of Art, in particular Byzantine classes under David Talbot Rice, also influenced his concern for structure. This had as much to do with the formal language of painting as sheer delight in the medium itself. Gear never missed an opportunity to show people the merits of a well-constructed painting. On a travelling scholarship in 1937, he chose to study with Fernand Leger, described by Gear as "a keystone for me, seldom abstract, rather a degree of abstraction". The Second World War interrupted these formative years and, by 1940, Gear had joined the Royal Corps of Signals. Dispatched to the Middle East, he still had the discipline to paint - mostly works on paper of damaged landscapes - with exhibitions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Cairo as well as Siena and Florence. His naturally robust and tenacious temperament was profoundly affected by visiting Bergen-Belsen, and this certainly influenced the later experiments with the black armature. As the British officer in Celle, working for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section of the Control Commission, he focused on securing the safety of the Berlin Art Collection in Schloss Celle, and organised an important series of modern art exhibitions, including the rejected work of Karl Otto Gotz...

The Sea by Louis Eugene Glasser (French b. 1897) signed oil on board, framed framed: 22.5 x 29.5 inches board: 17.5 x 24.5 inches provenance: priv...

Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas.

Abstract Portrait French School, mid 20th century oil on board, unframed 36 x 25 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound condition though there i...

ABSTRACTION Mid-Century Abstract Non-Objective Color Field oil American Modern James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) "Abstraction" 11 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches Oil on...

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...

Title: Original Oil Painting of Seated Man at a Table with Dog by His Side Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Verso Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: 13.75 (height) x 1...

Title: An Artist at Work on a Study of Doves - Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Bottom right Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: 10...

Joseph Kardonne (1911-1985). Point Pleasant NJ New Jersey Beach Landscape 1960. 11 x 14.5 inches. Watercolor, gouache and ink on paper, sheet measures ...

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

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 8.5 x 5.75inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we hav...

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

Joseph Kardonne (1911-1985). Nude Woman, 1966. Watercolor on paper, sheet measures 10 x 13.5 inches. Signed, dated and titled lower right. Excellent condition. Born in Newark, New ...

Title: Original Oil Abstract Abstract Landscape with Birds on Branches at Sunrise Artist: Roland Pichard Signed: Bottom right Medium: Oil on oil paper, mounted on card Size: 14 (...

Vivian Springford Untitled (Rice Paper Mounting), 1963-65 Signed lower left Ink, watercolor and acrylic on rice paper laid to canvas 27 1/4 x 53 3/8 inches A contributor to Abstrac...

"Song of Love" is an abstract Post-War oil painting on canvas created by Hans Hofmann in 1952. The artwork is 36.25 x 48.25 inches and is 45.25 x 57.25 x 2 inches with the frame, weighing less than 50 lbs. It is signed on the lower right, "Hans Hofmann" and also signed verso, "Hans Hofmann". Hofmann's art is characterized by its expressive use of color planes, often overlapping and intersecting to create a sense of tension and harmony simultaneously. With the delicate mark-making and use of negative space across the canvas, “Song of Love” is reminiscent of the automatic drawings and paintings of Surrealists Andre Masson and Joan Miró, blended with the drips of paint in the large blue swaths of the Abstract Expressionist style. Provenance: The Artist, 1952-1958 Collection Harvey Kaplan, Chicago,1958-1962 Michael Reese...

Artist/ School: French School, signed with initials, dated 1960's Title: Cubist abstract Medium: oil painting on board, unframed board: 13.75 x 10.5 inches Provenance: private co...

Modernist Countryside Landscape Suzanne Vattier, French 1901-1996 gouache painting on artist paper, framed size: 8 x 10.5 inches Suzanne Vattier (1901-1996) was a pupil of the famou...