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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
Polish French Mid Century Modern Abstract Venice Gondola Canal Scene
Located in Surfside, FL
Biography: Abram (Abraham) Krol was born January 22, 1919, in Pabianice (Lodz), Poland. Krol went to France in 1938 to study civil engineering at the University of Caen. In 1939 at...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Fused Image, Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting by Lou Fink
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Lou Fink, American (1925 - 1980) Title: Spanish Dancers Year: 1964 Medium: Oil on Board, signed, dated and titled verso Size: 10 in. x 14 in. (25.4 cm x 35.56 cm) Frame Size:...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Game. Oil on canvas, 63 x 67 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Game Oil on canvas, 63x67 cm
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Modern American Abstract Figurative Surreal Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstracted figurative painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found. Great color and composition. Nicely framed in a period modernist molding.
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Made In The Shade 5 - Modern Resin Minimalist Multicolor Geometric Abstract Art
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

Antique American Sparse Modern Expressionist Flower Still Life Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage modernist still life painting. Oil on canvas. Image size, 18L x 24H.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

One of The Thieves Was Saved
Located in Buffalo, NY
"One of The Thieves Was Saved" from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket An original watercolor painting by Westley "Wes" Olmsted. This work is currently featured in the exhibition ...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Vintage American Modernist Surreal Landscape Signed Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed "Lee Tang".
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Modern Vintage Swedish Abstract Oil Painting -Procession of Shadows
Located in Bristol, GB
PROCESSION OF SHADOWS Size: 39.5 x 53 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas A striking and richly textured mid-century abstract composition, executed in oil onto canvas. Although abstr...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled II (Abstract Cityscape Painting of Skyline & Water Tower in Red & Blue)
Located in Hudson, NY
Abstracted cityscape painting on paper in blue and red oil wash of industrial beams and water towers in New York City "Untitled II," painted by Ricardo Mulero in 2018 7.5 x 5 inches, oil wash on paper 16.5 x 13.5 inches in a soft white wood frame with an 8-ply window mat and non-glare glass Excellent condition, ready to hang as is Ricardo Mulero is fascinated with capturing the brilliance of light and the contrast of natural beauty with utilitarian landscapes. Here, Mulero focuses on an abstracted New York cityscape of rooftop water towers and he fragments the industrial urban landscape to highlight bold shapes with contrasting color palettes in blue, black, and red. The piece is in excellent condition and ready to hang. About the Artist: Growing up in Puerto Rico, I observed how people and nature could co-exist in harmony. Today, that principle guides my design and artistic work. My paintings are expressions that draw upon my life experiences, traditions, and surroundings. These unique environments inspire my oil paintings: Puerto Rico, where I grew up, New York City, Fire Island Pines...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Alfa Romeo Traffic Stop - Playboy Cartoon - Mid Century
Located in Miami, FL
The enduring appeal of Ben Denison's work is not what would be considered corny men's magazine humor of the early 1960s, but rather his masterful painting skills. In the present wor...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board, Pencil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Blind Spot" Abstract Relief with Numismatic Patterns Sculpture
Located in Soquel, CA
"Blind Spot" Abstract Relief Sculpture Carved sculpture and painting by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This large-scale relief sculpture features a central circular sh...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Found Objects, Acrylic, Wood Panel, Handmade Paper, Resin

Antique American School Signed Modernist Street Scene Rare Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed scene oil painting. Oil on paper. Signed. Framed. Image size, 20L x 15H.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

TITO - Modern / Minimal Geometric Painting, Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
Original Modernist / Minimalist Acrylic & Copper Metallic Painting on Linen Canvas / MDF Wood Panel. *This Artwork is being SOLD UNFRAMED! - the additional Virtual Image of the fr...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

polygon in space #22 - Triangular Bright Colored Sculptural Painting on Wood
Located in New York, NY
mixed media on wood, acrylic paint In this piece, Zin Helena Song utilizes a sharp triangular shape as her wood panel. This shape is common in city grids, like when Broadway meet...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic Polymer, Wood

Cosmic Connection
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modernist acrylic painting by Robert Blair in which the artist has utilized a comb to create designs within the painting. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003)...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Paper

Trapezium origami #3 - Bright Pink Grey and Purple Sculptural Painting on Wood
Located in New York, NY
mixed media on wood, acrylic paint 25" x 11" 8" 2015 In this piece, Zin Helena song uses a vertical panel, evoking the shape of an urban building. Her strips of paint ride verti...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic Polymer, Wood

Polish French Ecole de Paris Mid Century Modernist Oil Painting Clown Juggler
Located in Surfside, FL
Abram Abraham Krol was born January 22, 1919, in Pabianice (Lodz), Poland. Abram Krol went to France in 1938 to study civil engineering at the University of Caen. In 1939 at the be...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Le Boischaut - Maurice Esteve, modern, colorful, french, painting, abstract, art
Located in London, GB
Maurice Estève (1904-2001) Le Boischaut 1960 oil on canvas 65 x 100 cm signed and dated ‘Estève 60’ (lower left) Price: €276,000 EUR (inc. 20% UK VAT) Provenance: Galerie Villand-Galanis, Paris Sonja...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Window 332 - Modern Resin Minimalist Vibrant Red Color Field Abstract Art
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

Aragua, Abstract Painting, Contemporary Red Blue and Green Art, Statement Art
Located in Deddington, GB
This is an original abstract acrylic painting on canvas. Discover new works by Julia Craig available to buy online and in our art gallery. Julia is an abstract artist whose love of c...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil

"Piscatory" Abraham P. Hankins, Modernist Composition of Fish, Abstracted Nature
Located in New York, NY
Abraham P. Hankins Piscatory, 1941 Signed and dated lower center Tempera on panel 24 x 30 inches Provenance Private Collection, New York Alexandra Avlonitis, New York (acquired from...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Panel

Abstract #410
By Denis Phillips
Located in Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract #410, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches. Excerpts from DENIS PHILLIPS written by Jane Connell “I’ve never really known a time in my life,” Denis Phillips muses, “when one ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Acrylic

Modern British mid century oil painting of aubergines on purple and white
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Rodney Gladwell (British, 1928 – 1979) Aubergines, 1959 Signed and dated ‘Gladwell 59’ (lower left) Oil on board 79.1/2 x 31.1/2 in. (202 x 80 cm.) including frame Painter Rodney Gl...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Archie Rand Abstract Expressionist Cartoon Oil Painting Dusseldorf
Located in Surfside, FL
"Dusseldorf, Germany" 1993, oil on canvas, hand signed and dated lower left, Canvas (unframed):18 X 48. framed: 19.5 X 49.5 Provenance: directly from the artist. Exhibited at Phyllis Kind Gallery in NYC in 1987. Archie Rand (American, born 1949) is an artist from Brooklyn, New York. Rand's work as a painter and muralist is held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His graphic works and books are held by the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute Of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and The New York Public Library; and are owned by Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Johns Hopkins universities. Born in Brooklyn, Rand received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cinegraphics from the Pratt Institute, having studied previously at the Art Students League of New York. His first exhibition was in 1966, at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. He has since had over 100 solo exhibitions, and his work has been included in over 200 group exhibitions. He is currently Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College which granted him the Award for Excellence in Creative Achievement in 2016. Before joining Brooklyn College, Rand was the chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Columbia University. The Italian Academy For Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University presented him with The Siena Prize in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Foundation Fellowship in 1999 and was made a Laureate of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, which awarded him the Achievement Medal for Contributions in the Visual Arts. In 2002 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching from Columbia University. In 2002 he became the artistic advisor to film director Ang Lee for his production of The Hulk, and was asked by Milestone Films to provide a commentary track for the DVD release of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic 1955 film The Mystery of Picasso. Archie Rand’s earliest major works are “The Letter Paintings” (or “The Jazz Paintings”) (1968–71), a radically positioned series of technically inventive, mural-sized canvases. The Letter Paintings, by incorporating the names of mainly male and female African-American musicians, undermined prevailing aesthetic categories by conflating many contemporary movements including Conceptual Art, Color Field, Pattern and Decoration, diary entry and social commentary. In 1974 Rand received a commission from Congregation B’nai Yosef in Brooklyn. Rand was asked to paint thematic murals on the complete 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) interior surfaces of the synagogue. The work took three years, and completing this commission made Rand the author of the only narratively painted synagogue in the world and the only one we know of since the 2nd Century Dura-Europos. The religious legal controversy raised by placing wall paintings in a traditionally iconoclastic space was resolved by the verdict of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, then considered to be the world’s leading Talmudic scholar, who declared the paintings to be in conformity with the law. His subsequent turn to figuration may have been influenced by his friendship with Philip Guston, whose own work was transformed in the late 1960s. Like Guston, Rand "chafed at the limitations of purely abstract forms." A near-cult figure who started out as a child prodigy and whose admirers range from John Ashbery to Julian Schnabel. Rand’s paintings display a vast and savvy menu of inventive and finely executed approaches. He has completed many series after the works of Paul Celan, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Eugenio Montale, Yehuda Amichai, Rainer Maria Rilke, Samuel Beckett/Paul Eluard and Jack Spicer. Working often with poets, he has produced books and continues to engage in publishing collaborative projects. He maintained a correspondence with the American British Jewish painter R.B. Kitaj. In 2008, on a warehouse wall, Rand mounted the painting, “The 613”, which at 1700 square feet (17’ x 100’) is nearly twice the size of James Rosenquist’s F-111. It is one of the largest freestanding paintings ever made. Reminiscent of “The Segments” paintings it is intimidatingly enormous. Paradoxically, despite the raucous cartoony bytes that shoot colorful flashes from the manic surface, “The 613” glows warmly. Its overall effect is strangely calming and majestic. In an article on a 2011 exhibition of Rand's "Had Gadya" series, David Kaufmann wrote: Rand displayed his work in 15 solo exhibitions between 2008 and 2017, many of them showcasing paintings done after Scripture, or his workings with poets: Including “Had Gadya, 2005”, Borowsky Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2011); “Gods Change, Prayers Are Here To Stay (after Yehuda Amichai), 2000", Katz Gallery, Atlanta, GA (2014); “Psalm 68, 1994”, Derfner Museum, Riverdale, NY (2014); “The Chapter Paintings”, Tribeca Gallery, NY (2015); “Men Who Turn Back (after Eugenio Montale), 1995", SRO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2016); “Sixty Paintings From the Bible” & “The Book of Judith, 2012”, Cleveland State University Galleries, Cleveland, OH (2016) & The American Jewish Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (2017); “Archie Rand: Early Works With Poetry: Jack Spicer, 1991 and Samuel Beckett/Paul Eluard, 1993”, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY (2017). "The 613" In 2015 Blue Rider/Penguin/Random House published The 613, allotting one color plate per page for each of the 614 units in the painting. The Wall Street Journal labeled The 613 as “dynamic…remarkable…thrilling” The New York Times selected the book as “Editors' Choice” and praised it in two separate reviews calling it “wonderfully garish” and declaring that “nothing prepared the art world for 'The 613.' Recent Activity In 2016 Rand showed two bodies of work that were done in Italy, “La Certosa Di Pontignano, 1995” and “Mount Etna, 2005,” at The Interchurch Center Galleries, New York. From 2016 to 2017 he served as the Curator and Juror for the Governor of Wyoming’s Capitol Arts Exhibition at The Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, WY. A 2017 exhibition, “Archie Rand: Early Works With Poetry”, featured two series of work from 1991 and 1993 after poems by Jack Spicer and Samuel Beckett/Paul Eluard. This painting was exhibited in the Phyllis Kind Gallery in NY in 1987. (Phyllis Kind was an American art dealer active in Chicago and New York. She promoted the work of the Chicago Imagists, The Monster Roster and The Hairy Who and outsider artists. Kind opened a gallery in Chicago in 1967. Called Pro Grafica Arte, the gallery dealt in master prints and drawings. In 1975, she opened a gallery on Spring Street in New York's SoHo district. She gave some of the artists in the movement their first solo shows: Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Colorful Purple, Pink, & Green Modern Portrait of Man Playing Billiards or Pool
By Gerald Garston
Located in Houston, TX
Colorful modern figurative portrait of a man playing billiards or pool by Connecticut artist Gerald Garston. The work features a man in a blue bowler ha...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Interior Artist Studio Easel Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist interior easel painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1960. Signed on verso. Housed in a period modern frame.
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Inscription, Dyptich, Acrylic, Canvas, Red, Orange, Blue Indian Artist-In Stock
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Amitabh Sengupta - Inscription (Dyptich) Acrylic on Canvas, 72 x 36 inches (Unframed Size) , 2008 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Style : In Amitabh Sengupta's works TIME is depicted in va...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil

'In Passing' by Helen Steele - Red and Ochre Modern Figurative Abstract Art
Located in Carmel, CA
Helen Steele (German, 1961-2022) 'In Passing' 2010 Mixed Media, Canvas, Stretcher Bars The artist signed the back of the painting. "In Passing," a 48" x 24" work by Helen Steele, is...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Stretcher Bars

Gina Parr, Agbopura , Limited Edition Contemporary Abstract Landscape Photograph
Located in Deddington, GB
Gina Parr Agbopura Limited Edition Photographic Print of 10 Image Size: 54.9 x 36.6 cm This is one work Sold Unframed Agbopura – 2 of 10 Limited Edition Photograph by Gina Parr from...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Photographic Paper, Digital, Etching

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Tempera

Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting Modern Pastel Monoprint WPA Jewish Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Louis Wolchonok was a social realist painter and member of the Woodstock Art Association. His work was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Academy of Design...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Antique Israeli American Folk Art Modernist Figural Landscape Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique Israeli American modernist folk art landscape by Malcah Zeldis. Mixed media painting on paper. Framed. Signed. Measuring 18 by 22 inches overall and 11 by 14 painting alone....
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Engaged Large Oil Painting With Figures
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Engaged large figurative abstract Signed, titled and dated, new frame. Arbe Berberyan Russian/Armenian Artist born 1958. The son of a disting...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Chicken Signed Cubist Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist mixed media abstract oil painting and collage by Paul René Gauguin (1911 - 1976). Oil and mixed media on board, circa . Signed. D...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

"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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

French, Mid-Century View of a Port dated "59"
Located in SANTA FE, NM
View of a Port "59" French Modernist School Oil on canvas Illegibly signed. l.r., dated "59" 28 3/4 x 23 3/4 (30 x 25 frame) inches A positively brilliant, Modernist view of a French port...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Moonlight. 1996. Oil on cardboard, 85x74 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Laimdots Murnieks had a significant influence on the development of Latvian painting at the end of the 20th century. His work 'Holiday' conveys the fee...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Collage Series IX, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic, Blue, White "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Collage Series IX - 23 x 16 inches (unframed size) Collage Series, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic. Will be shipped, ready to hang with frame . Sunil Das (1939-2015) ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Foil

Modern Abstract Green and Purple Wild Brush Landscape Painting of Sun and Trees
Located in Houston, TX
Modern abstract green and purple toned landscape painting by American artist Jane Tate. The work features a wild grove of trees and brush with the sun framed...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Mask Nigeria Period, Frottage on Paper, Edition 1/1 by Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Amitabh Sengupta - Mask Nigeria Period , Edition 1/1 Frottage on Paper , 30.35 x 22.25 inches , 1986 Inclusive of shipment in roll form. Style : In Amitabh SenGupta's works TIME is ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

AMITY - 3D MODERN ABSTRACT PAINTING / CONSTRUCTION, Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
From the ongoing SERIES: Dimensional Abstracts Original Acrylic Painting / Three Dimensional Construction, with applied Pumice over 2 Pintura Wood Panel Reliefs = 5.25 X 3.5 inche...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Abstract Yellow and Orange Toned Figurative Grid of Nude Bodies Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Yellow toned abstract figurative painting by French artist Christophe Stora depicting human bodies in a grid and in several postures and motions. This...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

UNTITLED FIGURES (LINES AND SHAPES AGAINST TEXTURAL BACKGROUND)
By Shoshana Heimann
Located in Surfside, FL
As fate would have it, sculptor, painter and printmaker Shoshana Heimann (1923-2009) did not live to see her retrospective installed at both the Hecht Museum at the University of Hai...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wood, Mixed Media, Oil

Queen Emma - Alan Davie, painting, modern, british, big, large, colorful, colors
Located in London, GB
Alan Davie (1920-2014) Queen Emma June 1968 oil on canvas (triptych) 213.5 x 404 cm signed, dated and titled (on the verso) Price: £300,000 GBP (inc. 20% U...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled, Lithograph on Paper, Yellow, Black by Artist Somnath Hore "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Somnath Hore - Untitled Lithograph on Paper 11 x 15 inches ( Unframed & Delivered ) Inclusive of shipment mounted not framed, Should you wish to receive the same framed and shipped ...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas. In very good condition with bright colors. Provenance: Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, New York, with the label verso; private collection, New York.
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red Minimal Large Abstract Painting with Bicycles
Located in Houston, TX
Red and yellow tonal minimal abstract painting with bicycles. The work is signed by the artist in the bottom corner. The canvas board is framed in a gold frame. Dimensions without F...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Early Mid Century Modern Abstract Painting
By Tommie Olson
Located in Houston, TX
Mid century modern abstract by artist Tommie (Thomas) Olson a student of Robert Preusser, when he was 16 and attending John Deagan High School in Houst...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Vintage Modernist Abstract Figurative City Framed Oil Painting- Spanish Walks
Located in Bristol, GB
SPANISH WALKS Size: 24 x 37 cm (including frame) Oil on Board An outstanding semi-abstract oil composition, painted in 1958 by the established Swedish artist Ivar Morsing (1919-2009...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mid Century American Abstract, possibly Fisherman's wharf San Francisco, Ca
Located in Woodbury, CT
Midcentury oil on canvas , Wharf scene, possibly Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco. Mel Fowler (1921-1987) was a listed Italian-American painter known for his cubist inspired abstra...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Given Time 2, Painting, Acrylic on Paper
Located in Yardley, PA
In Times of Corona many people get more time, more time with their families. They slow down, running for money and success and even more money and power are replaced by self-reflecti...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Modernist Cubist Moses on the Mount
Located in Surfside, FL
Painting with plaster and gilt details. Attributed to Edgar levy. A modernist still-life painter whose style leaned towards Cubism, Edgar Levy had a studio...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"The Vision" Modern Blue, Red, and Yellow Abstract Geometric Portrait Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Blue, red, and yellow abstract modern portrait painting by Texas artist Robert Sandman. The work features a well dressed man with part of his face obscu...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

#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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"THE CLOWN" MICHAEL FRARY MID CENTURY MODERN TEXAS ARTIST
Located in San Antonio, TX
Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 16 x 12.5 Medium: Oil "The Clown" Biography Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Michael Frary was born in Santa Monica, California on Ma...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

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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