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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: 1950s
Antique American School Monogrammed Mid Century Abstract Large Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed in monogram. Framing is available!
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American New England Coastal Fall Fauvist Abstract Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist seascape signed oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Framed. Image size, 30L x 15H.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Lawrence, NY
Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarlett more than once proved to be at the artistic zeitgeist in a career that stretched for more than 75 years. Born in 1889, Scarlett had his first retrospective by 1928. He subscribed fully to the modernist credo. Interviewed at the time, he said: "If a futuristic painting brings the casual gallery patron to an abrupt stop and forces him to spend five minutes in front of the painting, then the ends of modernism have been served," A major proponent of non-objective painting, Scarlett's career and artistic philosophy is closely linked with the early history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. His work, along with that of Kandinsky, Klee, and German artist Rudolph Bauer...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Green abstract composition" Oil cm. 27 x 26 1950 ca Green , Yellow
Located in Torino, IT
Green, Yellow, abstract, Picasso, Atelier stamp lower right Dora Maar, original name Henrietta Theodora Markovitch (Marković), (born November 22, 1907, Paris, France—died July 16, 1997, Paris), French photographer and Surrealist artist whose career and accomplishments were overshadowed during her lifetime by the details of her affair with Pablo Picasso. Her work was resurrected and reexamined more thoughtfully after her death. Maar and Picasso began a love affair in 1936. She photographed him often, and her pictures of him creating his epic work Guernica became important visual documents related to that painting. Throughout their relationship, Picasso painted Maar numerous times (e.g., Dora Maar Seated [1937]; Weeping Woman...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

1950s Abstract Painting New York Skyline Cityscape, Buildings, Blue Yellow Red
Located in Denver, CO
Vintage 1950s original signed abstract painting of New York City by Charles Ragland Bunnell from 1951, cityscape mid century modern skyline. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 21 ⅜ x 26 ⅜ x 2 inches. Image size is 19 x 24 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: Charles Bunnell developed a love for art at a very young age. As a child in Kansas City, Missouri, he spent much of his time drawing. When he was unable to find paper he drew on walls and in the margins of textbooks for which he was often fined. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Composition with Figure, " Irene Rice Pereira
Located in New York, NY
Irene Rice Pereira Composition with Figure, 1951 Inscribed, signed and dated Salford/Pereira 2/51 (lr); inscribed I Rice Pereira/2669 Great Clowes St/Sa...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Casein

Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Guitarist Figurative
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful abstract expressionist painting of guitarist painted by Norman Rubington (American, 1921 - 1991) while in Rome, 1952. Signed lower left and on verso. Dated "11 - 52, Roma" ...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Austin, TX
Oil on canvas. Signed lower right, signed and dated verso. 62.25 x 56.25 in. 64 x 58 in. (framed) Custom framed in a natural cherry wood floater. Provenance Washburn Gallery, New York Behnke Doherty Gallery, Washington Depot, CT Born in 1908 in Chicago, John Opper moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1916. In high school, he began studying art and attending classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. After graduation, he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art (now Cleveland Institute of Art), only to withdraw after a year and move to Chicago, where he took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He eventually returned to Cleveland, enrolling at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve), receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1931. The Depression has taken hold during this period, so Opper found work by teaching metalworking and sketching classes at the Karamu Settlement House, the oldest African American theater in the United States. In 1933, Opper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, eventually connecting with the artist Hans Hofmann, who was teaching at the school run by Ernest Thurn. Hofmann encouraged Opper to work “in a more modern vein and start finding what it’s all about.” Heeding this advice, Opper relocated to New York, co-founding a mail-order club of American and British prints for dissemination to schools and museums. By the mid-1930s, he joined the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Easel Division, and also began attending the 57th Street school that Hans Hofmann had established after leaving the Art Students League. Looking back at his time at the school, Opper felt that beyond Hofmann’s teaching, most advantageous was his contact with fellow artists, including Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, and George McNeil. At the time, he also met Giorgio Cavallon and the sculptor Wilfrid Zogbaum. In 1936, Opper became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, along with Balcomb and Gertrude Greene. The organization was formed to provide an opportunity for artists to show abstract works at a time when such opportunities were scarce. This led to his first solo show in 1937 at the Artists’ Gallery in New York. During his summer in Gloucester in 1933, Opper came to know Milton Avery. Painting in Avery’s informal studio in New York City the following winter, he became acquainted with Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko. Opper participated in a couple of shows during the 1930s of the American Artists Congress Against War and Fascism, whose president was Stuart Davis. About the same period, Opper joined the Artists’ Union and served as the business manager of its publication, Art Front. During World War II, Opper worked for a ship design company creating drawings for piping systems used in PT boats...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-Century Cyclists- Bike Race; On the Line Bosco #46 (Italy/France, 1909-1993)
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Bike Race; On the Line Bosco #46 Pierre Bosco (Italy/France, 1909-1993) 1950s Oil on canvas 25 x 13 inches, frame size “The savage art of Bosco bears its ru...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Large Great Color Abstract Modernist Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1950. Unsgned. Image size 36L x 60H.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape, Abstract Expressionist Painting 1957
Located in Long Island City, NY
A fine period Abstract Expressionist oil painting by noted American artist, Alexander M. Bing (1878 - 1959), signed 'AMB' lower right. Gallery label from ...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Vintage Mid Century Framed Oil Painting, Abstract Coastal Landscape - Icy Winter
Located in Bristol, GB
Icy Winter Size: 44 x 52 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas A beautifully ethereal mid century modernist winter landscape scene, painted in oil onto canvas. This semi abstract land...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

RARE 1950’s Avante-Garde FEMALE American Abstract Expressionist painting
Located in New York, NY
Here I have for sale a rare Avant-Garde painting by Minna Wright Citron (October 15, 1896 – December 21, 1991). She was wife of the famous social realist Bernard Koopman. Reginald Marsh and Raphael Soyer. She moved on to start teaching in the early 1950’s Abstract...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

"Phase 2 Variation IV" Black and White Abstract Fantasy Etching by Paul A. L.
Located in Pasadena, CA
This monochromatic, black-and-white abstract painting plays a constant game between forms and shadows. For the painter, his artworks are a pure contrast between the visible and the invisible. Dark gestural lines decorate the background and contrast against a disappearing white background with subtle details of grey. Organic patterns appear in the black line work, creating an ethereal use of depth and space. The foreground contains multiple uncanny shapes feeding an overall fantasy yet gloomy atmosphere. The title of the artwork is "Phase 2...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Etching

Large Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionistoj Interior View Signed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on board, circa 1950. Signed.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Sketch
By Hugo Weber
Located in Santa Fe, NM
20 x 30 inches; 22.125 x 32.0625 inches framed Provenance: Private collection, Denver, CO Exhibition History: Exhibition label on stretcher, "Elmhurst Art Museum, Hugo Weber, Septemb...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Abstract Expressionist Signed Mid Century Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist oil painting by Morris M. Shulman (1912 - 1978). Oil on board, circa 1955. Housed in a vintage frame. Signed. Image size, 28 by 20.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Skull Mid Century Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist oil painting by Victor De Pauw (1902 - 1971). Oil on board, circa 1950. Framing available. Image size, 24L x 27H. Signed.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Landscape - Oil by Mario Asnago - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract Landscape is an original contemporary artwork realized by Maria Asnago. Signed in the bottom right. Hand signed on the back. Mario Asnago. A renewed architect and painte...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Landscape Morris Shulman Signed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract Maine landscape painting. Watercolor and gouache on paper, circa 1960. Signed on verso. Image size, 30...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Untitled
Located in Lawrence, NY
Provenance: Martha Jackson Gallery, NY; Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY. In a career that spanned nearly six decades and combined aspects of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, Mr. Opper became known for vibrantly colored paintings in which soft, cloudlike forms, or elongated plinths jostled gently against each other. By American standards an early convert...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Abstract
By Kenneth Callahan
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Tempura and ink on heavy paper Signed bottom right, Numbered on verso "No. 18" 8.75 x 19.75 inches; 18.5 x 29.5 inches framed Provenance: Private collection, Denver, Colorado
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Tempera

1950s Framed Abstract Still Life Oil Painting, Blue Green Black Orange White
Located in Denver, CO
Untitled (Fruit, Leaves, Spotted Cloth) oil on canvas painting signed by Bernard Arnest (1917-1986) from 1959. Abstracted still life featuring fruit and leaves on a purple/grey background. Presented in a custom frame measuring 43 x 36 ¾ inches, image size measures 40 x 34 inches. Expedited and International shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: A Denver native, Arnest studied with Helen Perry at East High School who is accredited to having identified many of Colorado’s talented artists. At Perry’s recommendation Arnest benefited from supplemental instruction at the newly founded Kirkland School of Art and at the School of Fine Art and Design operated by Colorado artist Frank Mechau. Following graduation from East, Arnest enrolled at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, where he studied with Boardman Robinson and Henry Varnum Poor. In 1940 Arnest was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in painting which he spent in San Francisco. That same year San Francisco Museum of Art had a one-man show for Arnest, the first of many in his professional career. Other exhibitions included the Whitney Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Academy of Design, Carnegie Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. After the war he worked for two years in New York City and began a thirty-nine-year affiliation with Kraushaar Galleries who also showed the likes of George Luks, John Sloan, Maurice...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Night landscape in Menerbes" France, Oil 1950 cm 46 x 34
Located in Torino, IT
Night,Blue,Green,Picasso,France Atelier stamp lower right Dora Maar, original name Henrietta Theodora Markovitch (Marković), (born November 22, 1907, Paris, France—died July 16, 199...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Man San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement Peter Witwer
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait of Man San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement Figurative portrait of a man by San Francisco artist Peter Witwer (American, 1928-1968). Unsigned from a collection of his work. Provenance estate of Peter Witwer, Lost Art Solon. Image 32"H x 26"W Frame, 32.5"H x 26.5"W x 1.75"D Posthumous show of the artists work exhibit card on verso. Born George Peter...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Nell Sinton Abstract Expressionist Landscape San Francisco California Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
Eleanor Nell Sinton Roots and Stems 1950, Oil on canvas, Signed lower right N. Sinton, Provenance: Braunstein Quay Gallery (bears label verso) Framed: 24.5 X 20.5 sight 21 X 17 inches. Nell (Eleanor) Sinton (1910-1997) was a painter, art collector and educator in San Francisco, California Nell Sinton began painting in the 1920s. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute (then called the California School of Fine Arts). Nell Sinton, one of the early California woman abstract expressionist painters. A member of a family that moved to San Francisco in 1851, Nell Sinton began painting in the 1920s. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute (then called the California School of Fine Arts) a decade before abstract expressionism emerged there, and, later, with Lucien Labaudt and Maurice Sterne, (1937-1938). She also worked as an apprentice to Sterne on the Federal Art Project (WPA) murals in San Francisco (1938-40) and was a member of the San Francisco Art Commission (1959-63). In 1959, Sinton was acknowledged as one of the Ten Most Distinguished Bay Area Women. A notable Bay Area Expressionist...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Composition - Original Gouache by Paul Bony - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract Composition is a small yet significant artwork realized by the artist Paul Henri Bony, a famous French artist, active in the mid-20th century. The artwork is in excellent co...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Untitled Blue Geometric Abstract
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Signed lower right "Sander" 19.5 x 23.5 inches; 23.5 x 25.125 inches framed Provenance: Private collection, Denver
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red to Black, 1954 Abstract Oil Mid-20th Century Modern Non-Objective. Published
By O. Louis Guglielmi
Located in New York, NY
Red to Black, 1954 Abstract Oil Mid-20th Century Modern Non-Objective. Published. Signed and dated upper left. 40 1/4 x 18 1/2 inches oil on canvas. Provenance: Estate of O. Louis Guglielmi. Robert Schoelopf Gallery. Andrew Crispo Gallery. Published in the artist's monograph as seen in the attached photos. BIO Painter O. Louis Guglielmi moved stylistically from a symbolic Social Realism, Precisionism, and Surrealism, ultimately to abstraction, but his subject matter, when it existed, dealt with society's underdogs. He had experienced slum living as a youth, moving from place to place because of his violinist father's need to find employment. Though Guglielmi was born in 1906 in Cairo, Egypt, his Italian parents moved the family to Italy. In 1914, they were living in New York City in Harlem's Italian slum. Guglielmi was involved in the political and artistic protests of the trial, conviction as anarchist bombers, and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Composition
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Abstract Composition Oil on canvas, signed lower left. Judith Sobel was born in Lwow Poland in 1924. After World War II, she attended the Academy of Fine ...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cotton Canvas

Paso Robles
Located in Irvine, CA
"Paso Robles" by Don Totten is an abstract oil painting on canvas circa 1950 and measures 40.75 in x 47.75 in. The upper left corner has sustained a small l...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Beach Lobster Cove
Located in Lawrence, NY
Casein on masonite Like many of his compatriots of the time, Shulman transitioned from representation to abstraction in the post-WWII period as he studied with Hans Hoffman. Yet, his work, whether or abstraction or representation, was inspired by a keen sense of place--in this case, Monhegan Island, Maine, where he returned year-after-year to paint. Many of his works were inspired by the tidal pool and eddies he studied on the island's shore. His work can be found in the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum, the Carnegie Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum, Bates College in Lewiston, Me, Vassar College...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Casein

Abstract Composition - Gouache by Paul Bony - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract Composition is a small yet significant artwork made by Paul Bony, a famous French artist active in the mid-20th century. The artwork is in excellent state of preservation. ...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Winter Garden
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Print color etching on heavy paper Signed, titled, dated on mat 18 x 11 inches; 20.5 x 17 inches framed Provenance: Private collection, Denver, Colorado
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Color, Etching

Image
Located in Irvine, CA
"Image" by Don Totten is an abstract oil painting on canvas circa 1950 and measures 20 in x 21. It is in excellent condition. Donald C. Totten (1903-1964) was a member of a group of artists who quietly began to introduce modernist thought, emanating from Europe and the East Coast, to the Los Angeles art community during the 1920s. Other members of this group were influential artists as Nick Brigante, Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled
Located in Irvine, CA
"Untitled" by Don Totten is an abstract oil painting on canvas circa 1950 and measures 48.5 in x 23.5 in. The right side of the painting is bowed and needs conservation, otherwise in...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Composition - Mid 20th Century Mixed Media by George De Goya
Located in Watford, Hertfordshire
Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Pastel

Composition
Located in Irvine, CA
"Composition" by Don Totten is an abstract oil painting on masonite circa 1950 and measures 28 in x 32 in. The painting is in good condition. Donald C. To...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Carnations & Rose Buds
Located in Summit, NJ
Gorgeous oil on panel by Harold Cohn. Beautiful reds - the photo does not do the painting justice. The texture of the flowers is stunning. The piece is fra...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel, Board

By the Dawn's Early Light, mid-century abstract black, red, yellow oil painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Charles Green Shaw (American, 1892-1974) By the Dawn's Early Light, 1955 Oil on masonite Signed lower left, dated and titled verso 35.5 x 23.75 inches 38 x 26.25 inches, framed Provenance: The estate of the artist to Charles H. Carpenter Charles Green Shaw, born into a wealthy New York family, began painting when he was in his mid-thirties. A 1914 graduate of Yale, Shaw also completed a year of architectural studies at Columbia University. During the 1920s Shaw enjoyed a successful career as a freelance writer for The New Yorker, Smart Set and Vanity Fair, chronicling the life of the theater and café society. In addition to penning insightful articles, Shaw was a poet, novelist and journalist. In 1927 he began to take a serious interest in art and attended Thomas Hart Benton's class at the Art Students League briefly in New York. He also studied privately with George Luks, who became a good friend. Once he had dedicated himself to non-traditional painting, Shaw's writing ability made him a potent defender of abstract art. After initial study with Benton and Luks, Shaw continued his artistic education in Paris by visiting numerous museums and galleries. From 1930 to 1932 Shaw's paintings evolved from a style imitative of Cubism to one directly inspired by it, though simplified and more purely geometric. Returning to the United States in 1933, Shaw began a series of abstracted cityscapes of skyscrapers he called Manhattan Motifs which evolved into his most famous works, the shaped canvases he called Plastic Polygons. The 1930s were productive years for Shaw. He showed his paintings in numerous group exhibitions, both in New York and abroad, and was also given several one-man exhibitions. Shaw had his first one-man exhibition at the Valentine Dudensing Gallery in New York in 1934, which included 25 Manhattan Motif paintings and 8 abstract works. In the spring of 1935 Shaw was introduced to Albert Gallatin and George L.K. Morris. Gallatin was so impressed with Shaw's work, he broke a policy against solo exhibitions at his museum, the Gallery of Living Art, and offered Shaw an exhibition there. In the summer of 1935 Shaw traveled to Paris with Gallatin and Morris who provided introductions to many great painters. Shaw regularly spent time with John Ferren and Jean Hélion. The following year Gallatin organized an exhibition called Five Contemporary American Concretionists at the Reinhardt Gallery that included Shaw, Ferren, and Morris, Alexander Calder, and Charles Biederman...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

1950s Abstract Expressionist Watercolor Composition by Charles Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
Abstract expressionist watercolor painting of blue, black, orange, and green signed by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968). Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials an...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

"Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color Field
Located in New York, NY
Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 96 x 78 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widel...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

September Landscape
Located in Boston, MA
Signed lower right: "Kupferman". Inscribed lower right: "1204". Titled, signed, dated, and inscribed verso: "EG: 1,204.J / "September Landscape, 1967" / Lawrence Kupferman". From the...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Antique American Modernist Abstract Landscape Morris Shulman Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist landscape abstract painting. Oil on board, circa 1952. Signed. Image size, 21.5"L x 7.5"H. Housed in a period modern frame.
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Imprints
Located in Irvine, CA
"Imprints" by Don Totten is an abstract oil painting on canvas circa 1950 and measures 24 in x 30 in. There is foxing on verso but otherwise in good condition. Donald C. Totten (19...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Splash 3
Located in Lawrence, NY
One of the "Women of Abstract Expressionism" Caradoc Ehrenhalt would often accompany his mother, the artist Amaranth Ehrenhalt, on her visits to the Louvre in Paris and the Metropoli...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Blue Wall, mid-century abstract expressionist, geometric blue, black & pink work
Located in Beachwood, OH
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...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Modern Pacific Northwest Rain Forest, Earthtone Abstract Landscape
By Hilda Davidson Kaster
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful mid century modern mixed media abstracted Northern California landscape by Hilda Davidson Kaster (American, 1912-2008), circa 1950. The artist uses layers of mixed media earthtones and natural textures such as leaves and bark to create the aesthetic of the deep forest of Sebastopol, California. Signed lower left corner, on verso with exhibition and gallery labels. Presented in rustic wooden frame of period (fair condition), Image size: 18"H x 24"W. Hilda Davidson Kaster was born in Oakland, California in 1912 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. She went to New York in the early 1930s to study art. At the Traphagen School of Design, she was a student of Moses Soyer and William Gropper, who were founders of the Ashcan School. Later in the 1930s she worked as a commercial artist and designer for I. Miller Shoes...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

New York City Abstract Skyline, Semi Abstract Night Scene Cityscape Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on board painting of abstracted New York City skyline by Charles Ragland Bunnell from 1951. Nocturne cityscape painted in colors of black, shades of blue, and yellow. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 30 ¼ x 12 ¼ x ¾ inches. Image size is 30 x 12 ¼ inches. Painting is in good vintage condition - please contact us for detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Charles Ragland Bunnell Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Charles Bunnell developed a love for art at a very young age. As a child in Kansas City, Missouri, he spent much of his time drawing. When he was unable to find paper he drew on walls and in the margins of textbooks for which he was often fined. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

1950s Abstract Oil Painting, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Black, Vertical Horizontal
Located in Denver, CO
Abstract painting in blue, pink, yellow, green, and black by Paul Kauvar Smith (1893-1977). Oil on board. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 29 ½ x 23 ¾ x 2 inche...
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1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Sacred Family, 1950s Abstract Figurative Oil Painting, Red Blue White Green
Located in Denver, CO
"Untitled (Sacred Family)" is an abstract oil painting on board by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968) circa 1950. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner. Abstracted view of several figures standing together in a group, painted in colors of black, red, blue, green, orange, yellow, and white. Presented in a vintage frame, outer dimensions measure 34 ½ x 29 x 1 ¼ inches. Image size is 23 ½ x 18 ¾ inches. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the artist: Charles Bunnell developed a love for art at a very young age. As a child in Kansas City, Missouri, he spent much of his time drawing. When he was unable to find paper he drew on walls and in the margins of textbooks for which he was often fined. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Abstrakte Komposition I" by Hubert Berke, Abstract Composition, Dark Colors
Located in Köln, DE
Mixed media on laid paper by Hubert Brake. "Abstrakte Komposition I", 1952 48,6 x 62 cm signed and dated
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Laid Paper

"Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color Field
Located in New York, NY
Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely recognized for their demanding yet understated means of revealing a serious and sober essence. He identified greatly with Mark Rothko, a friend, as well as Adolph Gottlieb and Jack Tworkov, with whom he had studied privately. Fenton painted in New York City in the late 50's as the explosion of Abstract Expressionism turned into a rebellion against gestural, emotional painting. More concerned about his art than his posture, he expanded upon a tradition in painting with influences as diverse as Whistler and Turner as well as Ad Reinhardt and Joseph Albers. Alan Fenton was born in Cleveland in 1927, studied at the Cleveland School of Art, The Arts Students League, The New School, and at NYU, earning his BFA at Pratt Institute, where he later taught painting for many years. At seventeen, Fenton served in the Merchant Marines where he began a career as a professional boxer, a skill he had honed on the streets. He moved successfully through the graphic design business en route to becoming a painter in New York at the height of the art revolution of the fifties and sixties. Fenton enjoyed success with his subtle washes and pencil drawings as well as large abstract...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

L'Eau, Abstract Painting by Jacques Zimmermann 1959
Located in Long Island City, NY
Jacques Zimmermann was born in Antwerp in 1929. He said: "The abstraction is not for me or a genre painting, nor a limit. It is a starting point. From there, by the automatic gesture...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

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

"Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color Field
Located in New York, NY
Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widel...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Small Longitudinal Dark Toned Abstract Portrait of a Pregnant Woman
By Pat Colville
Located in Houston, TX
Small longitudinal dark green and yellow toned portrait by Houston, TX artist Pat Colville depicting a young pregnant woman with short hair and a sleeveless top. The subject's striki...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large New York School Abstract Expressionist Colorful Mixed Media Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Taro Yamamoto, (American, 1919-1994) "La Gatta Miso" Oil or Acrylic/Canvas 32" x 50" Hand signed lower right, dated 1990, Titled on the stretcher verso, unframed. Taro Yamamoto (1919 – 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

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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