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American Modern Figurative Paintings

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Style: American Modern
"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan
Located in New York, NY
"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan The size of the canvas 28 3/4 x 43 1/4 inches. The painting comes directly from the artist's estate. It is signed lower right as well as signed, titled and dated verso. We have available more than two dozen paintings and works on paper from the 1930s - 80s that come directly from the Loew estate. BIO Michael Loew (1907 – 1985) was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly, and for the next two years he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the WPA where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World’s Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. In the mid-30’s he painted in Mexico and the Yucatán documenting the construction of a U.S. Naval airbase on Tinian Island. It was from this airbase that the Enola...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Reclining Nude" Arthur B. Carles, Abstracted Nude, Early American Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Arthur B. Carles Reclining Nude, circa 1920 Inscribed "Mercedes Matter" on the overlap Oil on canvas 32 x 51 inches Provenance The artist’s estate Mercedes Matter, the artist’s daug...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

NYC 1939 World's Fair Mural Study American Scene WPA Modern Mid 20th Century
Located in New York, NY
NYC 1939 World's Fair Mural Study American Scene WPA Modern Mid 20th Century Eugene Savage (1883 – 1978) 1939 World’s Fair Mural Study 45 x 30 inches Oil on Canvas Signed lower right The painting is part of a 1,000 piece collection of art and objects from the 1939 World’s Fair. The collection as a whole is available. Savage created the mural for the facade of the Communications Building. An image of the completed mural, along with a published postcard, is part of the listing. Note the center top female figure, she resembles the figure in the offered painting. BIO Eugene Francis Savage was born in Covington, Indiana 1883. He underwent various forms of art training in the early years. He was a pupil of The Corcoran Gallery and The Art Institute of Chicago, and was later awarded a fellowship to study in Rome at The American Academy. While under the spell of that ancient city the young artist began to render historic figures that were suitable for the classic style needed for mural painting in the traditional manor. During this period he was able to study and observe Roman and Greek sculpture, although much of the academic training was accomplished by using plaster casts along with the incorporation of live models. This method survived and was used efficiently throughout Europe and the United States. After leaving the Academy, Savage was commissioned to paint numerous murals throughout the United States and Europe. This artist received acclaim for the works he produced while under commissions from various sources. This young master was a contemporary of Mexican muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957). In this period he was to show the influence of his contemporaries in formulating a modern style. Savage also played a vital role in the WPA Federal Art program, and he was a member of The Mural Art Guild.. Savage was elected an associate member of The National Academy of Design in 1924 and a full member in 1926. From 1947, he held a professorship at Yale University where he taught mural painting, and some of his students went on to significant positions. By this time the artist had painted large-scale murals at Columbia, Yale University, Buffalo N.Y., Dallas, Texas, Chicago, Indiana, along with other commissioned works. He also achieved recognition for a series of murals commissioned by the Matson Shipping Line and completed around 1940. For this commission, Savage made many exacting studies of customs and folkways of the Hawaiian natives. However, the award-winning murals were not installed as planned but were put in storage during the war years when the ships were used for troop transportation and were in danger of attack. However the mural images were reproduced and distributed by the shipping company including nine of the mural scenes that were made into lithographed menu covers in 1948. The American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded certificates of excellence for their graphic production, and the Smithsonian Institute exhibited the works in 1949. Today Savages' Hawaiian Art production is held in high regard by collectors of Hawaiian nostalgia. In later years the artist focused his attention on a theme that dealt with the customs and tribal traditions of the Seminole Indians of Florida. He produced many variations of this theme throughout his lifetime, and the pictures were usually modest scale easel paintings, precise and carefully delineated. Many of these pictures incorporate Surrealistic elements and show some minor stylistic influences of the painters Kay Sage...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Six O'Clock
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About the Painting Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.” About the Artist Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Artists Sketching, California, 1940s Large Modernist Gouache Painting, Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1940s American Modernist gouache painting, "Artists Sketching (California)," captures a dynamic scene of three artists at work against a majestic mountain backdrop. With expressive brushwork and a rich color palette, the piece embodies Frederick E. Shane’s signature blend of realism and modernist abstraction. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower margin, this remarkable artwork reflects the era’s Regionalist influence and the artist’s keen eye for capturing creative moments in the natural landscape. The painting is professionally housed in a custom archival frame, ensuring long-term preservation. Frame dimensions: 25.5 x 37.5 x 1.5 inches. Image size: 20.25 x 29.75 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Frederick Shane About the Artist: Frederick E. Shane (1906-1992) A celebrated Missouri Regionalist painter and printmaker, Frederick E. Shane was known for his compelling genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes, and portraits in a variety of media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, and lithography. While fundamentally a realist, Shane often incorporated elements of abstraction, expressionism, and surrealism, adding depth and emotion to his compositions. During the summers of 1925-26, Shane studied under Randall Davey at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs, an institution founded in 1919 by philanthropists Spencer and Julie Penrose. Shane remained closely connected to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Academy’s successor, throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, participating in Artists West of the Mississippi exhibitions and forming lasting friendships with key figures like Boardman Robinson and Adolph Dehn...
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1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

"Liberty" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Nude Portrait of a Lady Standing
Located in Soquel, CA
"Liberty" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Nude Portrait of a Lady Standing Abstract expressionist portrait of a woman standing with one arm raised over her head by California artist Har...
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1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

1980s Autumn Harvest, Original Semi-Abstract Landscape Oil Painting with Figures
Located in Denver, CO
This original oil painting, titled Autumn Harvest by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), was created in 1987. It features a stunning autumnal landscape, with seven women actively engaged in ...
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1980s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Original Painting Steel Workers Fabric Design Industrial Deco American Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Steel Workers Fabric Design Industrial Deco American Modernism Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Steel Workers Textile design 19 1/4 X ...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Day at the Park - Surreal Figurative
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold figurative work by Richard Cronin (American, b. 1952). Two figures are at the edge of the sea, one of which is seated and holding two beach balls. ...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Vibrant, Colorful Mid-Century Summer Landscape, Oxbow School, Saugatuck, MI
Located in Chicago, IL
A Vibrant, Captivating Mid-Century Modern Summer Landscape Painting by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen (Am. 1918 - 1989). Painted during the 1960s while the artist taught at th...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Artist's Apartment Mid-Century Fauvist Interior Scene Original Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
The Artist's Apartment Mid-Century Fauvist Interior Scene Original Oil on Canvas Vibrant interior scene by Santa Cruz California artist Frances Rinaldo (American, b. 1943). A bright...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

A Distinctive Mid-Century Modern Portrait of a Man with Red Necktie, Joe Muldoon
Located in Chicago, IL
A distinctive Mid-Century Modern portrait of a man with red necktie by noted Chicago painter, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Chapin's estate records list the sitter as named Joe Mu...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Crying Clown Portrait in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Crying Clown Portrait in Oil on Canvas Portrait of a sad clown by San Francisco artist John Peers (American, 1922-2009). This portrait is closely fra...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Girl with Guitar" Robert Gwathmey, Music, Southern Social Commentary, Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Robert Gwathmey Girl with Guitar, 1965 Signed upper right Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Provenance: The artist ACA Galleries, New York Mr. Moses Asch, New York Terry Dintenfass Galle...
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1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Blue Pierrot', Large Figural Oil, California Modernist, Woman Artist, Los Altos
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Haefner' for Janice Haefner (American, 1919-2002) and painted circa 1960; additionally signed, verso, and with artist address. This life-time member of the Pacific Art League lived in Los Altos...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Figurative -- Nude Woman and Red Chair
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful mid century abstract figurative nude at night with red chair by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). A nocturnal setting adds more interest and dimension. Signed on verso "H Berg." Unframed. 36"H x 30"W. Honora Berg an early Bay Area Figurative and Abstract Expressionist painter. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and James Budd Dixon. Berg's friend Edith Truesdell...
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1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Entering the Bus" Expressionist Figurative Composition Original Oil on Canvas
By Jakob Bokulich
Located in Soquel, CA
"Entering the Bus" Expressionist Figurative Composition Original Oil on Canvas Dynamic figurative composition by Bay area Figural, Abstract expressionist and notable Burning Man artist Jakob Bokulich (American, b. 1974). Several figures are crowded together, some of which are nude. Others are wearing typical clothing, and appear to be going out their daily lives. The expressive, slightly distorted faces and close placement of the figures is reminiscent of some of Francisco Goya's paintings. Titled, dated, and signed on verso: "Entering the Bus" May, 1992 Jake Bokulich No frame, but the artist has affixed black tape to the edges. Jakob Bokulich (1974, Santa Cruz, CA) is a self-trained, multi-disciplinary artist known for his paintings and kinetic sculptures. His work is in the collection of the Croatian Embassy in Paris, and he was awarded an Honorarium grant in 2018 by Burning Man for his 21 foot-tall sculpture "Big Pollinator," which was years in the making and involved the work of over 100 volunteers. The son of an auto mechanic, Bokulich began painting at age 12 after a house fire left his family homeless and he stayed temporarily with a local landscape painter. At 17 he left home for Europe - his art education was living in art squats and artist communities, and immersing himself in the museums and galleries of Europe. Drawing inspiration from living in a war zone in Croatia between 1993-1995, he exhibited in galleries in Paris, Saint-Tropez, Chamonix, and Split, Croatia. Transitioning back to the U.S, the artist helped build artist communities in San Francisco and Oakland, being deeply involved in spaces such as Cellspace, The Artship, and The Creamery. In this phase of his practice, Bokulich explored performance and ritual, co-writing and performing in the film Hysteria by Antero Alli. This prompted his stay in LA working in film and set design. In 2015 the seasoned and well rounded artist moved to New York City to return to a studio practice, now informed by his experiences in ritual, meditation, and unconventional self exploration. Bokulich’s work reinforces modes of seeing in a world where the senses have become neglected. Solo Exhibits MICHELE MACK GALLERY New York, 2021 THIRTY SIX GALLERY Beacon, New York, 2020 ARTSHIP Oakland, 2003 LIGHT San Francisco, 2001 LE LION d'OR Chamonix, France, 1994 CROATIAN EMBASSY IN PARIS Paris, 1994 MICHAEL ANGELO GALLERY Santa Cruz, 1994 GALERIE DANS LE KIOSQUE FLOTTANT Paris, 1993 GALERIJA PORTA AUREA Split, Croatia, 1993 LAVOIR PUBLIC VASSEROT Saint-Tropez, France, 1993 Selected Group Exhibits CHASE CONTEMPORARY New York, 2022 SOTHEBY'S New York, 2021 ART MIAMI/CONTEXT (Elizabeth Clement...
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1990s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

"Morning Towers" Contemporary Figurative Self Portrait
Located in Soquel, CA
Saturated, intimate depiction of sharing a bed with a partner by Narcissus Robert Quagliata (Italian-American, b. 1942). While four fingers dominate the composition, the focus of the...
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1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Early 20th Century Summer Landscape, Cleveland School Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Summer Landscape Oil on canvas board Signed lower right 13 x 14.25 inches 18.25 x 19.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene s...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers Seymour Fogel (1911-1984) Mural Study, untitled 11 x 49 1/4 inches (sight) Tempera on board Provenance:...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Egg Tempera, Board

The Demagogue or Tale in a Tub
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Demagogue or Tale in a Tub, 1952, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, signed, titled, and dated verso, presented in a newer frame The Demagogue is an iconic Bendor Mark painting fro...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Figurative Study of Pair
By Joseph Capozio
Located in Soquel, CA
Compelling figurative study in gouache and pencil by Joesph Capozio (American, 1928-2016). Estate stamp lower right corner with bio on verso. Presented in mahogany wood frame. Framed size: 19"H x 17"W. Capozio was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1927. After serving in World War II, he attended art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lived and worked in San Francisco, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Siesta Key...
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1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Pencil

American WPA Jewish New York Modernist Madonna Mother and Child painting
Located in Norwich, GB
A magnificent oil on canvas by Russian American WPA artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984), dating from 1943. Depicting a Maternity scene - or possibly a m...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Beautiful Modern Figure Painting, Two Bathers in a Boathouse by Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A beautiful Modern figure painting of two bathers in a boathouse by noted Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Ox-Bow School of Saugatuck, Michigan ...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat
Located in Soquel, CA
"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat Abstract expressionist portrait of a woman wearing a hat by California artist Harald "Harry" Dry Schmidt (America...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Nude
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Provenance The artist; Collection of Walter Stuempfig, Philadelphia; Private collection, Massachusetts until 2022 The Philadelphia modernist Arthur B. Carles was a brilliant coloris...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1970's Surrealist Figurative -- "Two Nudes in Interior"
Located in Soquel, CA
Stark, surrealist study of two nude figures in a color saturated room by Clayton Anderson (American, 20th Century), 1970. Signed and dated by the artist, left margin. Presented in a ...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A 1940s Painting of a Seated Female Nude in Summer Landscape, Ox-Bow School
Located in Chicago, IL
A beautiful 1940s painting of a seated female nude in a summer landscape by renowned Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Oxbow School in Saugatuck, Michig...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

LAKEWOOD N.J., 1936 Modernist Oil Painting, Judaica
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Landscape Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States Dimensions: 30" x 22" EMANUEL ROMANO Rome, Italy, b. 1897, d. 1984 Emanuel Glicenstein Romano was born in Rome, September 23, 1897. His father Henryk Glicenstein was a sculptor and was living in Rome with his wife Helena (born Hirszenberg) when Emanuel was born. His father obtained Italian citizenship and adopted the name Enrico. Emanuel was brought up in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and Poland. In 1926 Emanuel and his father sailed for New York. They briefly visited Chicago. Romano's sister, Beatrice, and mother only joined them in New York years later. Romano changed his name on his arrival to America and some have erroneously speculated that this was to avoid antisemitic discrimination. In truth, as the son of a highly-regarded artist, Romano changed his name to ensure that any success or recognition he would later attain, would be the result of nothing other than his own merit as an artist, and not on account of his father's fame. In 1936 Romano was worked for the Federal Art Project creating murals. During and immediately after World War II, Romano created a series of allegorical works depicting graphic holocaust images that were held closely by the family until after his passing. One of these works is now on permanent display in the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg Florida. Emanuel's father died in 1942 in a car accident before they could realize their shared dream of visiting Israel. In 1944 Romano, having completed his degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, began teaching at the City College of New York. Romano moved to Safed, Israel in 1953 and established an art museum in his father's memory, the Glicentein Museum. COLLECTIONS Indianapolis Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art Boston Fine Arts Museum Fogg Museum Musée Nacional de France Recently his work has been added to the Florida Holocaust Museum collection. His notable works include his holocaust themed allegorical paintings as well as portraits of Marianne Moore, his father and William Carlos...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Stylish Hawaiian Luau Oil Painting by Listed artist Mario Larrinaga (1895-1979)
Located in Baltimore, MD
Mario Larrinaga was born in Baja California in 1895 and moved with his brother to Los Angeles in 1909. He had no formal training in art, but had natural talent that was noticed by local movie studios. He was hired by Universal Studios as a designer, art director and creator of background scenes. He produced some of the background effects for King Kong in 1933. After a career in set design and illustration he focused on painting for pleasure in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He belonged to local art clubs and exhibited his works often. This stylized modernist work was likely created around 1960. It is oil on wood panel and of a horizontal format, 18” x 36”. It portrays a procession of seemingly Hawaiian natives...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Coney Island Fire Eaters American Scene Modernism WPA Social Realism Mid-Century
Located in New York, NY
Coney Island Fire Eaters American Scene Modernism WPA Social Realism Mid-Century Frederick "Fritz" Frey Rockwell (1917-1977) Coney Island Fire Eaters 25 x 30 inches Oil on Canvas Si...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Cruise Ship Rolls In" Mid 20th Century American Contemporary Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
"Cruise Ship Rolls In" Mid 20th Century American Contemporary Modern Realism This is one sensational painting. And we can even identify the artist, but can't find anything about the...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Oil Painting Of Cartoony Camouflage Tank in Illustration Style
Located in Surfside, FL
Seymour Chwast (born August 18, 1931) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer. Chwast was born in Bronx, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 1951. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel...
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paint, Board

Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism George Pearse Ennis (American, 1884-1936) "Forging a Gun Tube #1...
Category

1910s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dichotomy, mid-century figural abstract green oil painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Dichotomy, 1962 Oil on paper Signed and dated upper left 20 x 25 inches Mid-century figural abstract green painting of woman swimming ...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Large Exceptional Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Chicago Night Club Showgirl
Located in Chicago, IL
A Large, Sensational Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Chicago Night Club Showgirl. Painted in the 1950s, this is a large, vertical, abstracted portrayal of a standing Burlesque danc...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Dressing
By Miriam Tindall Smith
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Smith studied at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia under Edward Warwick. In 1935 she was asked by the Art Institute of Chicago to loan her painting, "Repose" to the forty...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

An Ideal Head of a Woman
Located in Greenwich, CT
In the tradition of Modigliani, Maurer's depictions of women are expressive and lively. America had very few modernists who painted in this manner but Maurer is famous for exactly t...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Oil, Board

1940s Modernist Oil Painting – Adobe Church Landscape, New Mexico Southwest Art
Located in Denver, CO
This evocative vintage oil painting from the 1930s–1940s captures a classic adobe church in New Mexico, likely inspired by the historic San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Rancho de Taos. Painted by Denver modernist Paul K...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Captivating, Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Standing Female Nude Model
Located in Chicago, IL
A Captivating, Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Standing Female Nude Model. Great colors! Painted in the 1960s, this wonderful "Mod" studio scene exemplifies the abstracted Modern ...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Spring Ploughing" Georgina Klitgaard, Modernist American Farmed Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard Spring Ploughing Signed lower right Oil on canvas 34 x 42 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign artists ...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Lovers - Nude Couple in Bed - Figurative Composition in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Lovers - Nude Couple in Bed - Figurative Composition in Acrylic on Paper Expressive depiction of a nude couple by Byron Richard Rodarmel (American, 1932-2007). A couple is intertwin...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

A Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Landscape Painting w. Female Figures by Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A large, dynamic Mid-Century Modern summer landscape painting with female bathers by noted Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. A wonderful example of the artist's uniquely expressive figur...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hospitalities Long Past, 1940s Oil Painting of Store Front
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Hospitalities Long Past, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 37 x 27 inches "Looking into store front windows has always i...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled (Elevated Platform)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our current exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Elevated Platform), 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 30 x...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Sock Hop" Mid-Century American Modernism WPA Female Artist 20th Century Realism
Located in New York, NY
"Sock Hop" Mid-Century American Modernism WPA Female Artist 20th Century Realism. 30 x 24 inches. Oil on canvas. Signed on stretcher, c. 1940s. Frame is likely original to the painting. Realist painter-printmaker Kyra Markham...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Glassblowers WPA American Scene Mid- 20th Century Modern Figurative Workers 1932
Located in New York, NY
Glassblowers WPA American Scene Mid- 20th Century Modern Figurative Workers. Dated and signed "32 Harry Gottlieb" lower right. Sight: 13 1/8" H x 18 1/4" W. Harry Gottlieb, painter, screenprinter, educator, and lithographer, was born in Bucharest, Rumania. He emigrated to America in 1907, and his family settled in Minneapolis. From 1915 to 1917, Gottlieb attended the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. After a short stint as an illustrator for the U.S. Navy, Gottlieb moved to New York City; he became a scenic and costume designer for Eugene O"Neill's Provincetown Theater Group. He also studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design. He was one of America's first Social Realist painters, influenced by that Robert Henri-led movement in New York City where Gottlieb settled in 1918. He was also a pioneer in screen printing, which he learned while working for the WPA. He married Eugenie Gershoy, and the couple joined the artist colony at Woodstock, New York. He lectured widely on art education. In 1923, Gottlieb settled in Woodstock, New York and in 1931, spent a a year abroad studying under a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1935, he joined the Federal Art Project...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Original Modernist Hawaiian Sunrise Oil Painting
Located in Soquel, CA
Original modernist oil painting Hawaiian symbolist sunset by Marguerite Louis Blasingame. Robert Azensky Fine art is pleased to offer this 1940s modern symbolist oil painting of sun...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

"Glassblowers" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City WPA
Located in New York, NY
"Glassblowers" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City WPA Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) Glass Blowers 28 x 23 inches Oil on canvas board Signed and dated 1944 lower...
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1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

20th C. Figurative Abstract Painting Cleveland School African American Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Untitled Oil on canvas board Estate stamped #611 verso 24 x 18 inches Charles Elmer Harris was born in 1917 in Cleveland, Oh...
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20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Union Square" NYC American Scene Social Realism Modernism WPA Mid-20th Century
Located in New York, NY
"Union Square" NYC American Scene Social Realism Modernism WPA Mid-20th Century Agnes Hart (American, 1912-1979) "Union Square, New York City" Sight: 14 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches Gouache...
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1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Vintage Sunrise Landscape - Sandpipers on the Shore in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Sunrise Landscape - Sandpipers on the Shore in Oil on Canvas Gorgeous landscape of a coastline in warm sunrise colors by San Diego artist Richard Keith (American, 1937-2003)...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Riders of Pigeon Hill
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Riders of Pigeon Hill, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 24 x 36 inches, label verso with title, artist’s name and address; same information inscribed verso; ex-collection...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Stylish Hawaiian Luau Oil Painting by Listed artist Mario Larrinaga (1895-1979)
Located in Baltimore, MD
Mario Larrinaga was born in Baja California in 1895 and moved with his brother to Los Angeles in 1909. He had no formal training in art, but had natural talent that was noticed by local movie studios. He was hired by Universal Studios as a designer, art director and creator of background scenes. He produced some of the background effects for King Kong in 1933. After a career in set design and illustration he focused on painting for pleasure in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He belonged to local art clubs and exhibited his works often. This stylized modernist work was likely created around 1960. It is oil on wood panel and of a horizontal format, 18” x 36”. It portrays a procession of seemingly Hawaiian natives...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Two Girls in Green
Located in Dallas, TX
Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

San Francisco Cable Car WPA Artist Adolf Dehn Modernist Art Gouache Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) San Francisco Bay Area street scene, with Trolley, Streetcar, Cable Car with bay and Alcatraz Island in background. Hand signed LRC. Sight 19" x 15", overall 23" x 19". Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Adolph Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Oil

"Industrial Cityscape, Chicago" WPA Modernism Mid-Century Cityscape 20th Century
Located in New York, NY
Midwestern Chicago artist Aaron Bohrod painted in 1931 this modernist industrial cityscape during the WPA of the 20th Century. Aaron Bohrod (American 1907 – 1992), Industrial Citysc...
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1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

1927 Oil Painting Eiffel Tower Paris American Modernist Wpa Artist Morris Kantor
Located in Surfside, FL
Morris Kantor New York (1896 - 1974) Paris from the Ile St. Louis, 1927 (view of Eiffel Tower) Oil painting on canvas Hand Signed lower left. Provenance: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution ( bears label verso) Size: 20 3/4"H x 28 1/8"W (sight), 28.75 "H x 36"W (framed) Morris Kantor (Belarusian: Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area. Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to join his father who had previously relocated to the states. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974. He produced a prolific and diverse body of work, much of it in the form of paintings, which is distinguished by its stylistic variety over his long career. Perhaps his most widely recognized work is the iconic painting "Baseball At Night", which depicts an early night baseball game played under artificial electric light. Although he is best known for his paintings executed in a realistic manner, over the course of his life he also spent time working in styles such as Cubism and Futurism, and produced a number of abstract or non-figural works. A famous cubist, Futurist, painting of his "Orchestra" brought over 500,000$ at Christie's auction house in 2018 Kantor found employment in the Garment District upon his arrival in New York City, and was not able to begin formal art studies until 1916, when he began courses at the now-defunct Independent School of Art. He studied landscape painting with Homer Boss (1882-1956). In 1928, after returning to New York City from a year in Paris, Kantor developed a style in which he combined Realism with Fantasy, often taking the streets of New York as his subject matter. He did some moody Surrealist Nude paintings and fantasy scenes. In the 1940's he turned towards figural studies. Later in his career, Kantor himself was an instructor at the Cooper Union and also at the Art Students League of New York in the 1940s, and taught many pupils who later became famous artists in their own right, such as Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmund Abeles and Susan Weil...
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1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Ledge" Georgina Klitgaard, Modernist Upstate New York Country Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard The Ledge, 1936-37 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 30 x 52 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign artist...
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1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Eugene Higgins, Age 80.
Located in Storrs, CT
Portrait of Eugene Higgins, Age 80. 1954. Oil on canvas. 30 x 25 (framed 35 x 30). Signed and dated lower right. Cole and Higgins (1874-1958), both lived in Lyme, Connecticut. Higg...
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1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

A ca. 1935 Painting of a Boxing Match in Mexico City by Artist Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1935 painting of a boxing match in Mexico by artist Francis Chapin. Image size: 12" x 28". Framed size: 15 1/2" x 31 1/2". Provenance: Estate of the artist. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). Chapin’s contemporaries among Chicago’s artists included such luminaries as Ivan Le Lorraine Albright...
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1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Mutual Admiration" Flower Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Monterey Artist
Located in Soquel, CA
"Mutual Admiration" Flower Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Monterey Artist Mid-Century Modern painting of a little blonde girl in a white apron adoring her flowers by Monterey Artist Rose Marie (Smith) Ansel, (American, 1921-2012) Rose Marie was born and lived in the Monterey area all her life. She volunteered in various city government associations and founded the Parade of Nations in 1970 which celebrated the many ethnic cultures on the Monterey Peninsula...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board

Crying Clown Portrait in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Crying Clown Portrait in Oil on Canvas Portrait of a sad clown by San Francisco artist John Peers (American, 1922-2009). This portrait is closely fra...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City
Located in New York, NY
"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...
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1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'African Idol' — Mid-Century African-American artist
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), Untitled (African Idol), watercolor, c. 1950s. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '570' in ink. A fine, spontaneous wat...
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1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Original Antique American Landscape Fishing Delaware River Oil Painting Framed
Located in Buffalo, NY
A lovely scene adeptly painted by listed American artist and illustrator Jan Nosek (1876 - 1966) who was active in the late 19th and early 20th Century. This scene created in the ea...
Category

1910s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mid Century Fauvist Portrait of Red Headed Woman
Located in Soquel, CA
Striking Fauvist portrait with a vibrant, high voltage color palette, featuring a green woman with red hair by Sydney Helfman (American, 1926-2010). Aut...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Suzanna and the Elders
Located in Miami, FL
A modern interpretation of the biblical story Suzanna and the Elders. Signed lower right Ink and wash on paper The Downtown Gallery Felix Landau Gallery Ernest Brown & Phillips, Ltd...
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1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Archival Paper

Subway Construction
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition American Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Subway Construction, c. 1928, oil on board, 19 x 15 ¾ inches, signed upper left, artist and title verso; exhibited: 1) 12th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, The Waldorf Astoria, New York NY, from March 9 to April 1, 1928, no. 864 (original price $250) (see Death Prevailing Theme of Artists in Weird Exhibits, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), March 8, 1928); 2) Boston Tercentenary Exhibition Fine Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Horticultural Hall, Boston MA, July, 1930, no. 108 (honorable mention - noted verso); 3) 38th Annual Exhibition of American Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, June, 1931 (see Alexander, Mary, The Week in Art Circles, The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 7, 1931); and 4) National Art Week Exhibition [Group Show], Montross Gallery, New York, New York, December, 1940 (see Devree, Howard, Brief Comment on Some Recently Opened Exhibitions in the Galleries, The New York Times, December 1, 1940) About the Painting Ernest Stock’s Subway Construction depicts the excavation of New York’s 8th Avenue line, which was the first completed section of the city-operated Independent Subway System (IND). The groundbreaking ceremony was in 1925, but the line did not open until 1932, placing Stock’s painting in the middle of the construction effort. The 8th Avenue line was primarily constructed using the “cut and cover” method in which the streets above the line were dug up, infrastructure was built from the surface level down, the resulting holes were filled, and the streets reconstructed. While many artists of the 1920s were fascinated with the upward thrust of New York’s exploding skyline as architects and developers sought to erect ever higher buildings, Stock turned his attention to the engineering marvels which were taking place below ground. In Subway Construction, Stock depicts workers removing the earth beneath the street and building scaffolding and other support structures to allow concrete to be poured. Light and shadow fall across the x-shaped grid pattern formed by the wooden beams and planks. It is no surprise that critics reviewing the painting commented on Stock’s use of an “interesting pattern” to form a painting that is “clever and well designed.” About the Artist Ernest Richard Stock was an award-winning painter, print maker, muralist, and commercial artist. He was born in Bristol, England and was educated at the prestigious Bristol Grammar School. During World War I, Stock joined the British Royal Air Flying Corps in Canada and served in France as a pilot where he was wounded. After the war, he immigrated to the United States and joined the firm of Mack, Jenny, and Tyler, where he further honed his architectural and decorative painting skills. During the 1920s, Stock often traveled back and forth between the US and Europe. He was twice married, including to the American author, Katherine Anne Porter. Starting in the mid-1920s, Stock began to exhibit his artwork professionally, including at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery, the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Whitney Studio and various locations in the Northeast. Critics often praised the strong design sensibility in Stock’s paintings. Stock was a commercial illustrator for a handful of published books and during World War II, he worked in the Stratford Connecticut...
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1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"In Front Of The Fire" - Original 1981 Modernist Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
"In Front Of The Fire" - Original 1981 Oil on Canvas Modern figurative portrait of a nude woman by American painter Patricia Gren Hayes (American, 1932). The woman is laying back in...
Category

1980s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

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 Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Simka Simkhovitch WPA W/C Painting Gouache American Modernist Beach Scene Nude
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. This is a watercolor and gouache beach scene three young men bathing...
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1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board, Watercolor

Modernist Unfinished Portrait -- Handsome Man in Dress Uniform
Located in Soquel, CA
Modern unfinished portrait of handsome man in dress uniform by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932), circa 1970. Unsigned. Provenance: Purchased as part of larger collection of artist's work from the estate of Larry Miller Unframed. Canvas size: 30"H x 36"W. Patricia Gren Hayes (American, b. 1932) is a Bay Area Figurative & Feminist Art Movement artist who studied at Winnipeg Public Art School in 1950. She received early recognition in Museum and Gallery competitions and exhibitions and was awarded a Special Education in Art recognition by the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Art, and was awarded a scholarship to the Banff College of Fine Art. Further studies were at The University of Manitoba. She was a Member of Winnipeg Free Press Sketch Club and was a Cartoonist and paste-up for a French-English bi-weekly, in Eastern Canada; She studied outdoor impressionism in New York in 1960; in 1962, attended The California College of Arts and Crafts, and in 1976 B.A., U.C. Berkel...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American Modern figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern figurative 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 figurative 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, green, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Clarence Holbrook Carter, Patricia Gren Hayes, Jack Hooper, and Donald Stacy. 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 American Modern figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative 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 $350 and tops out at $330,000, while the average work sells for $4,517.

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