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Modern Abstract Paintings

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Antique American Modernist 19th Century Framed Sunset Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist landscape sunset painting. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a giltwood molding. Excellent condition, ready to hang and enjoy....
Category

1890s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

North on West Street (West Side Highway NYC Cityscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). North on West Street , 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 27 x 34 inched. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

In Tune 68 - Small Modern Resin Warm Tone Minimalist Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Under the Twilight Canopy
Located in Atlanta, GA
The recent paintings of Atlanta artist David Kidd continue an evolving series of images inspired by and based upon natural forms, specifically the shadows cast by trees and other veg...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Russian Modernist 20th Century Oil Painting Male Nudes in Embrace Abstract
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Dual Portrait of Human Connection Russian artist signed and dated 1999 oil on canvas, framed Framed: 28.5 x 36 inches Canvas: 24 x 31.5 inches Provenance: private collection, France ...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Untitled #144, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
This Modern painting by Abstract Expressionist Stanley Bate was made with oil on canvas circa 1960. In it, layers of red, yellow, white, and umber paint are expressively applied over...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Colorful Abstracted Landscape in the Style of Diebenkorn
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful Abstracted Landscape in the Style of Diebenkorn by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This dynamic piece features textured blocks of color which resemble an abstracted lan...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Stretcher Bars, Oil

Abstract Landscape with Palm Tree Judaica Gouache Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Mane-Katz (1894-1962) Landscape with palm tree. Gouache on paper, signed lower right. Dimensions: (Frame) H 37.5" x W 31", (Sight) H 24.5" x W 18" Emmanuel Mané-Katz (Hebrew:מאנה כ...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Huge French Expressionist Abstract Signed Oil Blue with Orange Yellow Shapes
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
French artist, last quarter 20th century signed Billant oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 38 x 51 inches provenance: private collection, Paris The painting is in very good and present...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Beautiful Harbour Colors
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Time Zone 8 - Modern Resin Minimalist Rhythmic Geometric Abstraction Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed-media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past, which led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acryl...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

French 20th Century Modernist Painting Tall White Plant In Vase Still Life
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
White Flower Still life by Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) oil on artist paper, unframed painting : 25 x 19.5 inches provenance: artists estate, France condition: very good and sound ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Green Landscape, Abstract Countryside, Fields, Modern, Contemporary, Oil, French
Located in LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, FR
Abstract landscape with colored plots in a dominant green. The landscape evolves in modulations with blurred contours, to suggest volumes more than to draw a precise pattern. The pal...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Messages to Fribourg, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
This Modern abstract painting by Stanley Bate features a warm, deep palette of red, yellow, orange, and burnt umber. Thick strokes of paint are layered beneath light white overlappin...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Landscape Framed Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Measuring: 14 by 17 inches overall, and 10 by 14 painting alone. In excellent original condition. Handsomely...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Florentine Expressions: A Portrait Series XI
Located in London, GB
"Florentine Expressions: A Portrait Series XI", oil on canvas, mounted on board, Florentine School (circa 1980s-90s). This gallery has acquired a number of paintings through an inter...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Weehawken Sequence
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Weehawken Sequence, c. 1910-16 Oil on canvas board, 9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm) Framed dimensions: 13 3/8 x 16 1/4 inches John Marin’s long and prolific career is best marked by ...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

City Streets (British Street scene architectural landscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Rene Beckley. City Streets, 1965. Oil on artist board, 16 x 20 inches; 18 x 22 inches framed. Signed and dated lower right.
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Picos, " 1970s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
"Picos" is an abstract painting created in 1971 by Modernist artist, Stanley Bate. The piece features an earthy, muted palette, giving it a serene feeling with deep grey, muted brown...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Israeli Modernist Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
size is with frame. Motke Blum was born in Racacun, Romania in 1925. Early in his childhood, the Blum family moved to Bukarest where they settled in a house situated near a circus. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Daffodils for Victory
Located in Zofingen, AG
"Daffodils for Victory" is a painting about rebirth and the power of life. It has become a symbol of the triumph of good over evil, of life over death. The daffodils depicted on the...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Fabric, Mixed Media

20th Century French Modernist Signed Oil Provence Landscape, framed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, late 20th century, signed Title: Provencal Landscape Medium: oil on canvas, framed Framed: 28.5 x 22.5 Canvas : 24 x 19 inches Provenance: privat...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Modernist Fauvist Barn Rural Landscape Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas board. Framed. Measuring: 21 by 27 inches overall, and 18 by 24 painting alone.. In excellent original condition. Ha...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Reeds 7 March 09:13 - Modern Nature Oil Painting, Abstract, Minimalism
Located in Salzburg, AT
Robert Motelski's paintings are exceptional visions of nature, visions of space which surrounds us. They tell about being, fate and passing. They depend on the season of year, the ti...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Antique American Modernist Nassau Bahamas Original Mixed Media Portrait Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist mixed media abstract portrait. Framed. Mixed media original collage. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a wood molding. Excellent condition, r...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Huge French Modernist Oil Kissing Couple Abstract Figures, signed painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, signed and dated Title: Kissing Couple, beautfiful Modernist work with green, beige, brown, yellow, golden colors. Med...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Vintage Signed American Modernist New England Framed Coastal Landscape Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 19 by 23 inches overall, and 17 by 21 painting alone.. In excellent original condition. H...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Centurion, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
This vertical format abstract painting by Modernist artist Stanley Bate measures at 26" x 50" framed. The original gold-hued floater frame pulls out the vibrant and warm pops of yell...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Woman and Child in the Woods - Midcentury Abstracted Landscape in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Woman and Child in the Woods - Midcentury Abstracted Landscape in Oil on Canvas Dramatic abstracted painting of a woman holding a child in the woods by Maley (20th Century). This pi...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Large Original Mixed Media Painting on Rice Paper Chinese Artist Jiang Tiefeng
Located in Surfside, FL
Jiang Tiefeng (China/Minnesota, 1938-) Mixed media gouache painting on rice paper with a gold tone Titled: "Mother and Child II." Artist is identified on Dyansen Gallery label on v...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paint, Ink, Gouache, Rice Paper

Vintage American School Modernist Old Lyme Connecticut New England Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist New England barn oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1960. Signed illegibly. Image size, 24L x 20H. Framed in a period f...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wave Form I (Wellenform) (Triangle, Wavy, Modern, Mid-Century) (~50% OFF)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Hannes Grosse Wave Form I (Wellenform) Oil and Acrylic on Canvas Year: 1971 Size: 33.46 x 33.46 x 31.49 inches (85,5 x 85,5 x 80 cm) Framed (simply wood frame) - ready to hang COA p...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

1970's French Abstract Modernist Signed Oil Figurative Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
French modernist artist, circa 1970's signed oil on canvas canvas: 19.5 x 23.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound condition
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Pink and Blue Abstract
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Modern Green Pink Mixed Media on Canvas 48" X 36"
Located in Los Angeles, CA
One of a kind Mixed Medium on Canvas Artwork: Original abstract mixed media work on canvas, which combines new media - digital original hand painting, printed on canvas, then hand p...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas, Varnish, Archival Ink

1970's French Abstract Expressionist Signed & Dated Large Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
French Expressionist circa 1970's signed and dated oil on canvas canvas: 25.5 x 32 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound condition, age related...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Contemporary Female American Modernist Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas
Located in Buffalo, NY
Wonderful large abstract painting by Betty Weiss. Oil on canvas. Signed with her married name "Betty Perez". Measuring 60 by 72 inches. Artist Bio: Betty Weiss has been a Ne...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wave Form II (Wellenform) (Triangle, Wavy, Modern, Mid-Century) (~50% OFF)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Hannes Grosse Wave Form II (Wellenform) Oil and Acrylic on Canvas Year: 1971 Size: 33.46 x 33.46 x 31.49 inches (85,5 x 85,5 x 80 cm) Framed (simply wood frame) - ready to hang COA ...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Mountain Night
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original mixed media (Watercolor and india ink) on paper depicting a mountain range at night.
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, India Ink, Watercolor

French Modernist Large Oil Painting Autumn Trees in Provence Landscape d. 2002
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Autumn Provence by Andre Guillou (French 1925-2017) signed and dated 2002 oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 25.5 x 21 inches provenance: private collection...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"The Bather" Modern Abstract Woman in Style of Modigliani Oil Painting on Paper
Located in New York, NY
Exploring the purity of the feminine form and the drama of French haute couture, artist Cindy Shaoul creates a dialogue between the figurative and the abstract. Her spirited composit...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Abstract Expressionist Figurative Homage to Willem de Kooning
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract Expressionist Figurative Homage to Willem de Kooning's "Women Singing" Colorful and dynamic abstract expressionist figurative mixed media painting contemporary piece, featu...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil, Magazine Paper, Stretcher Bars

Christopher Street (abstract Greenwich Village cityscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). Christopher Street, 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15.5 x 20 inches. Window in matting measures 15 x 19 inches. Framed measurement: 23 x 30 inched. Bears fragment of original label affixed on verso. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC Exhibited: The American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition. From the facade of The Waverly at Christopher is depicted One Christopher Street, the 16-story Art Deco residential building erected in 1931. It is not a casual coincidence that the structure appears in this cityscape: 1 Christopher Street is the subject. The original intention of this project was to transform the neighborhood, bring a bit of affluence and make a bid to rival the Upper West Side. Margules, a sensitive aesthete, understood how a massive piece of architecture such as One changes a neighborhood. Sound, scale and focal points are forever altered. A pedestrian's sense of depth and distance becomes pronounced. All of these factors contribute to the intent behind this image. Tall buildings disrupt the human scale, change the skyline and carve up space. In this piece, negative space conforms to the man-made geometries. Clouds become gems fixed in settings. De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

Monogrammed 1925 Pointillist Landscape Modernist Framed Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist signed pointillist painting. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Signed. Framed. Rare early work!
Category

1920s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a Young Woman
Located in London, GB
'Portrait of a Young Woman', oil on board, by Peter Robert Keil (1983). A wide-eyed woman gazes out to the viewer with an inquisitive gaze. The artist's use of exuberant colours beli...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

JEAN MARC (1949-2019) 20th CENTURY FRENCH MODERNIST PAINTING - PORTRAIT OF FACE
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"Portrait" by Jean Marc (French 1949-2019) watercolour on artist paper signed and dated 97' double sided painting: 12.5 x 9.5 inches provenance: private collection, South of Fran...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Antique American School "City of Light" Abstract Architectural Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist cityscape oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. Framed. Measuring: 21 by 17 inches overall, and 12 by 16 painting alone.. In excellent original condition. Han...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Abstract Study
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021) Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studies ...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American School Coastal Seascape Trompe L'Oeil Modernist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Indulge in a journey to the vibrant and nostalgic era of the 1970s with our vintage original oil painting—a mesmerizing modernist beach interior scene, capturing the essence of sandy...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Signed Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Signed and dated Warren Brandt '58, this dynamic mixed-media composition by American artist Warren Brandt (1918–2002) exemplifies mid-century abstraction with a vibrant use of color,...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Cart Bay
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painti...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

20th Century French Modernist Signed Oil Rolling Waves at Sea Turquoise & Purple
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Sea by Louis Eugene Glasser (French b. 1897) signed oil on board, framed framed: 22.5 x 29.5 inches board: 17.5 x 24.5 inches provenance: priv...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

The sea is near me
Located in Zofingen, AG
The painting "The Sea is near me" captures a fleeting moment of silence and freedom, when the sea seems to dissolve into the air around you. Gentle vibrations of color evoke the feel...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Modernist Palettes, Orange and Turquoise Mid-Century Floating Shapes, Abstract
Located in Barcelona, ES
"Modernist Palettes" is a hand-painted acrylic painting on high-quality 300g paper by artist Ryan Rivadeneyra. These painting, influenced by modernist artists of the 50's, 60's, and...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paper

Mid Century Abstract
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Unsigned. Image size, 37"L x 25"H.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Abstract
Mid Century Abstract
$595 Sale Price
33% Off
Huge Contemporary French Expressionist Abstract Modernist Still Life Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Modernist Still Life by Andree de Fremont (French, contemporary) signed painting on canvas, unframed canvas: 39.5 x 39.5 inches Provenance: from a collection in France Condition: ver...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas, Acrylic

Two of Swords by Salvador Dalí
Located in New Orleans, LA
Salvador Dalí 1904-1989 Spanish Two of Swords Signed “Dalí” (upper right) Gouache on photographic background Representing a unique blend of spiritualism and Surrealism, this goua...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Photographic Paper

Signed 20th Century French Modernist Oil Painting Naked Woman on Beach
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Sur la Plage French Modernist artist, 20th century indistinctly signed oil on canvas, framed inscribed verso framed: 20.5 x 26.5 inches canvas : 20 x 26 inches provenance: private c...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique French Riviera Modernist Mediterranean Seascape Signed Boat Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage signed modernist seascape painting by Gabriel Godard (Born 1933). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Housed in a wide giltwood frame. Thick impasto and wonderful colors. I...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Chicago Modernist Gouache Painting Shabbat Hebrew Calligraphy WPA Artist Judaica
Located in Surfside, FL
A Judaica painting with Hebrew Calligraphy by noted Chicago Modernist. Alexander Raymond Katz (his Hungarian first name, Sandor, was anglicized to Alexander) was born in Kassa, Hunga...
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Modern abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic 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 blue, orange, red, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Stanley Bate, Christel Haag, Clarence Holbrook Carter, and Carmen Gutierrez. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil 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 Modern abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 18 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $380 and tops out at $175,000, while the average work sells for $2,970.

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