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Abstract Abstract Paintings

ABSTRACT STYLE

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Abstract
Artist: Raymond Hendler
Untitled
Located in Lawrence, NY
Estate of the artist Exhibited: Berry Campbell Gallery Includes documentation from the gallery A first-generation action painter, Raymond Hendler started his career as an Abstract Expressionist in Paris as early as 1949. In the years that followed, he played a significant role in the movement, both in New York, where he was the youngest voting member of the New York Artist’s Club. Hendler became a friend of Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Harold Rosenberg in Philadelphia, where he ran an avant-garde gallery between 1952 and 1954. Hendler differed from Rosenberg’s belief that American post-war painting should have a clear break from the past. His work often recalls the autonomism and nonobjectivism of his European predecessors. However, Stuart Preston noted in The New York Times that Hendler had a “totally different approach to nonobjectivism….He excels in bright hard explicit pattern-making, in straightforward parades of independent shapes, not unlike those in Matisse’s collages. There is something reminding of Leger here as well, particularly in the unambiguous glare of contrasted color and in the robust refusal to allow shapes to suggest anything beyond their merry self." Raymond Hendler was born in Philadelphia in 1923. In 1949, he continued his art training in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière on the G.I. Bill. Immersing himself in the Left Bank art...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

No. 78, October 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 82, 1990
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 81, May 1990
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 72, September 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 131, January 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 108, January 1986
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 102, 1990
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 119, 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 70, April 1990
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 109, March 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 71, April 1990
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 107, March 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 110, February 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 130, 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 43, February 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 124, 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 23, January 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 129, 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Paper

No. 127, February 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 125, 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

No. 38, March 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Paper

No. 37, March 1985
Located in Quogue, NY
Acrylic on Paper
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

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No. 96, 1990
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Abstract abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Abstract abstract paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add abstract paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Nestor Toro, Giorgio Lo Fermo, Newel Hunter, and Sumit Mehndiratta. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Synthetic Resin Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Abstract abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 0.1 inches across are also available.

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