Expressionist Figurative Paintings
EXPRESSIONIST STYLE
While “expressionist” is used to describe any art that avoids naturalism and instead employs a bold use of flattened forms and intense brushwork, Expressionist art formally describes early-20th-century work from Europe that drew on Symbolism and confronted issues such as urbanization and capitalism. Expressionist artists experimented in paintings and prints with skewed perspectives, abstraction and unconventional, bright colors to portray how isolating and anxious the world felt rather than how it appeared.
Between 1905 and 1920, Austrian and German artists, in particular, were inspired by Postimpressionists such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh in their efforts to strive for a new authenticity in their work. In its geometric patterns and decorative details, Expressionist art was also marked by eclectic sources like German and Russian folk art as well as tribal art from Africa and Oceania, which the movement’s practitioners witnessed at museums and world’s fairs.
Groups of artists came together to share and promote the themes now associated with Expressionism, such as Die Brücke (The Bridge) in Dresden, which included Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and investigated alienation and the dissolution of society in vivid color. In Munich, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, instilled Expressionism with a search for spiritual truths. In his iconic painting The Scream, prolific Norwegian painter Edvard Munch conveyed emotional turmoil through his depiction of environmental elements, such as the threatening sky.
Expressionism shifted around the outbreak of World War I, with artists using more elements of the grotesque in reaction to the escalation of unrest and violence. Printmaking was especially popular, as it allowed artists to widely disseminate works that grappled with social and political issues amid this time of upheaval. Although the art movement ended with the rise of Nazi Germany, where Expressionist creators were labeled “degenerate,” the radical ideas of these artists would influence Neo-Expressionism that emerged in the late 1970s with painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente.
Find a collection of authentic Expressionist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Expressionist
Period: 1970s
Nude Dancer Burlesque Stripper with Purple Gloves - The Bump -
By Jack Levine
Located in Miami, FL
A gritty Burlesque Stripper with long purple gloves bumps and grinds with a hard-driving beat. American Social Realist artist Jack Levine paints this se...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Charcoal, Oil, Board
Expressionist Judaica French Israeli Modernist Art Oil Painting Rabbi, Musician
Located in Surfside, FL
This is a bright, colorful oil painting of a Hasidic Musician in the the holy city of Jerusalem, Israel
1972,
Oil on canvas,
29 X 26 inches
Hand signed and dated.
George Cheme...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Pruna 6 Women Sketch for Bocaccio original watercolor painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Pere Pruna Ocerans (Barcelona, 1904-1977) was a Catalan painter and illustrator of figurative style.
In 1920, with only 17 years and hardly any academic training, he traveled to ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Performer
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Performer
Artist signed lower right, canvas 28"x31"75
Nicola Simbari was born in Italy and grow up in Rome. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, and in the 1940s he beg...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Oil
'Pastel Repose' - Reclining Young Nude
Woman - 1970's Oil Pastel on Paper
Located in Carmel, CA
'Pastel Repose' is a 30.125" x 29.125" oil pastel on paper by Chris Ferrigno that employs vibrant, contrasting colors and bold, gestural marks that are indicative of an expressionist...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel
Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm
Aleksandr Rodin (1922-2001)
Painter Born in a family of farmers. Wife Rasma Lace - art scholar. Studied at the Stalingrad School of Art, Sar...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Cardboard
"Green apples on the table" Oil on wood cm. 63 x 25 1970
By Enzo FARAONI
Located in Torino, IT
Still life, Apples, Green,
Enzo FARAONI (S. Stefano Magra, La Spezia, 1920/2017)
Enzo Faraoni is a great painter and engraver from Florence; he expresses the poetic everyday life o...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
'Richard Milhouse Nixon', Carmel Art Association, Oakland Art Museum, Monterey
By Dick Crispo
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'D. Crispo' for Dick Crispo (American, born 1945) and dated 1972.
Dick Crispo has presented 76 one-man shows and won 36 awards for his artistry, including a gold...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Canvas
Pruna 6 Women Sketch for Bocaccio original watercolor painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Pere Pruna Ocerans (Barcelona, 1904-1977) was a Catalan painter and illustrator of figurative style.
In 1920, with only 17 years and hardly any academic training, he traveled to ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Devil: No Horns, Burning in Hell, African American Harlem Renaissance
Located in Miami, FL
In a 1971 interview with Ebony Magazine, Alvin Hollinsworth commented on his African Jesus Christ painting, "I have always felt that Christ was a Blac...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Patterns and Stripes, Expressionist Portrait by Philadelphia Artist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Patterns and Stripes" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 40" x 34" oil on board portrait of two figures is painted in a muted color palette. The painting is framed in a new, gold frame and signed "Harmon" on verso. Figurative expressionism in the style of Alice Neel.
Bernard Harmon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935. Harmon was primarily a portrait painter and a well loved teacher in the Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School and Temples Tyler School of Art, Harmon traveled extensively in Europe and South America. Beloved by many, Harmon taught in the Philadelphia School District for 32 of his 54 years of life. Beginning his career as an art teacher at West Philadelphia High School, in the early 1960s he became one of the district's artists in residence, traveling from school to school to demonstrate for students how an artist works. Returning to the classroom, Harmon joined the art department at Central High School where he taught for 14 years and became an innovator in art curriculum, developing a program offering advanced placement art classes to gifted students. In his final years Harmon became a supervisor, mentoring teachers and overseeing programs in the Philadelphia school systems District #1. During his short life Harmon taught collage preparatory art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, summer classes at the University of the Arts, and a Saturday program for gifted children at Drexel University. Among Harmon's portraits were commissioned by Philadelphia Jazz organist Jimmy Smith and Mayor Richardson Dilworth. Bernard Harmon was active in promoting African American Artist throughout his life time. He organized many early shows such as the "Afro American Artists...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Child Resting in Chair, Expressionist Portrait by Philadelphia Artist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Child Resting in Chair" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 41" x 35.75" oil on board portrait is painted in a vibrant color palette. The painting is framed in a new, black wood frame and signed "Harmon" on verso. Figurative expressionism in the style of Alice Neel.
Bernard Harmon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935. Harmon was primarily a portrait painter and a well loved teacher in the Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School and Temples Tyler School of Art, Harmon traveled extensively in Europe and South America. Beloved by many, Harmon taught in the Philadelphia School District for 32 of his 54 years of life. Beginning his career as an art teacher at West Philadelphia High School, in the early 1960s he became one of the district's artists in residence, traveling from school to school to demonstrate for students how an artist works. Returning to the classroom, Harmon joined the art department at Central High School where he taught for 14 years and became an innovator in art curriculum, developing a program offering advanced placement art classes to gifted students. In his final years Harmon became a supervisor, mentoring teachers and overseeing programs in the Philadelphia school systems District #1. During his short life Harmon taught collage preparatory art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, summer classes at the University of the Arts, and a Saturday program for gifted children at Drexel University. Among Harmon's portraits were commissioned by Philadelphia Jazz organist Jimmy Smith and Mayor Richardson Dilworth. Bernard Harmon was active in promoting African American Artist throughout his life time. He organized many early shows such as the "Afro American Artists...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Girl with Ribbon in Hair, Expressionist Portrait by Philadelphia Artist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Girl with Ribbon in Hair" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 40" x 35.75" oil on board portrait is painted in a vibrant color palette and l...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Striped Dress and Boy, Expressionist Portrait by Philadelphia Artist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Striped Dress and Boy" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 41.75" x 35.75" oil on board portrait of two figures is painted in a vibrant colo...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Shuk Machane Yehuda Jerusalem Market Israeli Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
similar in style to David Azuz a new Expressionist Israeli market scene possibly by Roz Rice.
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Donna con vestito rosso" olio cm. 50 x 70 1979
Located in Torino, IT
woman,red, Italian painter
Edgardo CORBELLI (Turin, 1918 - 1989)
From the traditional composition of the 1930s, the painting of Corbelli leads to technical and expressive results do...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Le Nouvel Envol de l'Oiseau The New Flight of the Bird Oil on Linnen In Stock
By Corneille
Located in Utrecht, NL
Le Nouvel Envol de l'Oiseau The New Flight of the Bird Oil on Linnen In Stock - Size Painting Without frame: 100 x 100 cm
Popping with color, Corneille’s Expressionist paintings revolutionized the conservative Dutch art world of the 1950s. A part of the CoBrA art movement from 1948–51 together with Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, Constant, Karel Appel, and Pierre Alechinsky, Corneille shared the group’s influences: children’s art...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
“white model “Oil cm 73 x 92 1980
Located in Torino, IT
woman, withe, Italian painter
Edgardo CORBELLI (Turin, 1918 - 1989)
From the traditional composition of the 1930s, the painting of Corbelli leads to technical and expressive results...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
'Words to the Wise', African American Memento Mori, Skeletons, Bay Area, Black
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed on palette, lower right, 'John Diallo Jones' (American, 20th century) and dated 1992.
A dramatic figural oil showing the artist flanked by two whispering skeletons, one of wh...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Board, Oil
Colorful autumn landscape. 1979, oil on cardboard, 46, 5x60 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Colorful autumn landscape. 1979, oil on cardboard, 46,5x60 cm
Based on reality, artist painted expressionistic landscapes in which he dramatized the expression of shapes and colors....
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Cardboard, Oil
Rooftops, Surrealist Oil Painting by Lucio Ranucci
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Lucio Ranucci, Italian (1925 - )
Title: Rooftops
Year: 1973
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.l.
Size: 30 in. x 30 in. (76.2 cm x 76.2 cm)
Frame Size: 37.5 x 37.5 inches
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Girl In A Blue Chair
By Wyona Diskin
Located in Aramits, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Wyona Diskin, American (1915 - 1991)
Girl In A Blue Chair
Acrylic on canvas partially painted over wire mesh, Unsigned. Framed.
Measurements: H 70.5 x W 49.5 x D 1.25 inches
Wyona ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wire
Portrait Abstract Expressionist
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Portrait Abstract Expressionist.
Mixed Media oil paint, collage, cotton cloth.
Peter Robert Keil was born to an artist blacksmith father whom he lost very early in his childhood duri...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil
Conversation in the Theater - Expressionist Figurative Abstract
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold and expressive large scale figurative abstract painting of two people conversing in a theater, with a silhouette of a third figure in the foreground, by Jane Voitle Mellin (Amer...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Model sitting" woman, Oil cm.40 x 50 1977
Located in Torino, IT
woman, Portrait, Blue, Yellow, 70s, Italian painter
Edgardo CORBELLI (Turin, 1918 - 1989)
From the traditional composition of the 1930s, the painting of Corbelli leads to technical ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Expressionist Seated Figure
Located in Cotignac, FR
An expressionist portrait of a seated figure, acrylic on paper by French artist Alain Caucat. Signed bottom right. Also signed and dated to the back of the framing board. Presented u...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Paper
Abstract with Subject 10 (House), Painting by John Clem Clarke
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: John Clem Clarke, American (1937 - )
Title: Abstract with Subject 10 (House)
Year: 1972
Medium: Acrylic and Spraypaint on Canvas, signed and dated verso
Size: 70 x 40 in. (1...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Spray Paint, Acrylic
Young technicians. 1978, watercolor on paper, 25x28 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Young technicians. 1978, watercolor on paper, 25x28 cm
Dzidra Bauma (1930)
Dzidra Bauma works in watercolor technique. She paint figural compositions, portraits, landscapes, flower...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Modern Man, Expressionist Portrait in Red, White, and Blue
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Modern Man" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 40" x 36" oil on canvas portrait features a young African American man posing casually and s...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Portrait of a Girl, Oil Painting by Sandu Liberman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Sandu Liberman, Romanian/Israeli (1923 - 1977)
Title: Portrait of a Girl
Year: Circa 1970
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.
Size: 13 x 10 in. (33.02 x 25.4 cm)
Frame Size:...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Procession With Elephant
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Procession with elephant, expressionist style oil painting, signed and dated.
George Russin was born in New York, he attended the High School of Music and Art to pursue both fields o...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
"Mexican Landscape Scene with Female Figures and Child" Expressionistic Style
Located in New York, NY
A strong modernist oil painting depicted in the Mid Century by Russian painter Michael Baxte. Mostly known for his abstracted figures on canvas or street scenes, this piece is a wond...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Masonite
Reclining Expressionist Nude Female Figure with Yellow, Blue, and Magenta
Located in Soquel, CA
Brightly colored expressionist nude figurative painting of a reclining nude female with bold yellow, blue, and magenta accents by Linda Goodman (American...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Graphite
Mother and Daughter, Oil Painting by Sandu Liberman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Sandu Liberman, Romanian/Israeli (1923 - 1977)
Title: Mother and Daughter
Year: Circa 1970
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.
Size: 36 x 24 in. (91.44 x 60.96 cm)
Frame Size:...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Woman with Flowers III, Oil Painting by Juan Garcia Ripolles
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Juan Garcia Ripolles, Spanish (1932 - )
Title: Woman with Flowers III
Year: 1970
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.
Size: 18 in. x 10.5 in. (45.72 cm x 26.67 cm)
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
The Artist III, Oil Painting, 1970 by Juan Garcia Ripolles
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Juan Garcia Ripolles, Spanish (1932 - )
Title: The Artist III
Year: 1970
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.
Size: 19.5 in. x 24 in. (49.53 cm x 60.96 cm)
Frame Size: 22 x 27 ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
The Masquerade by Jean Jansem
By Jean Jansem
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
The Masquerade, oil painting signed lower right JANSEM. The painting size is 38"x51" with framed (original frame) size 47"x60". Excellent in condition.
From 1934 – 1936 he attended ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Young Girl in Green
By Béla Czóbel
Located in Chicago, IL
In a letter written to Czóbel after he had become quite ill in 1975, famous Portuguese painter Vieira da Silva writes:
“My very dear Czóbel, We em...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Modernist Blue Nude in Profile - Figurative Abstract
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold and expressive oil portrait of a modernist nude figure in blue seated in profile with bright yellow flowers by Allie William “Bill” Skelton (American, 1942-1986). Signed and dated "Allie Bill Skelton '72" by the artist in the lower right corner. Unframed. Image size: 48.75"H x 32.75"W.
Allie William “Bill” Skelton (American, 1942-1986) was a painter and sculptor active in San Francisco who was involved in the gay art...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Couple Dancing at Sunset - Bay Area Figurative School
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderfully expressive Bay Area Figurative School piece featuring a silhouette of a couple in a dynamic and colorful sunset landscape scene ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Linen
"Angela" Oil cm. 100 x 70 1979
Located in Torino, IT
Woman reclining, pink
we send the work anywhere
Edgardo CORBELLI (Turin, 1918 - 1989)
From the traditional composition of the 1930s, the painting of Corbelli leads to technical and ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Dream Mystique
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Dream Mystique
Artist signed and titled, new frame.
Wallace Bassford was an American painter and illustrator, born in 1900 in St. Louis Missouri, he attended the St. Louis School of ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Third Eye
Located in Buffalo, NY
An unsigned large scale oil on un-stretched canvas, created in the 1970's.
This work is meant to hang pinned to the wall.
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Equilibrium in the High Wire
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Leandro Velasco, Colombian (1933 - )
Title: Equilibrium in the High Wire
Year: 1974
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated l.l.
Size: 60 x 50 in. (152.4 x 127 cm)
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Genesis II
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to premier for the first time in more than twenty years, the paintings of Austrian/American artist Gustav Rehberger (1910–1995).
...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Picador
By Jean Jansem
Located in New York, NY
During the artists carrier he only painted 2 Picador's of this size for the exhibition at Galerie Maurice Garnier, in Paris France, who was his dealer at the time. Shortly after the ...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Repose #1
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to premier for the first time in more than twenty years, the paintings of Austrian/American artist Gustav Rehberger (1910–1995).
...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Repose #3
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to premier for the first time in more than twenty years, the paintings of Austrian/American artist Gustav Rehberger (1910–1995).
...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Repose #2
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to premier for the first time in more than twenty years, the paintings of Austrian/American artist Gustav Rehberger (1910–1995).
...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Expressionist figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Expressionist 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, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Evelyne Ballestra, Julien Wolf, Stephen Basso, and Bernard Harmon. 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 Expressionist figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available.