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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.

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Style: Abstract
Period: 1960s
Sun
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original hard edge abstraction by American artist James Koenig. This work titled "Sun" is part of the Draw Near exhibition currently on view at Benjaman Gallery.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Sienna Abstraction
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original abstract expressionist painting created in 1962 by American artist James Koenig. This work will be featured in our exhibition "Draw Near" which will run from March 11...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled Collage
Located in Buffalo, NY
A modern abstract collage and oil on panel by American artist James Koenig. This Untitled work created in 1969 will be featured in our exhibition "Draw Near" which will run from Mar...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

Stone Quarry, 1960s Abstract Acrylic Paper Collage by Margo Hoff, Purple Gray
Located in Denver, CO
An original signed framed abstract expressionist painting by mid-century modern Chicago woman artist, Margo Hoff (1910-2008), "Stone Quarry" was created using acrylic, crayon and paper collage on board in shades of purple, blue, brown, white and black. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 48 ½ x 40 ½ x 1 ¾ inches. Image size is 48 x 40 inches. Provenance: Estate of the artist, Margo Hoff About the Artist: A prolific artist, Margo Hoff’s exquisite style evolved throughout her career yet was always rooted in the events, people, and places in her life. The human experience was her soul focus, expressed through her eyes alone. Born in 1910 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hoff began creating white-clay animals at a young age, giving them to her friends and family. At eleven she contracted typhoid fever and was bedridden for a summer. During her convalescence, she drew and made cutouts, and it was during this time that her bold, artistic imagination came alive. She began formal art training in high school and continued her education at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. In 1933 she moved to Chicago and attended the National Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Between 1933 and 1960—her Chicago years—Hoff’s works was deeply rooted in a figurative, regionalist style. She often used elements of magical realism, and many of her paintings have dreamlike qualities. As a child she learned about color by grinding down rocks, plants, and berries. Her color pallet during the Chicago years is indicative of her early-life color experimentation as she consistently used warm, earth tones in her work. Hoff was a born adventurer and traveled extensively. She lived, worked, taught, and painted in Europe, Mexico, Beirut, Lebanon, Uganda, Brazil, and China. She also showed at the Denver Art Museum’s Annual Western Exhibitions in 1952-54, 56, and 57. In 1957 she showed along side Colorado modernist Vance Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition, Man's Conquest of Space. What was once a focus on the representational, her work began to change after 1957 when she saw Sputnik in its orbit around Earth. At that moment, feet firmly placed on the ground, she was able to imagine herself in space, looking down from the cosmos, and what she saw was an abstracted world. She then had the opportunity to peer into an electron microscope where once again she was looking down into what seemed to be a realm of pure abstraction. These two events profoundly changed her perspective and she began to move from figural painting to abstract, geometric collage. In 1960, Hoff moved to New York City and she began creating collages. Placing the canvas on the ground, and working from all sides, she used strips of painted paper and tissue—and later painted pieces of canvas—glued onto the canvas surface, building layer upon layer, shape against shape, “action of color next to stillness of color.” She believed these simplified, abstracted forms held the spirit of the subject in the same way poetry reduces words to their essence. These pieces range from aerial cityscapes, to dancers in motions, to flora...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Paper, Crayon, Mixed Media, Board

Dark Stripes
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original mixed media painting and collage on board by American artist James Koenig. Created in 1970, this work is part of the Draw Near exhibition currently on view at Benjaman G...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Mixed Media, Oil

Pink and Red Abstraction
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original abstract expressionist oil painting by American modern artist James Koenig. This work is currently on view at the Draw Near exhibition at Benjaman Gallery.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Red Fish"
By Dina Gustin Baker
Located in Southampton, NY
Dina Gustin Baker studied at the Philadelphia college of Fine Art as well as the Art Students League in New York. This work acrylic on paper is evocative of her colorful palette and ...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Precipitation, 1960s Abstract Oil Painting of Floating Shapes, Purple White Gray
Located in Denver, CO
Original 1961 mid-century modern abstract painting by New Mexico Transcendentalist, Emil Bisttram (1895-1976). Abstract floating shapes painted in shades of purple, blue, gray, white and black. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 33 x 37 x 1 ¾ inches. Image size is 32 ½ x 36 ¼ inches. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a complete condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Emil Bisttram grew up in the tenements of New York City after his family emigrated from Hungary when he was a young boy. Bisttram studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. During his training, Emil studied under Ivan Olinsky, Leon Kroll, Howard Giles, and Jay Hambidge. Bisttram later taught at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, Parson's School of Design, and at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum in New York. Bisttram opened the nation's first freelance advertising art agency by the age of twenty-one. However, he soon abandoned the business in pursuit of a career in Fine Art. In 1930, the artist made his first visit to Taos, New Mexico, where he reportedly found himself "blocked" by the open spaces, intense light, and color that define the region. In 1931, he traveled to Mexico where he studied mural painting with Diego Rivera on a Guggenheim Fellowship. While Emil was in Mexico, his wife lived in Taos where the couple established permanent residence upon his return. In Taos, Bisttram opened the area's first commercial art gallery, the Heptagon Gallery. He also founded the avante-garde Taos School of Art, later known as the Bisttram School of Fine Art. In 1934, Bisttram was among artists selected to paint murals for the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). While commissioned by the W.P.A., Bisttram worked on murals in the County Courthouse in Taos and he completed a mural in the Justice Department Building in Washington, D.C. Although he continued with representational painting, much of Bisttram's work in the late 1930's became increasingly abstract. Along with Raymond Jonson and seven other artists, Bisttram founded the Transcendental Painting Group...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Large Vintage American Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Portrait of Cubist Man', Berlin School (circa 1960s)
Located in London, GB
'Portrait of Cubist Man', oil on board, Berlin School (circa 1960s). A striking cubist depiction, this is a vibrant portrait of a figure in geometric perspective. The varied hues - b...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Rare American Abstract Signed Mid Century Modern Framed Geometric Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract geometric cubist framed and signed oil painting by Burton Wasserman (1929 - 2017). Great color and composition. Framed. Signed. Artist Bio...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Monogrammed Mid Century 1960s Bay Area Abstract Expressionist Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous cyan and blue abstract expressionist landscape of highly abstracted forms in cool colors evoking the Bay Area hills, with a glimpse of Mt. Tamalpais, by an unknown Californi...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Signed 1962 Large Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed lower right and dated 1962.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Senza titolo
Located in Roma, RM
SENZA TITOLO 1961 Tecnica mista su carta Mixed media on paper cm 35 x 50 Opera in corso di archiviazione - Artwork archiving in progress
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Composition
Located in LE HAVRE, FR
Lucien BEYER (1908-1983) Composition Oil on canvas Size: 65 x 92 cm Signed lower right Provenance : - Yves Jaubert Gallery, Paris - Private collection,...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Abstract in Red and Green on Black - British sixties art oil painting
Located in London, GB
This superb British Abstract Expressionist oil painting in by noted British artist Ron Russell. Russell was born in Britain but lived in Australia for over 10 years in the late forti...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Field Green - large, green, pink, orange, minimal abstract, acrylic on canvas
Located in Bloomfield, ON
It makes a bold statement. Field Green is one of a series of colour field paintings created by modernist Milly Ristvedt. Renowned as a master colourist, Ristvedt chose a bright palet...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Vintage Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionist Still Life Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage modernist abstract still life oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Miami, FL
Untitled, 1963 Unique Piece Oil on canvas 60 x 90 x cm. 23.6 x 35.4 in. ABOUT THE ARTIST Oswaldo Vigas (b. 1923, Valencia, Venezuela; d. 2014, Caracas, Venezuela) is a protean crea...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled (Green Abstract)
Located in Carmel-by-the-sea, CA
An abstract acrylic piece by Murray Reich completed in 1969.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic Polymer

Open No. 45: In Blue with Brown
Located in London, GB
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) Open No. 45: In Blue with Brown 1969 Acrylic and charcoal on canvas 55.9 x 71.1 cms (22 x 28 ins) RM9741 P447 Exhibited: Art Galleries, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Awards, 1970, no. 55. Galerie Templon, Paris, Robert Motherwell Open...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Acrylic

Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 60
Located in London, GB
Robert Motherwell Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 60 1960 Oil on paperboard 17.8 x 23.8 cms (7 x 9 3/8 ins) RM14624 W111 Provenance: Harriet Mnuchin Weiner, 1961. Christie's, New ...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Aubrey Penny (1917-2000) Abstract Painting, Oil on Board, Signed and Dated
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Aubrey Penny (1917 - 2000) Abtract Painting, Oil on Board. Signed and Dated 62, lower right Titled: "Laws of Chance" Series One 3-185- C 1962 Aubrey Penny (American 1917-2000) wa...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled
Located in Napoli, NA
The artwork is handsigned "Emblema 1966" on the back of the canvas by the artist.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Jute, Mixed Media, Pigment

Mid Century Modern "Reflections" Oil 1950s
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century Modern "Reflections" Oil 1950s Early morning abstract landscape with birds and reflections of a European scene by Marjorie Suits Erbesa Fresno, California artist (America...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Untitled III
Located in New Orleans, LA
Joseph Kapeza was a Congolese artist working in Sub Saharan Africa in the mid 20th century. Kapeza had a long and troubled life of mental illness. He sta...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled II
Located in New Orleans, LA
Joseph Kapeza was a Congolese artist working in Sub Saharan Africa in the mid 20th century. Kapeza had a long and troubled life of mental illness. He sta...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Paysage
Located in Austin, TX
Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. 39 x 25.25 in. 39.25 x 25.5 in. (framed) Framed in maple. Provenance David Findlay Galleries, New York Ga...
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1960s Mid Century Modern Abstract Acrylic on Canvas Painting, Black Blue Green
Located in Denver, CO
Original acrylic on canvas painting signed by artist Angelo Di Benedetto (1913-1992) from 1964. Painting features an abstract composition depicting a large circle encompassing smaller circles in blue, green, white, and black. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corner of the canvas. Image size measures 50 x 49 3⁄4 inches. Framed image size measures 50 3⁄4 x 50 1⁄2 x 1 1⁄4 inches. About the Artist: Born New Jersey 1913 Died Central City, CO 1992 The son of Italian immigrants from the Salerno province in southern Italy, as a teenager Di Benedetto worked to study at the Cooper Union Art School in New York City (1930-34) from which he graduated with a certificate in freehand drawing. He won a scholarship to the Boston Museum Art School where he studied for three years, beginning in 1934. In 1937, he entered his first juried exhibition at the Montclair Museum in New Jersey, winning first prize and first honorable mention. In December 1938, the Royal Netherlands Steamship Line sent him on a two-month ethnological study trip to Haiti, his first exposure to a different environment outside the United States. In 1940, his Haitian paintings were exhibited at the Montross Gallery in New York – his first solo show. Before World War II, Di Benedetto traveled extensively around the United States doing regional paintings. During the war in 1941, Di Benedetto volunteered for a secret mission based in Eritrea, Africa before the Allied invasion. Following Africa, he served as an orientation officer and aerial photographic officer in the District of Columbia. In 1945 he was assigned to a mapping unit at Buckley Airfield in Denver where he served until his discharge in 1946. Like many other servicemen stationed at the time in Colorado, Di Benedetto chose to remain in Colorado, impressed by the state’s physical grandeur and healthful climate. He settled in the old mining town of Central City in 1947. In 1949 Di Benedetto and his wife, ceramist Lee Porzio, opened the Benpro Art School in his studio where he conducted summer art classes. In 1950, Di Benedetto teamed up with Frank Vavra...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Untitled
Located in Napoli, NA
The artwork is handsigned "Emblema 67" on the back of the canvas by the artist.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Jute, Mixed Media, Pigment

Untitled
Located in Napoli, NA
The artwork is authenticated by the Emblema heirs and archived - number 2553 - at the Archivio and Museo Emblema (Terzigno - NA), Italy. The artwork is handsigned "Emblema 1969" on t...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Jute, Mixed Media, Pigment

Untitled
Located in Napoli, NA
The artwork is handsigned "Emblema 67" on the back of the canvas by the artist.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Jute, Mixed Media, Pigment

P1961-41
Located in Paris, FR
Pastel, 1961 Handsigned by the artist in pencil Certificate of authenticity Pastel, graphite and scratching Framed work : 57 x 72 cm Support: baryta cardboard laminated on wood pane...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Oswaldo Vigas, Terricola, 1963, Oil on Canvas, 116 x 90 cm, 45.6 x 35.4 in.
Located in Miami, FL
Oswaldo Vigas Terricola, 1963 Oil on Canvas 116 x 90 cm 45.6 x 35.4 in. The painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Cat. Rais. 1963.131 Provenance: Private Collect...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red, Black and Blue Arrows - 20th Century, Oil on canvas by Terry Frost
Located in London, GB
Signed, titled and dated on verso Provenance: Waddington Galleries Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Belgrave Gallery, London Private Collection, UK (purchased from the above, 2001)
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Study in Counterpoint, Large Geometric Abstract Painting by Kes Zapkus
By Kes Zapkus
Located in Long Island City, NY
Kestutis Edward Zapkus was born in Lithuania in 1938. He was predominantly influenced creatively by the Abstract Expressionist movement in Post War New York. Zapkus soon immigrated t...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Silver Song
Located in New York, NY
CLEVE GRAY Silver Song, 1967 Acrylic on canvas with aluminum paint and bronze 101 x 80 inches Signed, titled and dated
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1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Enamel

Silver Voyage
Located in New York, NY
CLEVE GRAY Silver Voyage, 1967 Acrylic on canvas with silver enamel 79 x 80 inches Signed, titled and dated
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Enamel

Open #125: Jeannie
Located in London, GB
Robert Motherwell Open #125: Jeannie 1969 Acrylic and charcoal on canvasboard 76.2 x 50.8 cms (30 x 20 ins) RM9796 P532 The title of this painting refers to Motherwell's elder daugh...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Charcoal, Acrylic

Automatism No. 11
Located in London, GB
Robert Motherwell Automatism No. 11 1965 Ink and oil on paper 67.3 x 61.6 cms (26 1/2 x 24 1/4 ins) Part of the Beside the Sea series, a series of oil paintings influenced by Mother...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil

Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110C
Located in London, GB
Robert Motherwell Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110C 1968 Acrylic and graphite on paper 15.2 x 20.3 cms (6 x 8 ins) Robert Motherwell's Elegies series represent one of the iconic motifs of Abstract Expressionism.  Based on a 1948 ink illustration the artist executed accompanying a Harold Rosenberg poem, “A Bird for every bird,” the drawing shows the hypnotically repetitive patterning of ovoids and vertical beams.  The stark contrast of the black ink on white paper references the symbolic use of the color black by artists such as Goya, Manet and Matisse to convey death, loss, and tragedy.  Motherwell was quite affected by the turbulence of the Spanish Civil War and alludes to the Spanish republic in his Elegies. Motherwell’s plumbing the depths of poetry, history, and primordial art in the Elegies is considered a hallmark of nascent Abstract Expressionist painting in its desire to "excavate" essential imagery of mankind. Motherwell, who originally trained as a philosophy scholar and later became of the great editors of 20th century art documents, grasped very early on the crucial importance that in order to contribute meaningfully to the canon of modern art, one must create a principle of aesthetics. Through the surrealist concept of automatism, the artist finally found the creative principle that eventually governed his extraordinary artistic output and produced the Elegies, one of the most salient, immediate painterly images of 20th century abstract painting. In fact, he has alluded to the fact that each one of his Elegies begins as an automatic drawing, and certain shapes are then blocked to create the signature armature of the vertical bars and ovals. The Elegies seem to possess the power of an archetypal image, an image the mind already grasps on a subconscious level. Motherwell's play of dualities of black and white as well as other dichotomies—the geometric versus the organic, chaos versus order, death versus life—was a condition of living through a tumultuous period in American history. During an interview, he vividly recalled the 1940s as the time when society was ordered by a set of contradictions.  In Motherwell's Elegies, he not only discovered an incredibly elastic pictorial language that would communicate on multiple levels but also acknowledged these contradictions in a manner that would resonate in abstract form.  The present work served as a model for a painting, Spanish Elegy...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Laid Paper, Graphite

Variation #5
By Don Olsen
Located in Salt Lake City, UT
Variation #5, by Don Olsen. Oil on canvas, 64 x 86 x 1 inches (unframed, gallery wrapped canvas), $25,000 Previously owned (purchased directly from artist),...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
This stunning abstract watercolor was realized in the United States circa 1960. The work represents a fantastic hybrid between figurative and abstract painting realized in a style su...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

LA 8
Located in New York, NY
SHIRLEY GOLDFARB LA 8, 1969 Oil on canvas 10 x 8 inches signed on back "Goldfarb '69"
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Abstract Expressionist New York City School Brooklyn Bridge Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American school abstract expressionist cityscape painting. Oil on board, circa 1968. Signed. Displayed in a period frame. Image, 24.5"L x 20.5"H.
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blue On Blue #1 (Abstract Painting on Shaped 3 Dimensional Canvas, Circles)
Located in Denver, CO
Blue On Blue #1, original vintage 1965 abstract painting by Denver artist, Angelo Di Benedetto (1913-1992). Acrylic paint in shades of blue on shaped 3 dimensional (3D) canvas with a circular form protruding from the center of square painting. Presented in a vintage/original frame, outer dimensions measure 26 ¾ x 26 ½ x 1 ¼ inches. Image size is 26 x 26 x 3 ¼ inches. Exhibited: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1965 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting December 8, 1965 to January 30, 1966 The son of Italian immigrants from the Salerno province in southern Italy, as a teenager Di Benedetto worked as a truck driver in the mornings and a bartender in the afternoons to study at the Cooper Union Art School in New York City (1930-34) from which he graduated with a certificate in freehand drawing. He won a scholarship to the Boston Museum Art School where he studied for three years, beginning in 1934, with Russian émigré painter, Alexandre Jacovleff, a member of Mir Isskustva (World of Art) in St. Petersburg before the Russian Revolution. In 1936 he painted a religious mural for St. Michael’s Grove in Paterson, New Jersey. The following year, he entered his first juried exhibition at the Montclair Museum in New Jersey, winning first prize and first honorable mention. In December 1938, the Royal Netherlands Steamship Line sent him on a two-month ethnological study trip to Haiti, his first exposure to a different environment outside the United States. During what turned out to be an extended six-month stay, he studied and painted the life and religious customs of the island, resulting in a series of colorful, stylized paintings inspired by his immersion in the local culture. He also did scenes of Port-au-Prince and executed commissions received from prominent people in Haiti, including government officials. In 1940, his Haitian paintings were exhibited at the Montross Gallery in New York (his first solo show) and also reproduced in the January 1940 issue of Life Magazine. One of his Haitian paintings, Morning in Port-au-Prince, was owned by an American author, politician and U.S. ambassador, Clare Boothe Luce, while another image, Haiti Post Office, was acquired for the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection and later donated to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Before World War II, Di Benedetto traveled extensively around the United States in his car and trailer doing regional paintings. In 1941, he did what is considered the first authentic version of George Washington Crossing the Delaware, a contrast to the well-known painting on the same subject (1851) by German-born painter, Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. During the war, Di Benedetto volunteered for a secret mission to Africa in 1941 before the Allied invasion, serving as director of camouflage, foreman of native laborers, and an interpreter while based in Eritrea. The following year he received a direct commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the First Photo Mapping Squadron, leading groups as a guide and interpreter and doing ground control. During his free time in Africa, he sketched and painted the local population and his fellow servicemen. Following Africa, he served as an orientation officer and aerial photographic officer for the 311th Photo Wing at Bolling Field, in the District of Columbia where he did a series of illustrated articles describing the natives in the different countries where the men of his organization were stationed during the war. In 1945 he was assigned to a mapping unit at Buckley Air Field in Denver where he served until his discharge in 1946. Like many other servicemen stationed at the time in Colorado, Di Benedetto chose to remain in Colorado, impressed by the state’s physical grandeur and healthful climate. After the war, he lived briefly for about a year in Rangely, a small town in northwest Colorado where he traveled and sketched. But finding it a little too remote, he settled in the old mining town of Central City in 1947, his home base for the rest of his life. He spent his first six years there transforming the old Sauder-McShane Mercantile warehouse into a giant art studio. His initial acquaintance with the town’s mining town history in 1947 resulted in a drawing, Death of a Miner, showing a male figure buried under a pile of collapsed rock in a mining tunnel. In 1949 Di Benedetto and his wife, ceramist Lee Porzio, opened the Benpro Art School in his studio where he conducted summer art classes. The following year he teamed up with a Denver-based artist, Frank Vavra, to open the Denver Art Center at 924 Broadway. He and Vavra were founding members of the 15 Colorado Artists who seceded in 1948 from the Denver Artists Guild because they were dissatisfied with the older organization’s underlying conservatism and the disdain of some of its members for modern art. Welcoming anyone wanting to learn how to draw or paint, the Denver Art Center in downtown Denver only lasted about a year. Undeterred by its lack of success, Di Benedetto continued throughout his career to give workshops, classes, and lectures on art-related topics in Denver and elsewhere. Examples of topics ranged from subjects such as “African Art,” Chappell House, Denver (1945) and “University or Artistic Thought” sponsored by the Art for World Friendship Committee (1954). He also taught locally at the Jewish Community Center, Steele Community Center, International House, Southern Colorado State College-Pueblo, and lectured at the University of Denver. Beginning in 1969 he sponsored over one hundred youths at his studio in Central City to spend a summer learning about art. He also conducted classes for serious working artists. His efforts earned him an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado in 1977. He likewise promoted contemporary Colorado artists’ work in the 1950s, heading a committee that presented one-person exhibitions in a small gallery at the Vogue Art Cinema on South Pearl Street in Denver. His interest in promoting the arts led to his participation in numerous organizations. In the 1960s he became concerned with environmental and urban art and was the president of Art for the Cities, a Denver-based nonprofit organization. He also was the chairman of and a participant in the first annual environmental art exhibit held at Denver’s American Medical Center. In 1968 Colorado Governor John Love appointed him to the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities in which he remained active until 1975. He served for two consecutive years as program coordinator for the Governor’s Conference on the Arts and Humanities. At the 1969 conference, Governor Love presented him an award for his contribution to the art and artists of Colorado. At the same time, he actively participated in the civic life of Central City. The town’s Police Magistrate (1955-56), he twice campaigned for mayor, first in 1966 and again in 1973, and ran for commissioner in 1979. He socialized with artists Ben Shahn, Herbert Bayer and Mark Rothko, as well as theatrical stars appearing at the Central City Opera House, including Helen Hayes, Mae West, and Gypsy Rose Lee. He invited them to carve their autographs on his kitchen table. Di Benedetto worked with equal facility in a variety of media: acrylic, oil paint, watercolor, charcoal, Conte crayon, graphic arts and metal (copper, iron). Up until the early 1950s, his output was dominated by representational figure work and expressionist Colorado landscapes that were not always immune from controversy. When Life Magazine included a reproduction of his Regionalist painting, Lovers in the Cornfield (1941) in its article, “Ten Years of American Art: Life Reviews the Record of a Lively, Important Decade” (November 26, 1946, issue), three counties in Massachusetts banned the publication. Just as immediately, the painting was exhibited in Denver. He said that he liked the West because the people, despite their lack of exposure to art, were individualistic and almost “anarchistic.” In the early 1950s he did woodcuts in a modernist style, including Remembrance, showing his two young daughters. Influenced by Abstract Expressionism at that time, he began considering the elimination of the image from his work. By the end of the decade, he had decided that “the circle – pure and simple was one of the most familiar symbols of mankind and that it metaphored into everything.” At the same time, he noted that “99% of the abstract painters shied away from using…[the circle]. When they didn’t, they slaughtered it, murdered it and buried it. So it became my motif.” For more than three decades he explored the circle in paint, sculpture and shaped canvas. Two examples of the last-named medium are his Red CQ and Black C-1, both from 1969. Because abstraction touched upon his deep feelings and spirituality, he felt he could make visible that part of life which “we feel but almost never see.” His fascination with the circle also relates to his belief that to affect the dialogue existing between object and maker, the artist must “create archetypal shapes [that have universal appeal], not symbols…to reflect simply the intrinsic beauty of the shape itself.” A strong advocate for public art, Di Benedetto headed Art for the Cities, Inc., which sponsored nine sculptures for Burns Park as part of the Denver Sculpture Symposium held in the Mile High City in 1968. The catalysts for the idea of the sculptures were Beverly and Bernie Rosen, who had been instrumental in the creation of the contemporary department at the Denver Art Museum. Along with Di Benedetto, the other participating sculptors were Dean Fleming, Peter Forakis, Roger Kotoske, Tony Magar, Robert Mangold, Robert Morris, Richard Van Buren and Bill Verhelst. The park project eventually served as a prototype for twenty-two states, bringing the sculpture to urban spaces. The sculptures reflected Di Benedetto’s concept of “burden-less environmental art” with no hidden meaning for the public to decipher. His goal in public art was to “create a work which, when integrated with the site, will create a tranquil oasis, a counterbalance to the modern chaotic world we experience daily.” During the 1960s and 1970s, he received other major sculpture commissions: an 80-foot-long copper wall, Jewish Community Center, Denver (1962); sculpture garden, General Rose Hospital, Denver (1964); Fountain, First National Bank of Dallas (1966); Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Pueblo, Colorado (1969); neighborhood park sculpture, Yonkers, New York (1971); High School Park, Northglenn, Colorado (1974); ice skating rink sculpture, Pueblo (1976). Fate was not as kind to his mural which the Colorado Supreme Court justices commissioned him to paint in 1976 for the Colorado Judicial Building from a field of twenty-two candidates. With his former student, Phyllis Montrose as his principal assistant along with three others, he spent a year and a half executing the mural. Entitled Justice Through the Ages (aka Lawgivers), it depicted sixty individuals from ancient Babylon...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Orbis - 20th Century, Abstract, Oil on canvas by Paul Feiler
Located in London, GB
Oil on canvas
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Amélie by Julien Dinou - Pastel on paper 19x28 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work on paper Gilded wood frame with glass pane 52 x 43 x 2,5 cm
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel

"Nightscape" Deep Blues & Black, Oil on Canvas
Located in Detroit, MI
"Nightscape" was painted in 1960 by the African-American artist, Merton Simpson. It is a mixture of deep blues and black with what may be a white moon whose reflection in the lower half of the painting literally causes the painting to glow. Simpson became the first African American to receive a prestigious five-year fellowship from the Charleston Scientific and Cultural Education fund and left South Carolina in 1949 for New York City after he finished high school. He attended New York University and Cooper Union while working in the frame shop of Herbert Benevy. Many well-known artists came to the frame shop and in time critiqued Simpson's work and developed a relationship with him. At NYU Simpson became acquainted with Hale Woodruff...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
DANIEL GORSKI Untitled, 1964 Acrylic on canvas mounted on board 90 x 90 inches
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic, Board

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
DANIEL GORSKI Untitled, 1963 Acrylic on canvas (Diptych) 80 x 45 inches
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Sentinel #1
Located in New York, NY
DANIEL GORSKI Sentinel #1, 1964 Acrylic on canvas 85 x 23 inches
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

60 S-2 AP
Located in New York, NY
AL HELD 60 S-2 AP, 1964-1965 Ink and acrylic on paper mounted on board 15 x 39-7/8 inches
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper

Untitled #4
Located in New York, NY
EDWARD DUGMORE Untitled #4, 1969 Oil on canvas 74 x 62 3/4 inches 188 x 159.4 cm Abstract Expressionism
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled #14
Located in New York, NY
EDWARD DUGMORE Untitled #14, 1969 Oil on Linen 71 1/2 x 81 inches 181.6 x 205.7 cm Abstract Expressionist - combination of figure and landscape
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled #9 (Icarus)
Located in New York, NY
EDWARD DUGMORE Untitled #9 (Icarus), 1969 Oil on Linen 78 x 61 inches 198.1 x 154.9 cm Abstract Expressionist
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Series X #2
Located in New York, NY
EDWARD DUGMORE Series X #2, 1969 Oil on Linen 78 x 61 inches 198.1 x 154.9 cm
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Endeavor
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a just discovered mixed media painting by American artist Robert McIntosh, (1916-2010.) Endeavor, is an original mixed media oil and collage on canvas board, signed, c. ...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

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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