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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
Period: 1930s
Abstract Cubist Construction Collage Mid 20th Century American Modernism Cubism
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Cubist Construction Collage Mid 20th Century American Modernism Cubism Vaclav Vytacil (1892 - 1984) Abstract Construction #2 Caesin on board collage 11 x 13 1/2 th inches S...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Casein

Art Deco Abstract Oil Painting by Burr Singer , 20th Century
Located in Hoddesdon, GB
A beautifully painted Art Deco period oil painting by highly acclaimed American Artist Burr Singer 1912-1992 . Oil on canvas dating to the 1930s . Very good condition. Dimensions...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

(Untitled) Fabric Design
By Marguerite Gross
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Fabric Design) Annotated on the verso with the studio address of the artist Signed in ink lower right corner: “Marguerite Gross” Gouache on heavy paper, 1930-1939 In 1930 ...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Untitled 6
Located in Lawrence, NY
Early geometric ala Kandinsky Oil on paper Estate of Sam Esses Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarle...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

City Scene with Faces casein tempera on canvas by Vaclav Vytlacil
Located in Hudson, NY
Modernist painting by Vaclav Vytlacil of "City Scene with Faces". Signed and dated "Vytlacil 32" lower right. Provenance: Estate of the artist #1584; Martin Diamond Fine Art Exhibi...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Casein, Canvas

4-35 abstract oil painting by Charles Biederman
Located in Hudson, NY
Signed and dated "Biederman 4-35" lower right. About this artist: Charles Joseph Biederman was a twentieth century abstract American artist best known for his constructivist, cubist...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Lawrence, NY
Louis Schanker was an important early American modernist painter. He was best known for his work of the 30's and 40's done in a semi-abstract mode that was influenced by European m...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Signed Interior Modernist Abstract San Fran Museum Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed interior oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 9L x 10H. Provenance from the San Francisco Museum of Art.
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American School Abstract Expressionist Artist Studio Modern Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract interior painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1930. No signature found. Image size, 20L x 16H. Framing available.
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled Abstraction casein tempera on board by Vaclav Vytlacil
Located in Hudson, NY
Signed and dated "Vytlacil 38" lower left, and signed and dated verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist #1602; Martin Diamond Fine Art About this artist: Born in 1892 to Czechoslov...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Casein, Board

Antique American School Signed Abstract Expressionist Cubist Early Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American abstract signed oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 50L x 36H.
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled Geometric
Located in Lawrence, NY
Early geometric ala Kandinsky Oil on paper Estate of Sam Esses Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarle...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled Abstract by Female American Modernist and Surrealist Peter Miller
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Untitled Abstract" is a 30 x 22 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is painted in a vibrant color palette and estate stamped #202163 on verso. The painting has been conserved and inspected by conservation specialist, Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio, Inc. Exhibition history: Forgotten Woman of American Modernism, Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2022. Provenance: Estate of the Artist; Private Collection, Saugerties, New York; Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Image: Peter Miller in Her Studio Julien Levy Gallery...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique American School Cubist Abstract Signed Framed Pastel Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract pastel and watercolor painting. Signed illegibly. Framed. Image size, 14L x 18H.
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Abstract in Chestnut and Blue', Florence, Accademia delle Arti, Oil Triptych
By Gregory Deane
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Gregory Deane' (American, born 1938) and painted circa 1985. Framed dimensions: 15 H x 31.5 W x 1.5 D inches This contemporary California Expressionist incorpora...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Untitled, " William Baziotes, Black Modern Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism
Located in New York, NY
William Baziotes (1912 - 1963) Untitled, circa 1935-1940 Oil on board 14 x 19 3/4 inches Illegible Inscription present to the verso Provenance: Previously from the estate of Consta...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Antique American School 1930s NYC Surrealist Abstract Gold Gilt Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist mixed media painting. Oil on board with gold leaf assemblage, circa 1930. Unsigned. Image size, 13L x 17H. Housed in a period wood frame most li...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Piece - Mid 20th Century Colourful Oil on Canvas by Metchiled Naviasky
Located in Watford, Hertfordshire
Metchiled Naviasky Refugee from Europe who studied art in England. During the war she became picture editor of famous magazine PIcture Post. Later she taught mysticism in art at t...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cosmic Fantasy - Tempera by Leandra Angelucci - 1936
Located in Roma, IT
Cosmic Fantasy is an original artwork realized in 1936 by Leandra Angelucci. Mixed colored tempera on paper. Includes frame: 45 x 4 x 52 cm Hand s...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera

Abstract Man on Horse - Early 20th Century Abstract Piece 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...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Geometric Abstract American Oil WPA Color Field Abstraction Modern Non Objective
Located in New York, NY
Geometric Abstract American Oil Painting WPA Color Field Abstraction Modern Non Objective. August Mosca was born in Naples, Italy on August 19, 1909. He and his family emigrated to ...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tattoo Parlor Sailor (WPA era woman artist)
By Helen Malta
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Helen Malta (b.1912). Tattoo Parlor, ca. 1935. Oil on canvas, 20 x 33 inches. Signed lower right. Metropolitan Museum of Art reproduction rights stamp on r...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Manhattan Night Life"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) He was born to Czechoslovakian parents in 1892 in New York City. Living in Chicago as a youth, he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, returning to New York when he was 20. From 1913 to 1916, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Art Students League, and worked with John C. Johansen (a portraitist whose expressive style resembled that of John Singer Sargent), and Anders Zorn. He accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1916, remaining there until 1921. This enabled him to travel to Europe to study Cézanne’s paintings and works of the Old Masters. He traveled to Paris, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich seeking the works of Titian, Cranach, Rembrandt, Veronese, and Holbein, which gave him new perspective. Vytlacil studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich, settling there in 1921. Fellow students were Ernest Thurn and Worth Ryder, who introduced him to famous abstractionist Hans Hofmann. He worked with Hofmann from about 1922 to 1926, as a student and teaching assistant. During the summer of 1928, after returning to the United States, Vytlacil gave lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on modern European art. Soon thereafter, he became a member of the Art Students League faculty. After one year, he returned to Europe and successfully persuaded Hofmann to teach at the League as well. He spent about six years in Europe, studying the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Dufy. In 1935, he returned to New York and became a co-founder of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936. He later had teaching posts at Queens College in New York; the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; Black Mountain College in North Carolina; and the Art Students League. His paintings exhibit a clear inclination toward modernism. His still lives and interiors from the 1920s indicate an understanding of the art of Cézanne. In the 1930s, his works displayed two very different kinds of art at the same time. His cityscapes and landscapes combine Cubist-inspired spatial concerns with an expressionistic approach to line and color. Vytlacil also used old wood, metal, cork, and string in constructions, influenced by his friend and former student, Rupert Turnbull. He eventually ceased creating constructions as he considered them too limiting. The spatial challenges of painting were still his preference. During the 1940s and 1950s, his works indicated a sense of spontaneity not felt in his earlier work. He married Elizabeth Foster in Florence, Italy, in 1927 and they lived and worked in Positano, Italy for extended periods of time. Later on, they divided their time between homes in Sparkill, New York and Chilmark, Massachusetts, where Vyt, as he was affectionately called, taught at the Martha's Vineyard Art...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Evening Crowd, Manhattan"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) He was born to Czechoslovakian parents in 1892 in New York City. Living in Chicago as a youth, he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, returning to New York when he was 20. From 1913 to 1916, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Art Students League, and worked with John C. Johansen (a portraitist whose expressive style resembled that of John Singer Sargent), and Anders Zorn. He accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1916, remaining there until 1921. This enabled him to travel to Europe to study Cézanne’s paintings and works of the Old Masters. He traveled to Paris, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich seeking the works of Titian, Cranach, Rembrandt, Veronese, and Holbein, which gave him new perspective. Vytlacil studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich, settling there in 1921. Fellow students were Ernest Thurn and Worth Ryder, who introduced him to famous abstractionist Hans Hofmann. He worked with Hofmann from about 1922 to 1926, as a student and teaching assistant. During the summer of 1928, after returning to the United States, Vytlacil gave lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on modern European art. Soon thereafter, he became a member of the Art Students League faculty. After one year, he returned to Europe and successfully persuaded Hofmann to teach at the League as well. He spent about six years in Europe, studying the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Dufy. In 1935, he returned to New York and became a co-founder of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936. He later had teaching posts at Queens College in New York; the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; Black Mountain College in North Carolina; and the Art Students League. His paintings exhibit a clear inclination toward modernism. His still lives and interiors from the 1920s indicate an understanding of the art of Cézanne. In the 1930s, his works displayed two very different kinds of art at the same time. His cityscapes and landscapes combine Cubist-inspired spatial concerns with an expressionistic approach to line and color. Vytlacil also used old wood, metal, cork, and string in constructions, influenced by his friend and former student, Rupert Turnbull. He eventually ceased creating constructions as he considered them too limiting. The spatial challenges of painting were still his preference. During the 1940s and 1950s, his works indicated a sense of spontaneity not felt in his earlier work. He married Elizabeth Foster in Florence, Italy, in 1927 and they lived and worked in Positano, Italy for extended periods of time. Later on, they divided their time between homes in Sparkill, New York and Chilmark, Massachusetts, where Vyt, as he was affectionately called, taught at the Martha's Vineyard Art...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Abstract Composition, Oil Painting by James Edward Jones
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage abstract expressionist painting by James Edward Jones. Oil on board, circa 1980. Signed on verso. Displayed in a per...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

composition I, 1963 - Oil on canvas, 25x59 cm, framed.
Located in Nice, FR
Jean deyrolle (1911-1967) is a french painter, ceramist and litographer. Jean Deyrolle, né le 20 août 1911 à Nogent-sur-Marne et mort d'une crise cardiaque le 30 août 1967 à Toulon,...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

'Abstract, Turquoise and Gray', Paris, Picasso, Andre L'Hote, Guernica, Benezit
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed verso with artist monogram 'DM' for Dora Maar (Argentine-French, 1907-1997); additionally impressed, upper left, with Dora Maar Estate stamp, Maison de la Chimie sale, Paris; October, 1998. In addition to her central role as Picasso's model and lover, Dora Maar served as his constant muse during the period of his creation of Guernica for which she also served as model for the lantern-holder, appearing at upper right. Prior to embarking on her two-year relationship with Picasso, Maar had already produced a widely-respected body of work and was celebrated as an influential and cutting-edge photographer. Nevertheless, it is her high-profile relationship with Picasso and her own personality- both in publications about Picasso and in those dedicated to her own life and work- that have acquired particular significance in art-historical literature. Maar's close link to the Surrealists, however, derived from her personal radiance and enigmatic personality as well as to the conscious and politically-informed artistic perspective that underlay her cutting-edge photomontages of the 1930s. Her increasingly radical political views during this period reinforced Picasso's own awareness of the deteriorating international political situation and of the civil war in his homeland. This heightened awareness culminated in the creation of "Guernica', his supreme artistic and political statement of the 1930's. Born in 1907, Henrietta Theodora Markovitch adopted the pen name of Dora Maar during the first years of her photography career. Growing up in Buenos Aires and Paris, she learned to speak French, Spanish and English fluently and, from 1927 on, attended the Art Academy of Andre L'Hote in Montparnasse. At the Academy, she studied painting but, by the end of the 1920s, she had transferred to the Ecole de Photographie de la Ville de Paris. In the early 1930s, she founded a photographic studio together with Pierre Kfer, who was later to make a career as stage designer. Numerous fashion and advertising photography shoots resulted from this collaboration and these were soon followed by her first Paris exhibitions. Dora Maar's photographic style during the 1930s show clear, surrealist characteristics. In her photographs and photomontages, she frequently played with shifting proportions, thus echoing an important feature of surrealist pictures. This tendency was augmented by the combination of disparate objects, which robs the photographs of their character of reflecting extreme reality, converting them to expressions of inner visions and psychic states. In parallel to these surreal photographs, Dora Maar produced sobering documentary photographs of her urban environments in Paris, London or Barcelona. Repeatedly, she records, in her photographs, the underprivileged, the unemployed and homeless, the socially disadvantaged and the physically deformed. It was precisely the simplicity of these photos that enabled Dora Maar to give the day-to-day and the ugly a magnificent monstrosity in which the beautiful and the horrible blend into one another. This recorded reality is thus accompanied by a level of inner associations, fears and visions. This present work, painted in the 1930's, remained in Dora Maar's possession until the end of her life, and shows her early interest in abstraction and her preoccupation with the complex inter-relationships of color and form. This painting is accompanied by a first edition copy of...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Geometric Composition
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Rolph Scarlett (Canadian/American, 1889 - 1984) “Geometric Composition” Signed lower right, circa late 1930’s early 1940’s 19 ½ x 26 inches Mixed media, Price on request About Rolph...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Board

Geometric Abstract American Oil WPA Color Field Abstraction Modern Non Objective
Located in New York, NY
American artist Walter Quirt painted this modernist non objective geometric abstract oil color field during the WPA era in the 1930s. Abstraction, 12 x 16 inches. Oil on canvas. Sig...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Still Life with Bananas"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) He was born to Czechoslovakian parents in 1892 in New York City. Living in Chicago as a youth, he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, returning to New York when he was 20. From 1913 to 1916, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Art Students League, and worked with John C. Johansen (a portraitist whose expressive style resembled that of John Singer Sargent), and Anders Zorn. He accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1916, remaining there until 1921. This enabled him to travel to Europe to study Cézanne’s paintings and works of the Old Masters. He traveled to Paris, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich seeking the works of Titian, Cranach, Rembrandt, Veronese, and Holbein, which gave him new perspective. Vytlacil studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich, settling there in 1921. Fellow students were Ernest Thurn and Worth Ryder, who introduced him to famous abstractionist Hans Hofmann. He worked with Hofmann from about 1922 to 1926, as a student and teaching assistant. During the summer of 1928, after returning to the United States, Vytlacil gave lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on modern European art. Soon thereafter, he became a member of the Art Students League faculty. After one year, he returned to Europe and successfully persuaded Hofmann to teach at the League as well. He spent about six years in Europe, studying the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Dufy. In 1935, he returned to New York and became a co-founder of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936. He later had teaching posts at Queens College in New York; the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; Black Mountain College in North Carolina; and the Art Students League. His paintings exhibit a clear inclination toward modernism. His still lives and interiors from the 1920s indicate an understanding of the art of Cézanne. In the 1930s, his works displayed two very different kinds of art at the same time. His cityscapes and landscapes combine Cubist-inspired spatial concerns with an expressionistic approach to line and color. Vytlacil also used old wood, metal, cork, and string in constructions, influenced by his friend and former student, Rupert Turnbull. He eventually ceased creating constructions as he considered them too limiting. The spatial challenges of painting were still his preference. During the 1940s and 1950s, his works indicated a sense of spontaneity not felt in his earlier work. He married Elizabeth Foster in Florence, Italy, in 1927 and they lived and worked in Positano, Italy for extended periods of time. Later on, they divided their time between homes in Sparkill, New York and Chilmark, Massachusetts, where Vyt, as he was affectionately called, taught at the Martha's Vineyard Art...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Transcendental Abstract Pastel Drawing, 1930s Framed Abstract Geometric Drawing
Located in Denver, CO
Original vintage 1939 transcendentalist painting by early New Mexico artist, Emil Bisttram (1895-1976) with a stylized cross motif in colors of Pink, ...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Industrial Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Quick and confident brush strokes describe the gritty forms of perhaps steam engines or railroad yards. Luks bravura style of putting paint to canvas anticipates action painting of ...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled
Located in New Orleans, LA
Fritz Bultman set himself apart from other Abstract Expressionists with his meticulously organized abstract compositions, use of sculpture, and the adoption of collage as a core prac...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Paper

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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