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Abstract Portrait Paintings

ABSTRACT STYLE

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Abstract
Period: 1970s
Locked in Love Huge French Modernist Original Oil Painting, Signed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Locked in Love, Abstract Portrait, Original Oil Painting, Signed By French artist Elisabeth Dujarric, b.1930-2005 Oil painting on canvas, unframed Canvas size: 46 x 35 inches Elisabeth Dujarric de la Rivière...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

ASTRACT COMPOSITION - Oil on canvas signed Salvatore Benincasa, Italy 1970s
Located in Napoli, IT
Delightful brightly colored oil on canvas signed Salvatore Benincasa, with frame
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Roy Turner Durant British Listed Artist Portrait Head 20th Century Minimalist
By Roy Turner Durrant
Located in Norfolk, GB
This portrait has a naïve and gentle charm to it. To my eye it looks like a woman but it could equally be any gender or age. Perhaps this is the beauty of Turner Durrant's abstraction. The materiality is more distinct when you see the piece in the flesh. There is something endearing about being able to see the edges of the paper, torn almost in haste as if the artist just had to get the image down. Maybe it was painted on the spot or an image from the artist's imagination. Whichever, the use of minimal line and a reduced palette adds to the simplicity and thus free nature of the painting. Roy Turner Durrant Untitled (Head) Medium: Watercolour on paper Signed bottom right 1977 Image size: 31 x 26 cm - Frame size: 50.5 x 44 cm Roy Turner Durrant (1925 - 1998) A Modern British artist, Roy Turner Durrant was born in Suffolk, England in 1925. His career was long and distinguished, culminating with work in major public galleries in the UK and internationally. After the war he secured a place at Camberwell College of Arts where he was taught by amongst others by Edward Ardizzone Michael Rothenstein Keith Vaughan and John Buckland Wright and was a contemporary of Theodore Mendez. Whilst at Camberwell he was already exhibiting his paintings in London galleries. His work moved from early landscape and architectural interest to abstraction but with a great variety of style and technique. A member of the New English Art Club, from the late 1940s he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and in numerous commercial galleries in London. From the 1950s, his early figurative style began to change, becoming more abstract. He said of his own work in 1951 that his abstract imagery were 'by-products of an inquisition primarily concerned not with what the eye sees but with what the intellect and emotion experience’. In 1963 he moved to Cambridge to take up the post of Art Gallery Manager at Heffers at the time a well known local artists' materials and book sellers...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Man with Pipe - Paint by Buntoon Brothers - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Man with pipe is an artwork realized by Buntoon Brothers in the 1970s. 24 x 19 cm ; 40 x 34 with frame. Hand signed in the lower right part. Oil on canvas. Good conditiions!
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Koordinator - Oil on Canvas by Bernhard Gillesen - 1976
Located in Roma, IT
Koordinator is an artwork realized by Bernhard Gillesen (Düsseldorf 1952 - Trevi 2023) in 1976. Oil on Canvas cm. 120x100 cm. Hand signed, dated and titled on rear. Good condition...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

American Modernist Abstract Portrait Dancer Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1970. Unsigned. Image size, 30L x 40H. Framing available.
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait. 1975, oil on plywood, 32x27, 5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Portrait. 1975, oil on plywood, 32x27,5 cm Abstract portrait Robert Elibekyan (1941) (Armenian: Ռոբերտ Էլիբեկյան; born 21 April 1941) is an Armenian pa...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Plywood

Hommage to Paul Klee - Painting by Giorgio Cresciani - 1977
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract is an original contemporary artwork realzed by Giorgio Cresciani in 1977. Oil painting on table. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin.
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paint

L'hymne du Roi David (King David's Dream)
Located in Boca Raton, FL
L'hymne du Roi David (King David's Dream) Oil on wood by Marc Chagall c late 70's Comes with Numbered and Verified Certificate of Authenticity from Comite C...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood

Minimal Abstract Impressionist Recling Nude Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Modern abstract female nude painting in neutral tones. The work has Oris Robertson's signature textured surface that creates an uneven painting surface. ...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Oil

Huge 1970s Parisian Nude Portrait Modernist Original Oil Painting Signed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
1970s Parisian Nude Portrait, Abstract, Original Oil Painting, Signed By French artist Elisabeth Dujarric, b.1930-2005 Oil painting on canvas, unframed Signed, dated 1979 and titled by the artist verso Canvas size: 36 x 36 inches Elisabeth Dujarric de la Rivière...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Huge French Modernist Figurative Portrait, Original Oil Painting Signed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Lost, Abstract Portrait, Original Oil Painting, Signed By French artist Elisabeth Dujarric, b.1930-2005 Signed by the artist on the lower left hand corner Oil painting on canvas, framed Canvas size: 60 x 38 inches Elisabeth Dujarric de la Rivière...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Imaginary Portrait of Matt Stams- Maricopa
Located in Houston, TX
This beautiful work is a re-imagined portrait of the Maricopa Indian Mat Stams. The image of Mat Stams was circulated in the early 1900's in the portfolio "The North American Indian, volume 2, The Pima. The Papago. The Qahatika. The Mohave. The Yuma. The Maricopa. The Walapai. The Havasupai. The Apache-Mohave, or Yavapai" as an example of his people. The original photogravure was produced by the photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis. This painting pays tribute to Stams' Native American heritage through a small portrait, a large abstract eagle...
Category

1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

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abstract with portrait oil and collage on canvas painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Horacio Sapere (1951) - Abstract - Oil and collage on canvas Signed lower right Canvas measures 61x46 cm. Frameless. Horacio Sapere (Buenos Aires, 1951). He has lived and worked in Mallorca since 1975 and since 2011 he has had a studio in New York. An intense and committed artist, he develops his creative process through theater and performance (1970-1980), visual poetry (1976-1982), painting and sculpture. Creator of major projects such as Poet's room (1995), presented for the first time at the BMB gallery in Amsterdam (1996), at the UIB -Universitat de les Illes Balears- (1997) and at the Sala de Cultura Sa Nostra in Ibiza (1998). ); and as a sculptural poetic installation at the MEIAC, the Spanish and Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art in Badajoz (2000), the Fernando Pessoa...
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Previously Available Items
Mother with Child
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Abstract Modern British Listed Artist Portrait Head Watercolour Paper Minimalist
By Roy Turner Durrant
Located in Norfolk, GB
This portrait has a naïve and gentle charm to it. To my eye it looks like a woman but it could equally be any gender or age. Perhaps this is the beauty of Turner Durrant's abstraction. The materiality is more distinct when you see the piece in the flesh. There is something endearing about being able to see the edges of the paper, torn almost in haste as if the artist just had to get the image down. Maybe it was painted on the spot or an image from the artist's imagination. Whichever, the use of minimal line and a reduced palette adds to the simplicity and thus free nature of the painting. Roy Turner Durrant Untitled (Head) Medium: Watercolour on paper Signed bottom right 1977 Image size: 31 x 26 cm - Frame size: 50.5 x 44 cm Roy Turner Durrant (1925 - 1998) A Modern British artist, Roy Turner Durrant was born in Suffolk, England in 1925. His career was long and distinguished, culminating with work in major public galleries in the UK and internationally. After the war he secured a place at Camberwell College of Arts where he was taught by amongst others by Edward Ardizzone Michael Rothenstein Keith Vaughan and John Buckland Wright...
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1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Portrait of a Woman
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Vintage American Modernist Portrait of a Man Original Signed Painting
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American school abstract painting. Oil on board circa 1970.
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On the Run Huge French Modernist Portrait, Original Oil Painting Signed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
On the Run, Huge French Abstract Portrait, Original Oil Painting Signed By French artist Elisabeth Dujarric, b.1930-2005 Signed by the artist on the lower left hand corner Oil painting on canvas, unframed Canvas size: 60 x 36 inches Elisabeth Dujarric de la Rivière...
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1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

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Abstract Portrait
By Gino Hollander
Located in Houston, TX
Frame dimensions: 23.5 in W x 33.5 in. H x 2 in. D
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1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

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Abstract Portrait
Abstract Portrait
H 30 in W 20 in D 0.75 in
Geometric Figurative of Woman in White
Located in Houston, TX
Geometric figurative painting of a woman lounging in white by artist D. Berkman in 1975.
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1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Portrait of Young Man
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Located in Wilton Manors, FL
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1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings

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Abstract portrait paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Abstract portrait 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 portrait 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, red, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Beatrice Werlie, Carlos Carnero, Masri Hayssam, and Addison Jones. 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 Abstract portrait paintings, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait 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 $22 and tops out at $570,000, while the average work sells for $1,960.

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