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Style: American Modern
The Magician oil and tempera painting by Julio de Diego
Located in Hudson, NY
Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 42" x 2" About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Tempera

Untitled
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original oil on canvas painting by American artist James Koenig created in 1944.
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Charles Ragland Bunnell “Quitting Time” 1941 Black and Blue Abstract Painting
Located in Denver, CO
This original vintage painting by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968), titled Quitting Time from his Black and Blue Series (1941), exemplifies the artist’s signature Abstract Structu...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Charcoal

"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative
Located in New York, NY
"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative Estate stamp on the stretcher, verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist. 20 x 24 inches. Look at the last two photos in the listing. A new book about Leon Bibel was just published and there's a photo of the artist taken in front of the painting. Amazingness. BIO Leon Bibel continued painting through 1941 and resumed work in both painting and especially wood sculpture by 1960. He worked until his very last day in 1995. His last series of large wood sculptures were modeled on spice boxes, which were miniature buildings...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

George Cecil Carter Mid-Century Modern Abstract Figurative Oil Painting, 1950s
Located in Denver, CO
This rare 1950s oil painting by Colorado abstract expressionist George Cecil Carter presents an abstracted figurative portrait of a couple—believed to represent Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Rendered with bold brushwork and a dynamic modernist palette, the piece reflects Carter’s distinctive ability to merge abstraction with figuration, capturing both movement and emotional depth. Housed in a custom frame, the painting comes from a private collection in Denver, Colorado. Carter (1908–1993) was a central figure in Colorado’s mid-century modernist movement. A self-taught artist influenced by modernist painter Charles Ragland Bunnell, Carter developed a uniquely expressive style that drew upon his working-class background as a miner and machinist. He exhibited nationally and worked alongside artists including Al Wynne, Mary Chenoweth...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Backstage, Ambassador" Broadway Theatre NYC Mid-century Modern Modernist Cubist
By Sam Norkin
Located in New York, NY
"Backstage, Ambassador" Broadway Theatre NYC Mid-century Modern Modernist CubistSigned lower left, titled on the stretcher. Norkin was a Brooklyn, Ne...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-Century Modern Abstract Acrylic Painting
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Evocative abstract acrylic painting on canvas that explores the relationship between yellow and grey. Painted with acrylic on canvas in 1973 by Bonnie Lewton, titled on the back yell...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

1947 Modernist Family Portrait Gouache by Lewis Lee Tilley, Framed Artwork
Located in Denver, CO
Ortez (Modernist Family Portrait) is a vibrant 1947 abstract gouache on paper by American artist Lewis Lee Tilley (1921–2005). This dynamic composition captures a family of five seat...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Flight to Egypt
By Anna Walinska
Located in New York, NY
Oil on paper. Signed and dated 'Walinska 57' (lower left). image size 20 x 13 1/2 in. framed size 28 1/3 x 22 1/2 inches Provenance Martha Jackson Gallery Anderson Gallery, Buffalo...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Large Richard Merkin Painting Harlem Jazz Club, New Yorker Magazine Cover Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Richard Marshall Merkin (American, 1938-2009) Gladys and Half-Pint Hand signed 'Merkin' (center right), Titled, inscribed, dated, and initialed 'GLADYS BENTLEY AND FRANKIE 'HALF-PINT' JAXON 1997/R.M.' verso. Oil on canvas 37 1/2 x 72 in. (95.3 x 182.9 cm) framed 39 1/4 x 74 x 2 in. Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tailcoat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience. On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, born Frank Devera Jackson was an African American vaudeville singer, stage designer and comedian, popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama, orphaned, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. His nickname of "Half Pint" referred to his 5'2" height. He started in show business around 1910 as a singer in Kansas City, before travelling extensively with medicine shows in Texas, and then touring the eastern seaboard. His feminine voice and outrageous manner, often as a female impersonator, established him as a crowd favorite. By 1917 he had begun working regularly in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Chicago, often with such performers as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, whose staging he helped design. He served slightly less than a year in the United States Army in 1918–1919 and rose to the rank of sergeant. In the late 1920s he sang with top jazz bands when they passed through Chicago, working with Bennie Moten, King Oliver, Freddie Keppard and others. He performed and recorded with the pianists Cow Cow Davenport, Tampa Red and "Georgia Tom" Dorsey, recording with the latter pair under the name of The Black Hillbillies. He also recorded with the Harlem Hamfats. In the 1930s, he was often on radio in the Chicago area, and led his own band, titled Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon and His Quarts of Joy. Jaxon appeared with Duke Ellington in a film short titled Black and Tan (1929), and with Bessie Smith in "St. Louis Blues" (1929). Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" (1931) is based both musically and lyrically on Jaxon's "Willie the Weeper" (1927). Richard Merkin, Sometimes described as Rhode Island’s most famous New York artist, Richard Merkin has led a dual life for nearly 40 years - teaching at RISD while enjoying a celebrated painting career based in New York City. He has exhibited in countless gallery and museum shows in the US and abroad and is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the RISD museum and many others. In addition to contributing drawings and paintings to The New Yorker (along with, Art Spiegelman, Saul Steinberg, Harper’s, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and several books on Erotica and Baseball, he is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a former style columnist for GQ. Merkin’s honors include a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship and the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Museums and Selected Collections : The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA First city Bank, Chicago, Ill Fisk University Art Gallery, Nashville, TN Hallmark Collections, Kansas City, MO Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Maimi-Dade Junior College, Miami, FL Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Pennsylvania Acadamy of the Arts, Philadelphia PA Prudential Insurance Company, Boston, Ma Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Sara Robey Foundation, New York, NY Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC State University of Brockport, Brockport, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Selected Publications : 1986-Present Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair ..1988-Present, New Yorker... 1988-Present, style column, GQ...1997, Text and Illustration for The Tijuana Bibles, published by Simon & Shuster, 1995, Illustrated book, Leagues Apart: the Men and Times of the Negro Baseball Leagues published by Morrow. 1967 Cover of the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” Album (Mr. Merkin appears in the back row, right of center) RISD: MFA in Painting, 1963; Professor, Department of Painting special skill: Merging his role as flaneur (connoisseur of city life) with his role as painter and social historian, Merkin retrieves lost cultural artifacts – a Turkish cigarette, a gangster, a bowler and generally “things most people don’t know about” – and reconstitutes their Jazz Age virtues on canvas in cubist, comic-laced landscapes of tropical color. (ala Robert Crumb and Ben Katchor) breaking in: Perpetually on the fly from his middle-class Brooklyn background, Merkin found the perfect escape in the mid ‘60s in George Frazier, a dapper Boston columnist who inspired the emerging New York painter’s overnight reinvention of himself. The elements of structure, stability and surprise he admired in this well-dressed dandy – a cool linen suit, a splash of suspender, a polka dot scarf and pearl-handled walking stick – soon surfaced in paintings peopled by impeccable underdogs of café society along with his personal pop heroes: William Burroughs, Bobby Short and Krazy Kat...
Category

1990s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil

Abstract Landscape
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original watercolor painting by American artist Wes Olmsted depicting an abstract landscape view.
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

American Modernist Abstract Autumn Landscape Oil Painting – Trees in Fall Colors
Located in Denver, CO
This mid-20th-century abstract landscape oil painting by American modernist Henriette "Yetti" Stolz beautifully captures a stylized forest scene, featuring trees rendered in rich, earthy tones of gold, brown, orange, and blue. The painting reflects Stolz's modernist approach, blending organic forms with abstract color fields. Signed on the back, this piece is presented in a vintage frame, with outer dimensions measuring 30 ¾ x 36 ¼ inches, and the image size is 30 ¼ x 35 ¾ inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Henriette "Yetti" Stolz. About the Artist: Henriette "Yetti" Stolz was born in Serbia in 1935 and moved to Denver, Colorado, in the early 1950s after WWII. She studied art at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where she was exposed to the modernist movements shaping the local art scene. Stolz was influenced by contemporary artists such as Mary Chenoweth...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil

Abstract Work on Paper Mid-Century Modernism Greek American Gouache Drawing
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Work on Paper Mid-Century Modernism Greek American Gouache Drawing. A modernist artist who emigrated to America from Greece in 1904, when he was fourteen years old, Jean Xceron is described as having a reputation as an artist that has mysteriously fallen into obscurity---especially since he was reportedly quite prominent during his lifetime. However, a partial explanation of that omission is the fact that many of his papers and early records have been lost. He was a painter of biomorphic abstractions and did collages, which were influenced by Dadaism. Xceron was active in New York City when modernism was gaining influence. Of him during this period, it was written that his artistic role was "a vital link between what is commonly termed as the first-generation (the Stieglitz group, the Synchromists, etc.) and second-generation, the American Abstract Artists, the Transcendental Painting...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

#90 Strange Creature
Located in Fairlawn, OH
#90 Strange Creature Oil and pencil on board, 1932 Signed and dated in the image lower right (see photo) Provenance: Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland, OH Condition: excellent Archival framing Image size: 10 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches Frame size: 25 x 24 inches Painter, illustrator and commercial artist Norbert Lenz was born in Norwalk, Ohio and received his artistic training at both the Huntington Polytechnic Institute and the Cleveland School of Art. During his career Lenz exhibited his paintings and drawings at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art. Today the art of Norbert Lenz is held by the Columbus Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art. Lenz was also a very highly regarded commercial designer of stamps. He worked for a number of years at the House of Farman, a leading vendor of first day covers...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Shelter Island Evening" blue and green seascape of a harbor - oil painting
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Shelter Island Evening" is a blue and green oil painting of a Northeastern American harbor. Kelly Carmody’s work has been widely exhibited and collected. One of her major figurati...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Spring Landscape acrylic and pastel painting by Fred Martin
Located in Hudson, NY
Exhibited: 1973 San Francisco Museum of Art 2003 Oakland Museum of California "Fred Martin Retrospective" A native Californian, Fred Martin was born...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Pastel, Acrylic

Modernist 1945 Abstract Waterfall Watercolor Landscape Painting by Eve Drewelowe
Located in Denver, CO
This striking 1945 abstract landscape watercolor by pioneering modernist artist Eve (Van Ek) Drewelowe, titled "The Champagne Cascades, Crescendos, Crashes," is a bold interpretation...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Coral Reef Original Abstracted Composition
Located in Soquel, CA
Original Abstracted Composition of Coral Reef by Dave Francis Unique and vivid abstracted composition of coral reef by California artist Charles "Dave" Francis (American, 1951-2018)...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Laid Paper

A Wonderful Mid-Century Boxing Scene of a Standing Prize Fighter by Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A Wonderful Mid-Century Boxing Scene of a Standing Prize Fighter by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. This energetic sporting scene, painted in the 1960s, exemplifies the abstra...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

IKON, NO. 386
Located in New York, NY
Jean Xceron is a Greek-born American artist who participated actively in ushering the transition from modernism to Abstract Expressionism in American art. His canvases present a rang...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vendor of Masks, 1930s Original Modernist Gouache Painting of Carnival Scene
Located in Denver, CO
This captivating 1930s modernist gouache painting by Boardman Robinson (1876–1952), titled The Vendor of Masks, depicts a striking mask vendor’s display with male and female figures,...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

St. Atomic oil and tempera painting by Julio de Diego
Located in Hudson, NY
Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1950 University of Illinois at Urbana "Contemporary American Painting" 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 36" x 2". About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Tempera

"Nightmare at Baskin Robbins" Abstract Oil Painting Illustrator Bill Shields
Located in Arp, TX
William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "Nightmare at Baskin Robbins II" 1994 Oil on canvas 48"x42" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields. He took them by storm, first Houston, then San Francisco, followed by New York in the late 60's. For 35 years, Bill produced some of the country's best illustrations: fresh, playful, loose and innovative. His illustrations were coveted by such clients as Bantam Books, Time Life, MacMillan Publishing Co., and were awarded numerous gold medals by the Societies of Illustrators in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the Houston Artists Guild. Later, following inspirational trips to Mexico and France, Bill shifted his attention to the self-directed world of fine art. After years of sculpting, making assemblages, painting nudes and landscapes, he settled on the exploration of large abstract oil paintings. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Connecticut and New York. CV EDUCATION: Chicago Academy Of Fine Art San Antonio Art Institute MAJOR FIELDS OF PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVOR: Freelance graphic design and illustration Instructor of painting and illustration Landscape, figurative and abstract painting ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT: (Professor of Art) California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Art Institute San Jose State University AWARDS FOR ILLUSTRATION, Gold Medals: New York Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Society of Illustrators San Francisco Society of Illustrators Dallas-Fort Worth Art Director's Club Houston Artist's Guild BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feature articles in: American Artist, Communication Arts, Print, North Light. Architectural design featured in: Better Homes and Gardens, American Home, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest. ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS: Oil Companies: Champlin Oil Company, Mobil Oil Company, Continental Oil Company, Standard Oil Company, Humble Oil and Refining Company. Industrial: Hughes Tool Company, General Electric, United States Steel, Phelps Dodge, Sylvania Television, Texas Gulf Sulphur, Litton Industries, Houston Lighting and Power Company...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Painting (#29)
Located in New York, NY
Jean Xceron (1890 – 1967) is a modernist artist who was born in Isary, Greece with the birth name of Yiannis Xirocostas. In 1927, he went to Paris to further his art career, which in...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Mid-Century Yellow Mandala, Ovoid Figural Abstract Painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904–2000) Yellow Mandala, c. 1970s Acrylic on canvas 39 x 36 inches 41 x 38.25 inches, framed Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of natio...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Howard Schleeter 1949 Original Gouache & Wax Painting – Abstract Southwest Art
By Howard Schleeter
Located in Denver, CO
This striking original 1949 gouache and wax painting, titled "Fetishes", is a powerful work by acclaimed New Mexico modernist Howard Schleeter (1903–1976). Rich with symbolic abstrac...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wax, Gouache

Congaree National Park, Modern Impressionism Landscape Painting, Forest, Ltd Ed
Located in Golden, CO
This large limited edition modern landscape painting of Congaree National Park, in South Carolina, is a bold vivid work of contemporary art. The large-scale digital painting, dye-sub...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Metal

'Central Railroad' — Mid-Century African-American Artist
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), Untitled (Central Railroad), watercolor, c. 1945. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '697' in ink. A fine, modernist re...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, India Ink

Bay Area Cubist Figure in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Bay Area Cubist Figure in Oil on Canvas by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This vibrant cubist-inspired composition depicts a seated figure abstracted into interlocking planes o...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas, Stretcher Bars

On the Red Line, Black & Red Figural Abstract Ovoid, Cleveland School Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) On the Red Line, 1965 Acrylic on textured paper Signed and dated lower right 24 x 31 inches 32.5 x 39 inches, framed There is damage ...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Colorful Modernist Still Life with Jug and Plant
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful Modernist Still Life with Jug and Plant by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This bold still life depicts pieces of fruit resting on a table with a large green jug and po...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mid-Century Rocket Ship Cityscape Abstract Skyline
By Edward Arthur Anderson
Located in Miami, FL
In the present work, the artist arranges a series of rockets and support structures in a row to mimic the New York City skyline under hyper-dramatic lighting conditions. It embodies ...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Color Block Abstracted Still Life with Bust
Located in Soquel, CA
Color Block Abstracted Still Life with Bust by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This bold composition combines the language of still life with geometric abstraction. Vivid blocks...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Acrylic, Masonite

Sunset Grip
Located in New York, NY
Louisa Lizbeth Chase was born in 1951 to Benjamin and Wilda Stengel Chase in Panama City, Panama, where her father, a West Point graduate, was stationed. The family moved to Pennsylv...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wax, Oil

Bay Area Abstract Painting with Viridian Green Square
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract Composition with Viridian Square by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This abstract composition features bold brushstrokes and highly contrasting colors. A large blue sha...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Stretcher Bars, Linen, Acrylic

Excavation
Located in New York, NY
Charles Houghton Howard was born in Montclair, New Jersey, the third of five children in a cultured and educated family with roots going back to the Massachusetts Bay colony. His father, John Galen Howard, was an architect who had trained at M.I.T. and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, and apprenticed in Boston with H. H. Richardson. In New York, the elder Howard worked for McKim, Mead and White before establishing a successful private practice. Mary Robertson Bradbury, Charles’s mother, had studied art before her marriage. John Galen Howard moved his household to California in 1902 to assume the position of supervising architect of the new University of California campus at Berkeley and to serve as Professor of Architecture and the first Dean of the School of Architecture (established in 1903). The four Howard boys grew up to be artists and all married artists, leaving a combined family legacy of art making in the San Francisco Bay area that endures to this day, most notably in design, murals and reliefs at the Coit Tower and in buildings on the Berkeley campus. Charles Howard graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1921 as a journalism major, and pursued graduate studies in English at Harvard and Columbia Universities before embarking on a two-year trip to Europe. Howard went to Europe as a would-be writer. But a near-religious experience, seeing a picture by Giorgione in a remote town outside of Venice, proved a life-altering epiphany. In his own words, “I cut the tour at once and hurried immediately back to Paris, to begin painting. I have been painting whenever I could ever since” (Charles Howard, “What Concerns Me,” Magazine of Art 39, no. 2 [February 1946], p. 63). Giorgione’s achievement, in utilizing a structured and rational visual language of art to convey high emotion on canvas, instantly convinced Howard that painting, and not literature, offered the best vehicle to express what he wanted to say. Howard returned to the United States in 1925, confirmed in his intent to become an artist. Howard settled in New York and supported himself as a painter in the decorating workshop of Louis Bouché and Rudolph Guertler, where he specialized in mural painting. Devoting spare time to his own work, he lived in Greenwich Village and immersed himself in the downtown avant-garde cultural milieu. The late 1920s and early 1930s were the years of Howard’s art apprenticeship. He never pursued formal art instruction, but his keen eye, depth of feeling, and intense commitment to the process of art making, allowed him to assimilate elements of painting intuitively from the wide variety of art that interested him. He found inspiration in the modernist movements of the day, both for their adherence to abstract formal qualities and for the cosmopolitan, international nature of the movements themselves. Influenced deeply by Surrealism, Howard was part of a group of American and European Surrealists clustered around Julien Levy. Levy opened his eponymously-named gallery in 1931, and rose to fame in January 1932, when he organized and hosted Surrealisme, the first ever exhibition of Surrealism in America, which included one work by Howard. Levy remained the preeminent force in advocating for Surrealism in America until he closed his gallery in 1949. Howard’s association with Levy in the early 1930s confirms the artist’s place among the avant-garde community in New York at that time. In 1933, Howard left New York for London. It is likely that among the factors that led to the move were Howard’s desire to be a part of an international art community, as well as his marriage to English artist, Madge Knight...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1950s "Rectangle" Mid Century Abstract Gouache Painting
Located in Arp, TX
Opper Estate Maroon Abstract c. 1940-1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18" Unframed From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann. San Francisco Abstract Expression A free-spirited wave of creative energy swept through the San Francisco art community after World War II. Challenging accepted modes of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out of its postwar complacency. Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Color Block Modernist Still Life with Fruit Bowl
Located in Soquel, CA
Color Block Modernist Still Life with Fruit Bowl by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This bold still life depicts a yellow bowl of fruit sitting on a table next to a long bottle,...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'Bird Abstraction' — Mid-Century Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Stephen Harty, Untitled (Bird Abstraction), gouache, 1953. Signed and dated lower left. A fine, meticulously rendered, mid-century, modernist gouache painting, with fresh colors on 1...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Colorful Modernist Still Life with Fruit and Water Jug
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful Modernist Still Life with Fruit and Water Jug by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This bold still life depicts a bowl of fruit resting on a table with a large green jug....
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto Abstract expressionist figurative composition of a nude woman by California artist Harald "Harry" Dr...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Still Life of Fruit on Table Style of Paul Cézanne
Located in Soquel, CA
Modern Cézanne style still life with collage by Dorothy Jane (Milne) Eggen (American, 1907-1986) Her still life is a Homage to Paul Cézanne's ...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board, Newsprint

"Jo"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Ashley John is proud to offer this artwork by: Gershon Benjamin (1899 - 1985) Gershon Benjamin is a painter of portraits, landscapes, still lives, and the urban scene. He had a pro...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Old Door
Located in New York, NY
Richard Anuszkiewicz Old Door, 1953 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated by the artist on the lower right front 20 × 14 inches Unframed This unique and extre...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Shrimp"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Signed Lower Right Bror Julius Olsson “B.J.O.” Nordfeldt (1878 - 1955) Bror Julius Olsson was born in Tullstrop, Sweden in 1878. He immigrated to the United States in 1891, later adopting his mother’s maiden name of Nordfeldt. Beginning his art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago where he was chosen to assist fellow artist, Albert Herter, with a large mural project for the McCormick Harvester Company. In 1900, he was sent to Paris by McCormick to help set up the completed mural at the Paris Exposition. While there, he studied briefly at the Academie Julian before traveling to England to study woodblock printmaking under F. Morley Fletcher. Returning to Chicago in 1903, Nordfeldt would spend the next ten years painting mainly figurative works in an academic style similar to that of the Old Masters. By the mid-teens he had developed a bold dramatic modernist style and divided his time between New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts. There, he invented the “Provincetown Print...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Doledrum ( Industrial Environmental Pollution
Located in Miami, FL
Out of many come one. A huge back mountain is formed out of scores of gas spewing smokestacks. The foreboding back mass fills most of the pictorial area. As one gets closer to the canvas, the complexity of the mass if revealed in low on contrast as we see the diverse variety of the stacks with accompanying petrochemical architecture. Above the stacks, plums of air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides rise gracefully into the atmosphere. The artist focuses less on the by-product of the stacks and more on his giant pollution machine that he has so astutely rendered. The work is mostly monochromatic but the artist has indicted a red tonality of a sunset/sunrise that offsets the charcoal blacks and grays. ______________________________________________ Submitted by Tamarind Institute Ian Davis...
Category

Early 2000s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large
Located in New York, NY
Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large O. Louis Guglielmi (1906 - 1956) OBSESSIVE THEME 44 x 33 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated '48 lo...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bay Area Abstract Geometric Painting with Red Circle
Located in Soquel, CA
Bay Area Abstract Geometric Painting with Red Circle by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This abstract composition features bold brushstrokes and highly contrasting colors. A lar...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Masonite

Cindy Kane 1985 Original Painting on Plywood
Located in New York, NY
Cindy Kane (American, b. 1957) Untitled, 1985 Oil on plywood Sight: 31 1/2 x 28 1/2 in. Framed: 39 3/4 x 36 x 2 in. Signed lower right: KANE Signed, titled, dated verso: Cindy Kane, Untitled, 1985 Cindy Kane (American, 1957-) grew up in Washington DC during the Vietnam War era, absorbing the period's powerful political climate. She is a self-taught artist whose multi media work is born out of a deep sense of connection to the political and environmental issues of our times. Her early work was influenced by the experience of living and working at the bottom of the Grand Canyon National Park, where she had the opportunity to document Anasazi Indian pictographs in pen and ink drawings. These images would inform her work for years to come. She draws on personal narrative and experience to create her paintings of maps, birds, toys, and artifacts from nature, often collaging bits of newspaper headlines, pieces of her children's homework, and pages of sheet music beneath layers of color and imagery. In a review of her work, author and critic John Loughery wrote; "Kane leads us into a peculiar netherworld, a hard to place area that's both reassuringly ancient, and anxiously modern. This is a painter who is interested in the unconscious and the archetypal, and utilizes her own private, (but not inaccessible) vocabulary and imagery." In a submission to AskART, Diana Wilson...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Plywood, Oil

Conjuring Spirits (Jungle Drums)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Dynamic jungle drummer scene by unknown NYC American artist. Oil on canvas measuring 20 x 26 inches. Signed "T 42" in ink on verso. Anco stretchers and Grumbacher NYC store stamp con...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Abstraction"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Arthur B. Carles (1882-1952) Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Arthur Carles was a painter whose work went through phases...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sea and Land Abstraction
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Sea and Land Abstraction, 1936, oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches, signed and dated lower left, exhibited at the 18th Annual Paintings and Sculpture Exhibit at the Los Angeles Muse...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Red over White Original Geometric Art in Oil by Robert William Hinds
Located in Soquel, CA
"V" - Original Pop Art Original pop art "V" by Robert William Hinds. A white background with a small blue triangle in the top center, with a larger red "V" taking up the majority of...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Illustration Board

A Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Horse Race Painting by Chicago Artist, Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A dynamic, Mid-Century Modern horse race painting by noted Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. Artwork size: 27" x 23"; Framed size: 27 1/2" x 23 1/2". Signed "Pen" lower right. Provenan...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Abstract Expressionist Artists Self Portrait
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract Expressionist Self Portrait in Black and Grey Dynamic self portrait by Michael William Eggleston (American, b. 1948). Greyscale acrylic paint on paper. Unsigned, but acquire...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Laid Paper

Oceans Apart
Located in East Hampton, NY
fun with Color Theory As seen at Art on Paper 2024 at The Mannix Project East Hampton NY 12"x12" (14"x14" framed) each These come in a white frame. Acrylic on Paper Artist Statement...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Untitled Diptych by Suzanne Law. Paintings Framed
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Untitled Diptych, painting by Suzanne Law. Framed Overall size: Image size: 12.6 in. H x 34.2 in W Frame size: 18.1 in. H x 44.8 in W x 1 in D Individual size: Image size: 12.6 in. ...
Category

1990s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wood, Acrylic

Love Across Time Zones
Located in East Hampton, NY
fun with Color Theory As seen at Art on Paper 2024 at The Mannix Project East Hampton NY 12"x12" (14"x14" framed) each These come in a white frame. Acrylic on Paper Artist Statement...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Mandala No. 15, Abstract Ovoid Geometrical Mid-Century Painting Cleveland School
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Mandala No. 15, 1969 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated verso 27.5 x 22 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national ar...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

1950s "Sitting in Chair" Mid Century Figurative Pratt Graphic Arts Center
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Sitting in Chair" c.1950s Gouache and oil pastel on paper 24" x 18" unframed Came from artist's estate *Custom framing available for additio...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Gouache

American Modern abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern 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 orange, blue, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Annette Cords, David Hayes, Louisa Chase, and Valton Tyler. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Fabric and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 5.5 inches across are also available.

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