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Abstract 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.

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Period: 1960s
Period: 1950s
Style: Abstract
Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Colorful Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Image size, 36H by 28L.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Richard Huntington 1960s Geometric Abstraction Large Mid Century Modern NYC
Located in Buffalo, NY
A mid-century modern geometric abstract painting by American artist Richard Huntington. Richard Huntington (b. 1936) is an American painter, printmaker, and writer, is Critic Emerit...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Spray Paint, Acrylic

Large Abstract Biomorphic Spanish Bold Modern Oil Painting Angel Ponce de Leon
Located in Surfside, FL
Abstracto Rojo (Red Abstract) Hand signed and dated 1966 Angel Ponce de León (Spanish-French, 1925-) The artist, apparently still living in his ...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Modernist Abstract Fall Landscape Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist landscape painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Fauvist Interior Scene Framed Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Rare early American fauvist interior scene. Great colors and composition. Oil on canvas. Nicely framed. Measuring 20 by 24 inches.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tavern, Abstract (1960)
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Tavern Year of Work: 1960 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed & Dated Upper Left Dimensions: framed 31 x 25 unframed 30 x 24 Provenance: Chuck Close, Marjorie Dalton (Dear friend of Chuck), Private Collection. Tavern, is truly a rare find, an original oil on canvas, in compelling blues and grays with a touch of gold and orange. This work reveals more imagery and detail the longer one enjoys it. This painting was created during his years studying in Yale Art School, and draws different qualities to each new viewer similar to a Rorschach. Close's work is in the collections of most of the great international museums of contemporary art, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City. and the Tate Modern in London. Artist Bio: Chuck Close – (1940-2021) an American painter, artist and photographer born in Monroe, Washington. Early childhood illnesses including a neuromuscular condition, nephritis and dyslexia were compounded later in life by a condition known as prosopagnosia (face blindness), which may have inspired him to do portraits. Most of his early, large-format portraits are based on photographs, using photorealism or hyperrealism, of family and friends, often other artists. Close often painted abstract portraits of himself and others, which hang in collections internationally. Even though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he continued to paint inspired by artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Close's first solo exhibition, held in 1967 at the University of Massachusetts Art Gallery, Amherst, featured paintings, painted reliefs, and drawings based on photographs of record covers. Being much in the mainstream of pop art, a fragment of Close's portrait of singer-songwriter Paul Simon...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

American Signed Abstract Expressionist Framed Mid Century Modern Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed. Signed.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 16H by 20L.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Southwest Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist abstract painting. Framed. Oil on board. Image size, 16H by 20L.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Large Abstract', San Francisco Bay Area, North Beach, Beat, Beatnik, Big Sur
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'K. Sanzenbach' for Keith Sanzenbach (American, 1931-1964) and dated 1956. Additionally signed, verso, and with the artist's Lagunitas, California address. The ...
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Gouache

Antique American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Signed Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting by Christine Opolus. Oil on canvas, circa 1960. Signed. Framed. Image size, 32L x 12"H.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Abstract Geometric painting Gold Balls Maroon Framed American
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original abstract geometric painting by an unknown artist in an artist made natural wood frame.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

“Untitled”
Located in Southampton, NY
Early, original oil on canvas painting by the well known American abstract expressionist artist, John Little. Signed and dated lower right, 1958. Signed and dated verso. Rose Fried...
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Nicely Framed American Modernist New England Coastal Lake Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist landscape oil painting by Harold Saxton Burr (1889 - 1973). Framed. Oil on board. Signed verso. Image size, 16H by 16L.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

UNTITLED (1969), [SF69-005], Abstract Painting by Sam Francis
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Sam Francis (1923‐1994) UNTITLED [SF69-005] acrylic on paper 104.7 x 74.9 cm (41 1/4 x 29 1/2 in) Executed in 1969 Signed and dated on the base This work is identified with the int...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Vintage Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Silver Framed Modern Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Study for Spring Sweep, Signed 1960s painting, Washington Color School, Framed
Located in New York, NY
HOWARD MEHRING Study for Spring Sweep, 1964 Oil, oil stick, charcoal, gouache painting on paper Hand signed, dated and annotated with the names of the colors in graphite pencil on the front This is a unique work Frame included: elegantly matted and framed in a museum quality dark blue wood frame with UV plexiglass This 1964 hard edge painting on paper...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil Crayon, Oil, Gouache, Mixed Media

Large Antique French Avante Garde Abstract Expressionist Surreal Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Rare and finely painted French modernist abstract painting by Jacques Doucet (1924 - 1994) . Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Artist Bio: Jacques Doucet's work is inextricably bo...
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Ukrainian American Abstract Expressionist Thick Impasto Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Ukrainian American abstract painting by Misha Reznikoff (1905 - 1971). Oil on canvas. Signed verso in monogram. Measuring 20.5 by 30.5 inches.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Work C.87. Oil on canvas by Masaaki Yamada (1961), geometric abstract painting
By Masaaki Yamada
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Masaaki Yamada (1929-2010) Work C.87 Executed in 1961 Oil on canvas 65.2 x 45.6 cm. (25 5/8 x 17 6/8 in.) Signed, dated and artist’s seal in Japanese (on the reverse)
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Composition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Aaron Levy was born in New York City in 1899. After retiring in 1951 from a career as president of E. Milius & Company, a textile company, Levy began a new career as a fine artist. ...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

'Abstract in Coral and Ivory', Mid-century Modernist Abstraction in Warm Colors
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed, verso, 'M. Rosera' (American, 20th century) and dated 1963. A substantial mid-century abstract comprising contiguous and overlapping forms in variegated tones of coral, purp...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Mid Century Modern Large Geometric Abstract Framed Hard Edge Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted large geometric abstract painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 48 by 36 inches.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in Vancouver, CA
Ron Stonier (1933-2001) was a dedicated Vancouver artist celebrated for his exploration of abstract painting, influenced by his mentors Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt, as well as by ...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board, Archival Paper

Antique American Framed Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Very nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Great colors and bold brush strokes.
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Contemporary art, the family, figures, Paul Guiragossian.
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
Here is one of Paul Guiragossian's 1960s oil paintings on canvas. The artwork's size, without the frame, is 31 x 23 inches. The overall composition represents a family, with the figu...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Signed Exhibited Abstract Expressionist Original Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American signed abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 41.5L x 31.5H.
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Outsider Pop Art Abstract Large Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed.
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Phenomena West Mantle (1968). Acrylic on canvas painting by Paul Jenkins
Located in Hong Kong, HK
An emblematic example of Paul Jenkins mastery. It is not by hazard that Phenomena West Mantle was chosen as the cover of the catalogue for the groundbreaking exhibition "Paul Jenkins...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Abstract Non Objective Mid 20th Century American Modern Color Field 1950s
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Non Objective Mid 20th Century American Modern Color Field 1950s James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) Abstraction 84-1/2 x 42-1/2 inches Signed and ...
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Mid-century Abstract', NYMoMA, Paris, XXXII Venice Biennale, MALI, Lima, Peru
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
'Midcentury Biomorphic Abstract', NYMoMA, Paris, XXXII Venice Biennale, MALI, Lima, Peru Signed, lower right, 'E.R. Larrain' for Emilio Rodríguez Larraín (Peruvian, 1928-2015), and inscribed 'Roma, Nov 1963, Enero 1964'. (Rome, Nov 1963-January 1964). Verso titled, "L'Homme C'est Sujet à Errer" (Man Tends to Wander), and bearing the artist's self-portrait in india ink and wash. Exhibited: XXXII Venice Biennale, 1964. (original exhibition label verso) Previously with Staempfli Galleries, New York. This painting is registered in the Archives of American Art as 'Staempfli Gallery, inventory #775'. A monumental and historically distinguished work by this groundbreaking Peruvian Modernist who drew inspiration from Peruvian indigenous and pre-colonial culture. The paintings of Emilio Rodríguez Larraín are held in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including the Musée de la Ville de Paris, Peru's Museo de Arte de Lima and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This painting was selected by the Peruvian Government for exhibition at the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964 and is the largest single recorded work by the artist. Emilio Rodríguez Larraín received his Bachelors of Architecture in 1949 from Peru's Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería and held his first solo exhibition in Lima after visiting Europe in 1950. In 1951, he returned to Europe in the company of the artists Alfredo Ruiz Rosas and Joaquín Roca Rey...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Fiberboard, Laid Paper, Oil

Antique American Modernist Abstract Still Life Large Modernist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed. Signed. Oil on canvas.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Mid-Century Abstract Oil Painting By E. Costello
Located in San Francisco, CA
Mid Modern Abstract Oil Painting By E. Costello Large and impressive abstract oil painting created with oils on Masonite. This painting can hang vertical, or horizontal. Dimension...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Abstract Expressionist Large Colorful Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Measuring 16 by 36 inches.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Large Great Color Abstract Modernist Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1950. Unsgned. Image size 36L x 60H.
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Huge American Abstract Expressionist "Kaleidoscope" Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Indian with Pipe
Located in New York, NY
This exceptional oil on canvas by master Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is an exceptional and unique example of his early pre-pop work. It is signed by the artist, upper right. After m...
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique European Olive Grove Landscape Signed Impressionist Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Brightly colored impressionist landscape oil painting by William H. Partridge (1858 - 1938). Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 24H by 29L.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Jean Jean" Larry Zox, Color Field, Geometric Abstraction, Hard-Edge, Yellow
Located in New York, NY
Larry Zox Jean Jean, 1964 Signed, dated, and titled on the stretcher Liquitex on canvas 58 x 62 inches Provenance: Solomon & Co., New York Private Collection, NJ Estate of the above, 2023 Committed to abstraction throughout his career, Larry Zox played a central role in the Color Field discourse of the 1960s and 1970s. His work of the time, consisting of brilliantly colored geometric shapes in dynamic juxtapositions, demonstrated that hard-edge painting was neither cold nor formalistic. He reused certain motifs, but he did so less to explore their aspects than to “get at the specific character and quality of each painting in and for itself,” as James Monte stated in his essay for Zox’s solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1973. By the 1970s, Zox was using a freer, more emotive method, while maintaining the autonomy of color, which increasingly became more important to him than structure in his late years. Zox began to receive attention in the 1960s, when he was included in several groundbreaking exhibitions of Color Field and Minimalist art, including Shape and Structure (1965), organized by Henry Geldzahler for the Gallery of Modern Art, New York, and Systemic Painting (1966), organized by Lawrence Alloway for the Guggenheim Museum. In 1973, the Whitney’s solo exhibition of Zox’s work gave recognition to his significance in the art scene of the preceding decade. In the following year, Zox was represented in the inaugural exhibition of the Hirshhorn Museum, which owns fourteen of his works. Zox was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended the University of Oklahoma and Drake University. While studying at the Des Moines Art Center, he was mentored by George Grosz, who despite his own figurative approach encouraged Zox’s forays into abstraction. In 1958, Zox moved to New York, joining the downtown art scene. His studio on 20th Street became a gathering place for artists, jazz musicians, bikers, and boxers. He occasionally sparred with the visiting fighters. He later established a studio in East Hampton, where he painted and fished including using a helicopter to spot fish. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Zox’s works were collages consisting of painted pieces of paper stapled onto sheets of plywood. He then produced paintings that were illusions of collages, including both torn- and trued-edged forms, to which he added a wide range of intense hues that created ambiguous surfaces. Next, he omitted the collage aspect of his work and applied flat color areas to create more complete statements of pure color and shape. From 1962 to 1965, he produced his Rotation Series, at first creating plywood and Plexiglas reliefs, which turned squares into dynamic polygons. He used these shapes in his paintings as well, employing white as a foil between colors to produce negative spaces that suggest that the colored shapes had only been cut out and laid down instead of painted. The New York Times noted in 1964: “The artist is hip, cool, adventurous, not content to stay with the mere exercise of sensibility that one sees in smaller works.” In 1965, he began the Scissors Jack...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted American school abstract expressionist painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed verso. Measuring 30 by 30 overall and 24 by 24 painting alone.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large 20th century abstract painting by contemporary Ohio artist, 3.5 x 4.5 feet
Located in Beachwood, OH
James Lepore (American, 1931-2024) Untitled (Abstract), 1962 Oil on canvas Signed Lepore 62 lower right 43 x 55 inches James Lepore was an American artis...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Modernist Large Abstract Expressionist Mid Century Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Shoreline No 2 - White, Grey, Pink
Located in Bournemouth, Dorset
George Dannatt (1915-2009) Shoreline No 2 - White, Grey, Pink 1975 Oil on paper Image: 7.60 x 22.5 cm Frame: 31.7 x 36.2 cm Provenance: The George and Ann Dannatt Estate, Th...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The Wave" Abstracted Seascape in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
"The Wave" Abstracted Seascape in Oil on Canvas Bold and textured abstracted seascape by Robert Frame (American, 1924-1999). This piece has a high horizon, with a thin strip of sky ...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Multicolor Geometric Cubist Gouache and Watercolor Painting by André Morin
Located in Atlanta, GA
This outstanding post-cubist and multicolor geometric composition, gouache, and watercolor painting was designed by French artist André Morin (20th Century). Geometric art is the use...
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

"Abstraction" Mid-20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Modernist
Located in New York, NY
"Abstraction" Mid-20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Modernist James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) Abstraction 14 x 18 inches Estate stamp verso Oil on panel Provenance: ...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Dorothy Dehner, Mid Century Modern signed abstract sculptural drawing, Framed
Located in New York, NY
Dorothy Dehner Untitled Mid Century Modern abstract sculptural drawing, 1955 Marker and graphite on paper Signed and dated by Dorothy Dehner in black felt tip pen on the front Frame ...
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Graphite

Antique American School Signed Impressionist Fishing Harbor Beach Scene Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American impressionist coastal seascape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 22H by 18L.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled (Highrise)
By Karl Benjamin
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Highrise), 1954, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 20 inches, presented in its original frame Karl Benjamin was a California-based artist who is best known...
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1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Untitled" Gene Hedge, Abstract Color Field, Pink Midcentury Bauhaus Painting
Located in New York, NY
Gene Hedge Untitled, 1966 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 43 inches (P276) Gene Hedge was born (1928) and raised in rural Indiana. After military service, he briefly attended Ball State Univ...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Abstract Composition - Collage by Hardu Keck - 1967
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract composition is a contemporary artwork realized by Hardu Keck in 1967 Mixed colored collage on paper. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin.
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper

"Kamakura" Edward Zutrau, 1963 Abstract Expressionist Chromatic Composition
Located in New York, NY
Edward Zutrau Kamakura, 5/1963 Signed, dated and titled on verso Oil on linen 38 1/2 x 51 1/2 inches Edward Zutrau is among the American artists who worked within the whirlwind of ...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Small Black Abstract (Xanadu)
Located in Bournemouth, Dorset
George Dannatt (1915-2009) Small Black Abstract (Xanadu) 1963 Gouache & pencil on paper 19.6 x 25.4 cm Exhibitions 1981 May. Wills Lane Gallery, St. Ives 2001 Jly. Maltby Co...
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1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Pillar of Zen #124, unique signed gouache painting Andre Zarre Gallery, 1959
Located in New York, NY
Charmion von Wiegand Pillar of Zen #124, 1959 Gouache on paper painting Hand signed, titled and dated on the front Unique Provenance: Andre Zarre Gallery, with label verso (Estate of renowned gallerist Andre Zarre, ne Andre Sowulewski) Measurements: Framed 26.5 inches vertical by 25.5 horizontal by 2 inches Artwork: 21 inches vertical by 22 inches horizontal Mid century modern, geometric, spiritual abstraction, mystical The Estate of the celebrated artist Charmion Von Wiegand has been represented exclusively by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery since 1998. From March 3 to August 13, 2023, Charmion Von Wiegand was the subject of an acclaimed retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Basel, and she has received major attention in the price, including a June, 2023 ArtNews feature entitled, "Who Was Charmion von Wiegand and Why Is She Important?". Her work was also featured in a solo presentation by Rosenfeld Gallery at the New York Art Show held at the Park Avenue Armory, which also received critical acclaim. Artists Biography - courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: Known for her vibrant, geometric paintings that originate a deeply personal language of spiritual enlightenment expressed through a constructivist mode of abstraction, Charmion von Wiegand (1896–1983) was born in Chicago but spent much of her childhood traveling. The daughter of a journalist for Hearst, von Wiegand eventually settled in New York in 1915 to attend Barnard College and Columbia University, where she took classes at the School of Journalism while nurturing a growing interest in art history. In 1925, von Wiegand realized that she wanted to be an artist and set up a studio in Greenwich Village, teaching herself how to paint while pursuing a career as a journalist. In 1929, she secured a position in Moscow as a foreign correspondent for Hearst, the only woman at the desk at the time. In 1932, von Wiegand returned to New York and married Russian émigré Joseph Freeman, who co-founded and edited the leftist journal New Masses. Von Wiegand began writing art criticism for New Masses as well as for other publications, including New Theatre, ARTnews, and Arts Magazine. When the Abstract American Artists (AAA) held their inaugural exhibition, von Wiegand reviewed it. An early champion of abstract art, von Wiegand became close friends with AAA founder Carl Holty. In 1941, Holty introduced von Wiegand to Piet Mondrian, who would have a profound impact on her art. Fascinated by Mondrian’s artistic philosophy, von Wiegand played a key role in the introduction of his work to American audiences, translating many of the Dutch artist’s writings into English and assisting in the composition of his influential article “Toward the True Vision of Reality” (1941). Through her friendship with Mondrian, von Wiegand re-kindled her interest in Theosophy (a religion established in the late 19th century that combines aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, occultism, and esotericism) and embarked on an extended study of neoplasticism. In her artwork, she incorporated Mondrian’s iconic grid but rejected the constraints of pure neoplasticism and embraced a wide range of influences including surrealism and German expressionism. In 1942, von Wiegand became a member of the AAA, exhibiting regularly with the group and eventually serving as its president from 1951 to 1953. In the late 1940s, sculptor and fellow AAA member Ibram Lassaw gave her a translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, which inspired von Wiegand to immerse herself in a study of Buddhist art. She began incorporating Buddhist motifs such as stupas and mandalas into her paintings, and her spiritual practice steadily intensified throughout the 1950s. In 1953, her husband gifted her a copy of the Taoist I Ching Book of Changes, a guide for divining meaning from randomly derived numbers arranged in a hexagram—a form the artist readily incorporated into her painting. Von Wiegand’s study of Theosophy also intensified over these years, bolstered by her increased access to the religion’s primary sources composed by the religion’s founders and their successors at the New York Theosophical Society’s library. Von Wiegand’s search for the sacred and transcendent ultimately led her to Tibetan Buddhism and, in 1967, von Wiegand met Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a Gelugpa monk who had recently arrived in New York, who would mentor her spiritual study in the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism until her death. Her travels in the 1960s and 1970s took her to Tibet and India, where she had an audience with the Dalai Lama, who was living in exile in Dharamsala. Many works from these decades incorporate symbols and schematics drawn from Theosophical prismatic color charts, Chinese astrology and tantric yoga. In 1978, she was the subject of a PBS documentary titled The Circle of Charmion von Wiegand, which was scored by Philip Glass. In 1980, von Wiegand was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1982, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach (FL) organized her first retrospective exhibition. She died the following year in New York, bequeathing her estate to Khyongla Rato and the Tibet Center of New York. In 1998, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery became the sole representative of her estate and has presented her work in four solo and multiple group exhibitions. Recent notable exhibitions that have included her work are The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 2009) and Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America (Newark Museum, NJ, 2010). In March 2023, the Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland) opened the first comprehensive museum retrospective of von Wiegand’s work in Europe. Von Wiegand’s work is represented in numerous museum collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy (Andover, MA); Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY); Arithmeum, University of Bonn (Germany); Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama); Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin; Brooklyn Museum (NY); Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA); The Cleveland Museum of Art (OH); Indianapolis Museum of Art (IN); Fondazione Marguerite Arp (Locarno, Switzerland); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Massachusetts); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); Newark Museum of Art (New Jersey); Seattle Art Museum (WA); Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College (Clinton, NY); Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); and Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT). More about gallerist Andre Zarre A tribute in the New Criterion: Dispatch August 11, 2020 Andre Zarre, 1942–2020 by Dana Gordon On the late New York gallery pioneer. Art should never be aggressively explained; art should be felt. —Andre Zarre, 1977 Often, in the starlit New York cultural mecca, a longtime important figure fades away through the penumbra and dies without notice. Such was the fate of Andre Zarre, the contemporary art dealer, who passed away a few weeks ago. Andy, as he wanted friends to call him, opened his eponymous gallery in 1974 just off Madison Avenue on Sixty-ninth Street. He soon moved it to the omphalos of the art world in that era, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, the Fuller Building. Over the years he moved to SoHo and then to Chelsea, as fashion and real estate prices pushed the art souk hither and thither. To understand his importance, all you need do is take a look at a list of artists who had solo shows at the Andre Zarre Gallery. This includes such names, from an early generation, as Sonia Delaunay, Nassos Daphnis, Sari Dienes, and Perle Fine. Among a subsequent generation are Pat Lipsky, Jay Milder, Thornton Willis, and Kes Zapkus.1 And this list does not include the many knowns and unknowns who were in his lively group shows. Zarre had a real “eye” and was a champion of abstract art from the moment he founded his gallery—even among the gathering storms of conceptual and political art, which he eschewed. He showed a good deal of figurative art as well. His galleries were always spacious and unpretentious, oriented simply to show the art. In the words of Dee Shapiro, who showed with the Zarre gallery many times, “He had a photographic memory and knew a lot about art and was always interested in the artist’s life.” Reliable biographical information on Zarre is scarce, but he said of his background that he was born in Poland in 1942 and that his parents were a diplomat and a socialite. He left home for the United States at the age of fifteen. During his decades as an art dealer in New York, Zarre did not appear to accumulate wealth, though he acquired a collection and lived on Park Avenue. “He was not personally aggressive in that way. People had to come to him,” Dee Shapiro said. He was honest in his financial dealings with artists, which not all art dealers are. For a long time while running the gallery he had a second job as a supervisor in an airline office and he kept little to no additional staff in the gallery. He supported a brother who remained in Poland. Among artists, Zarre was known to be quite ornery. After my show at his gallery in 1997, I refused to enter it for seventeen years. Then I ran into him in Chelsea and he offered me another show, an opportunity I gladly accepted, but he remained just as disagreeable. He showed the work of many women, probably more than any other gallery, save those devoted to showing only women. Collectors, curators, and writers found him mostly friendly. As Peter Reginato put it, Zarre was a “strange guy but I liked him. I think he was a dealer who was more interested in the art than in making money, but somehow he lasted forty-plus years.” Zarre is not known to have kept extensive or extant records of his gallery’s long history, though these may emerge in time. Scouring the Internet, one may compile a partial list of more than eighty artists who had solo shows at the Andre Zarre Gallery:Nancy Azara, Ellen Banks, Mary Barnes, Tony Bechara, Juan Bernal, Stephanie Bernheim, Randy Bloom, Elena Borstein, Michael Boyd, Fritz Bultman, Ed Buonagurio, Yoan Capote, Sonia Delaunay, Nassos Daphnis, Cathy Diamond, Sari Dienes, Joseph Dolinsky, Beata Drozd, Ronnie Elliot, William Fares, Perle Fine, Lynne Frehm, Ben Georgia, Mikel Glass, Dana Gordon, Juanita Guccione, Fred Gutzeit, Don Hazlitt, Amy Hill, Clinton Hill, Monroe Hodder, Budd Hopkins, Arlan Huang, Richard Hunt, Rhia Hurt, Buffie Johnson, Alexander Kaletski, Robert Kaupelis...
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

"Thelo #1" Diana Kurz, Abstract Expressionist Gestural Purples and Blues
Located in New York, NY
Diana Kurz Thelo #1 , 1961 Oil on canvas 64 x 55 1/2 inches Diana Kurz (born 1936) is an Austrian-born feminist painter. In 1938, Diana Kurz's family fled Austria, first to England...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Modernist Colorful Atelier French Expressionist Oil Painting Tony Agostini
Located in Surfside, FL
Tony Agostini (French, 1916 - 1990) Large oil painting on canvas depicting a still life scene with flowers on a canvas and easel titled "L'Atelier". Hand signed to lower right and ...
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Signed Spero Large Antique American Abstract Expressionist Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Measuring 43 by 33 inches overall and 40 by 30 painting alone.
Category

1960s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Vintage American School New York Modernist Abstract Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage abstract original oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category

1950s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic 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 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 Giorgio Lo Fermo, Sumit Mehndiratta, Nestor Toro, and Cindy Shaoul. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Synthetic Resin 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 paintings, so small editions measuring 0.1 inches across are also available.

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