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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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Style: Abstract
Period: 1980s
Currents#4 - bold, colorful, contemporary, geometric abstract, acrylic on board
Located in Bloomfield, ON
For decades, Yvonne Lammerich has produced evocative contemporary artwork that has been exhibited internationally. This series of colourful graphic ac...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Jacob's Well
Located in New Orleans, LA
Richard Saba Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1946 Education: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, B.F.A. 1968 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, 1967 University of Wash...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Untitled
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Mixed media on paper, 1981 Signed and dated 1981 lower left (see photo) Provenance: Knoedler Gallery, New York (label) Charles Cowles Gallery, New York The Collection of Jan...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Gouache

Currents#1 - bold, colorful, contemporary, geometric abstract, acrylic on board
Located in Bloomfield, ON
With its bold form and striking black palette, this large circular painting by Yvonne Lammerich makes a dramatic contemporary statement. The actual scale of the circle is related to ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

"Down in the Valley" - Vintage Abstract Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Dramatic and vibrant mixed media abstract by California artist Doris Sherwyn (American, 1927-2015). Signed lower right "Doris Sherwyn" Artist's card affixed to verso. Unframed. Can...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Ink, Acrylic, Rag Paper, Stretcher Bars

Flute - expressive, neutral pastels, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This compelling abstract painting by Canadian artist Joseph Drapell is considered an important work as it debuted at the artist’s groundbreaking solo exhibition at the renowned Thoma...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Large Michael David Abstract Expressionist Encaustic Painting Museum Exhibited
Located in Surfside, FL
Michael David (b. 1954) Billie's Tree Signed, Titled, and Dated 1982 Verso. Provenance: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (bears label en verso) where it had been exhibited for nearly two decades. It was also Exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA NYC) just after he won the National Guggenheim Award. The Piece Measures approximately 70" x 71" x 8" Deep. Michael David Singer; born 1954, is an American painter. Born in Reno, Nevada, David's family relocated to Brooklyn, New York, where he was raised. He attended SUNY Fredonia for one year and in 1976 received a B.F.A. from Parson's School of Design. Michael David is classified as an abstract painter, best known for his use of the encaustic technique, a was pigmentation technique which incorporates pigment with heated beeswax. He is also known for his works in mixed-media figure painting, photography and environmental sculpture. He often incorporates religious iconography and symbolism, art historical themes such as the nude, and contemporary politics into his paintings resulting in a critical dialogue between the layered abstraction of the surface and the integrated representational imagery. His work is included in the permanent public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. In 1976 David, erotic photographer Roy Stuart and Fredonia friend Richie Stotts formed a band called The Numbers, with David on bass. The group was a fixture in New York's early punk rock music scene, playing in clubs alongside punk pioneers Television, Blondie and the Ramones. David also played bass with punk innovators Jerry Nolan of The New York Dolls, Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, Marky Ramone, Peter Gordon, David Van Tieghem and the free-improvisation noise music group Borbetomagus. In 1977, The Numbers were approached by impresario Rod Swenson, who was seeking musicians to form a backing band for singer Wendy O. Williams, whose radical persona he sought to exploit as punk music and performance art. The Numbers became The Plasmatics but the attention David began to gain as an important voice in the art world caused him to leave the band to pursue his burgeoning painting career. David's first one-man show was in 1981 at the historic Sidney Janis Gallery. That year he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, at the time the youngest artist ever to do so, and in 1982 was awarded an American Academy of Arts and Letters prize. He went on to exhibit at galleries worldwide and was represented by Knoedler & Co. for the next 25 years. David is best known for using the encaustic technique of painting, which uses pigment combined with heated beeswax. David built his early career on abstraction and religious iconography, which formed the bulk of his output until 1999. Since then he has also experimented with representational painting and traditional photography. In 2000, he developed the "Chortens" and "Populations" series, about which prominent art historian and critic Donald Kuspit writes: "They are enigmatic works, all the more so because of the way their innumerable details form singularly monumental, intimidating wholes. Dense yet delicate, awesome yet intimate, they convey the fragility as well as grandeur of sheer being. Layer upon layer of paint piles up like layer upon layer of coral, but the textural result is more epic, not to say startling, than any coral island, and virtually any other existing abstract expressionist painting (upon which they are stylistically founded)." In 2001, David developed bi-lateral neuropathy due to being poisoned by gases released by overheated beeswax used in the encaustic process. The disease left him with partial paralysis of his legs, slowing the production of his painting for a number of years. That year, David began painting one of his best-known series, the "fallen Toreadors", inspired by 19th century French Realist painter Édouard Manet's "The Dead Toreador" of 1864. In 1993, David experimented at the "20x24" Polaroid studio in Manhattan, which resulted in a series of portraits of playwright Edward Albee and of friend Jackie Gross, which would become the ongoing "Jackie" series of mixed-media works. When neuropathy rendered him unable to paint during 2003, he returned to the 20x24 camera and shot large-format Polaroids inspired by Caravaggio; nude men and women dressed as Toreadors, and religious imagery. In 2002, David began to develop The Greenhouse Project, an evolving "architectural construct" based on historical American Antebellum greenhouses built using the actual glass negatives sold to starving farmers in the post-American Civil War South. David has indicated that each greenhouse will, through the display of photography and use of social networking, create a forum and exhibit for ideas and artifacts related to civil and human rights; the specifications of each greenhouse particular to the community in which each is built. David's work was reviewed in Artforum and Art in America, and is considered one of the last links to the New York School of painting. David may be the most innovative master of immediate surface since the abstract expressionists. He has acknowledged his debt to Abstract Expressionism, but he has transformed it. Where the abstract expressionist paintings of the forties and fifties seem like modern cave paintings, as their crude, unfocused, often meandering, turbulent painterliness suggests, and as such to reinstate prehistory, David seems to turn the cave into a temple, as his more considered, concentrated, indeed, dense, contemplative painterliness indicates, so that his paintings have the aura of post history. SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2023 Radiate, Garvey Simon, New York, New York 2021 Selections from NYFA - Courtesy of the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, New York, New York 2020 Bill Lowe Gallery Presents: Masterworks from the Gallery 2016 The Golem, The Jewish Museum of Berlin, Berlin, Germany In a Post-World: Post-Punk Art Now, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, New York 2014 Gallery Artists, Bentley Gallery, Pheonix, Arizona 2011 Post Mammalian Tension: Michael David & Scott Browning, Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia 1999 Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America, Montclair Art Museum, (Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg etc) Forty Years of American Drawings, Raab Galerie, Berlin, Germany Germany Summertime, Knoedler & Company, New York, New York 1997 Michael David and James Hyde...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wood, Paint, Encaustic, Wax

Orange Portal - Vintage Latin American School Original Abstract
Located in Soquel, CA
Orange Portal - Vintage Latin American School Original Abstract Bright and bold abstract painting by Latin American California-based artist, Ric...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Contemporary nude, A nude women.
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
36x24 oil on canvas 39x27 with framed
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled Abstract
Located in New Orleans, LA
Stewart has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and is represented by the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, Gail Severn Gallery in Sun Va...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Chalk, Conté, Crayon, Acrylic, Archival Paper

Show Poster Monoprint (Works on Paper) - Vintage Latin American School
Located in Soquel, CA
Show Poster Monoprint (Works on Paper) - Vintage Latin American School Bold show poster by Latin American California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). This p...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

The Limp by Rene Ricard abstract poetry painting
Located in New York, NY
The Limp conjures the image of Rene consumed with energy and righteousness, then resignation: "He was pushing the door in, I was pushing him out / He won". The words are scrawled in ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Screen

Bellport, New York. Untitled at Long Island.
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
The painting size is 25x29 inches oil on canvas. This painting stands as a captivating proof of Pinajian's artistic prowess, capturing the essence of the forest in a breathtaking d...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage Modernist Oil on Canvas Painting - Mountainous Valley, dated 1981
Located in Baltimore, MD
This modernist expressionist oil on canvas painting is probably American and is dated 1981. It is signed by the artist John Kaufman on the back side only. The scene is a mountainou...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Erik ud af Depression" (Erik out of Depression)
Located in København S, DK
This rare painting is from the early works of the renowned Danish artist Kirsten Ortwed, known for her exceptional contributions to art. Ortwed has notably represented Denmark at pre...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract landscape at Bellport New York. Meditation moments at the Bellport.
Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA
In Arthur Pinajian's mesmerizing 1986 oil painting, a lush symphony of nature unfolds on the canvas. The artist's distinctive brushstroke techniques breathe life into the scenery of ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Amistat en els jardins del casino
Located in Barcelona, ES
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Unique signed abstract pastel and chalk painting on paper Albright Knox Gallery
Located in New York, NY
Jene Highstein Untitled, 1982 Pastel and Chalk on Paper Hand signed and dated by artist on the front 32 × 40 inches Frame included Original hand signed pastel and chalk drawing, with...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Chalk, Pastel, Mixed Media

Untitled Geometric Abstraction - unique signed and inscribed work -framed
Located in New York, NY
Paul Pagk Untitled Geometric Abstraction, 1989 Gouache and watercolor on paper Signed, dated and inscribed "A Jacqueline". Frame included Excellent unique work on paper by contempora...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Pencil, Graphite

Thomas Downing "Moon", 1985
Located in Washington, DC
Painting by Thomas Downing (1928 - 1985). "Moon", 1985 Acrylic on paper bag 35" x 15" (framed) Dedication on reverse to his wife Helen. Downing’s works are in many collections in...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Chanson - large, colourful, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Harold Feist’s gloriously colorful acrylic abstract painting called Chanson radiates joy. Known for his innovative color field work, Feist has chosen a bright rainbow palette in broa...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Old Place." Contemporary Mixed Media Abstract Painting by Trevor BELL
Located in Brecon, Powys
Old Place Mixed media on paper Signed and dated 1988, twice Further signed, inscribed and dated to verso Paper size 78 x 99cm framed 95x115
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Acrylic

Landscape of a Face, Bold, colorful, large painting
Located in Boston, MA
Oil paint on Belgium Linen. The Artist is Joerg Madlener, The series is attributed to Gustav Mahler and has built up surface. You won’t be disappointed, this is a painting that is vi...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modernist Abstract Expressionist Color Field Acrylic "April Dance Form" Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Large Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Similar in the manner of the colorful abstract works of Paul Jenkins. This one is a bit more muted in color. Lamar Briggs (1935-2...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
Medium: Mixed media on paper Image dimensions: 40 x 32 inches Framed dimensions: 44 x 36 inches Signed and dated "Havard 81" at the top right James Pinkney Havard (American, b. 1937) is an American painter and sculptor born in Galveston, TX in 1937. He was a pioneer of abstract illusionism...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Subtle Abstract Oil on Canvas by Listed American Artist Paul Heald (1936-2014)
Located in Baltimore, MD
Abstract painter Paul Heald was born in Michigan in 1936. He moved to the West Coast and died in Washington in 2014. His body of work focuses on line and form abstract painting, usu...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Vintage Latin American School Original Painting of Artist’s Self Portrait
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Latin American School Original Minimalist Painting of Artist’s Self Portrait in Acrylic on Paper Oustandingminimalist self portrait by California-based Latin American artis...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Metamorphosis Marina - Late 20th Century Abstract Oil on Board by George De Goya
Located in Watford, Hertfordshire
Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Blue Lagoon - large, colourful, modernist, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Milly Ristvedt has captured, in vivid colour, and expressive form the wonders of the ‘deep’ in this gorgeous abstract painting. Against a rich blue colour field, ethereal forms and g...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

A Man Goes By
Located in New York, NY
"A Man Goes By" by Sergio Gonzalez-Tornero, 1984, and abstract figurative man walking by. The man figure is red against a yellow background. this artwork has a Rufino Tamayo look to ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Font Diaz Little original pastel abstract painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Sin titulo original pastel abstract painting Manel Font Díaz (Barcelona, 1950) es un artista centrado especialmente en la pintura, primero formado en la facultad de Bellas Artes de ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Bay Area Figurative Nude Study - Oil On Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Bay Area Figurative Nude Study - Oil On Canvas Bay area figurative male nude study by unknown artist named Sumrall (american, 20th C). A male figure poses nude, facing to the left o...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Polarity #9 unique signed color field abstract color painting on paper - a gem!
Located in New York, NY
Jay Rosenblum Polarity #9, 1981 Acrylic on Paper painting 6 × 9 1/2 inches Pencil signed and titled on the front Unique work Unframed ]This gem of a work is an acrylic painting on p...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Vintage Latin American School Minimalist Portrait in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Latin American School titled "Mask" Minimalist Portrait in Acrylic on Paper Fine example of Latin American School minimalist portrait by California-based artist, Ricardo de ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Abstract Composition
Located in Los Angeles, CA
20th Century Modern Mixed Media Triptych of Acrylic and Sand on Canvas. Signed and Dated Lower Right 1980. Bright Dynamic Abstract work known for Painted Forms that seem to Dance Off...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Font Diaz Little Blue original pastel abstract painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
sin titulo original pastel abstract painting Manel Font Díaz (Barcelona, 1950) es un artista centrado especialmente en la pintura, primero formado en la facultad de Bellas Artes de l...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Monumental Texas Modernist Abstract Expressionist Color Field Acrylic Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
size is with frame. this is a very large piece. Bright, vivid, large Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Similar in the manner of the colorful abstract works of Paul Jenkins...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Font Diaz Little Green original pastel abstrat painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
sin titulo original pastel abstrat painting Manel Font Díaz (Barcelona, 1950) es un artista centrado especialmente en la pintura, primero formado en la facultad de Bellas Artes de la...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Barcelona original abstract acrylic paper painting
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Barcelona original abstract acrylic paper painting. Virtual frame Faber, Will (1901-1987). Painter, draftsman and engraver, born in Saarbrucken (Germany) in 1901 and died in Barcelon...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

The Field Catcher
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Harold Town (1924-1990) remains one of the best-known and most intriguing artists from the "Painters Eleven" group. Town's reputation was established in the late 1950s with a serie...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil, Pencil, Color Pencil

Large Abstract Expressionist Figure Handmade Paper Etching Silkscreen Print
By Sam Messer
Located in Surfside, FL
This is done on a very interesting handmade paper (Japanese?) it is hand signed and numbered. In this print the artist Sam Messer uses bold contrasting colors in a gestural manner. Messer's work, so apparently spontaneous or impulsive in its emphasis on highly dramatic gestural brushstrokes and intense color, is, in fact, carefully considered. The treatment of the composition conveys dynamic movement through the sweep...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Handmade Paper, Lithograph, Screen

Vintage Latin American School Original Minimalist Painting
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Latin American School Original Abstract Expressionist Painting of Minimalist Face — Acrylic on Paper Gorgeous example of 1980s vintage L...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

"Barns and Silos in New Jersey" Wolf Kahn, Landscape, Abstract Impressionist
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Barns and Silos in New Jersey, 1985 Signed lower center Oil on canvas 28 x 34 inches An important member of the second generation New York School, Wolf Kahn is renowned fo...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Mixed Media Painting Minnesota Woman Artist Figurative Abstract
Located in Surfside, FL
Known for her painting and sculpture as well as printmaking. Nancy Randall’s work is featured in collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the Walker Art Center, the Nelson Atkins ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paint, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media

Mixed Media Painting Minnesota Woman Artist Figurative Abstract
Located in Surfside, FL
Known for her painting and sculpture as well as printmaking. Nancy Randall’s work is featured in collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the Walker Art Center, the Nelson Atkins ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paint, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media

Font Diaz abstract Little Vertical Gentle. Original mixed media
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Manel Font Díaz (Barcelona, 1950) is an artist focused especially on painting, first trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona and then at the Massana School...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel

Splashes of Color - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Splashes of Color - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper A bold abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). The backg...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Genovart. Vertical Colors original abstract acrylic painting.
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Colors original abstract acrylic painting. GENOVART LLOPIS, Jaume (Barcelona, 1941-1994). Basically self - taught painter, was released in 1972. Grandson of typesetter and booksell...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wood, Acrylic

Vintage Large Abstract Expressionist Framed Original Dynamic Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Cosmic Enzymes on the Loose" Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic
Located in Soquel, CA
"Cosmic Enzymes on the Loose" Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic Bright and dynamic abstract composition by California artist Debby Beck (American, b. 1948). A field of peach, magenta, and blue makes up the background of this piece, with layers of floating shapes above it. The shapes are repeating but varied - stars, swirls, dots, and lines. There is an impression of a microscopic world, teeming with life and movement. Signed, dated, and titled on verso: Debby Beck 1983 Cosmic Enzymes on the Loose No frame Canvas size: 30"H x 36"W Debby Beck (American, b. 1948) is an artist and activist from Sunland, California. Her artwork was selected for the cover of California Quarterly Vol. 45 (California State Poetry Society). 2014 - First Prize, Glendale Art Association Fall Salon 2013 - Modest Fly...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Debut, 1989, Oil on Canvas, Analytical Painting, Abstract
Located in Milano, IT
In this masterpiece Claudio Olivieri experimented with palette darkening, using a spray gun to distribute the oil and achieve an unprecedented result. In addition, this painting give...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"PTLD"
Located in New York, NY
Oil on board Signed, dated and titled on back. George Lloyd is an American Artist born 10/28/45 in Winthrop, MA Graduated in 1967 from RISD with a BFA and Yale, in 1969 with an MF...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Untitled # 329
Located in SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE, FR
Zao Wou-Ki's aquatint engraving, impeccably preserved, stands as a testament to the artist's transcendent talent. Merging Eastern and Western influences, the aquatint showcases Zao's...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Engraving, Aquatint

Red Strike - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Red Strike - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper A bold abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). This piece is a ...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Vintage American School Signed Modernist Minimalist Abstract Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Step into the serene world of American minimalism with this exquisite 1980 signed original oil painting. Created by a talented American artist, this work invites you to explore the c...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

ABSTRACT WOMEN
Located in Three Oaks, MI
Bookatz's artistic practice embodies a dynamic and multifaceted approach to creation. His canvases resonate with an improvisational interplay, a reflection reminiscent of the nuance...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Spiral of Time II
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Spiral of Time II Mixed media with acrylic on paper, 1986 Signed lower right (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image size: 35 x 15 1/2 inches Provenance: Peter Marciniak, New Hampshire Distinguished Midwest Private Collection Select Exhibition: 1991 Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, D.C. (solo) 1980 Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY 1974 Bertha Schaefer Gallery; New York, NY (solo) 1972 Childe Hassam Purchase Show, National Institute of the Arts and Letters 1971 "The Turkish Bath of Ingres,” Louvre Museum, Paris, France 1971 Guest Artist, Tamarind Institute; Albuquerque, NM 1970 “American Drawings of the Sixties,” New School Art Center; New York, NY 1966 Dorsky Gallery, New York, NY (solo) 1962 Dwan Gallery; Los Angeles, CA (solo) 1959 Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo) Museum Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI Fine Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT Harwood Museum of Art, Taos "An abstract painter who lived in New York City; Amagansett, Long Island, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Harry Nadler is described as a "formalist abstract painter of the 1960s-90s whose works were marked by their rich colors, transparencies, and labyrinthine constructions. —The attempt to capture in a purely abstract imagery the quintessential quality of light and contour that emanate from a particular landscape is a hazardous pictorial ambition, but Mr. Nadler has met the challenge of this problem with remarkable success.˜ (Hilton Kramer, The New York Times, April 27, 1974) Noted Fine Print Publications: Lincoln Center/Fine Art Prints,1990, "Live From Lincoln Center", screen print,edition72 Harry Nadler Biography DESCRIPTION WITHOUT PLACE A story Harry told me that he felt was a metaphor for his life and work was about his "golden bird." One day, when he was eight, he was walking home from school, a dangerous task for a Jewish boy in East Los Angeles in the '30s. He carried a painting he had made in school. He had to walk through a dark tunnel and was afraid. His painting of a beautiful, golden bird, radiating tropical colors, shone in the dark and he lost all his fear. The image of beauty, flight, darkness, and the power of his own image-making, stayed with him his whole life. He discovered a kind of freedom in school; he graduated when he was 16, went to art school, supported himself as an illustrator for a newspaper; then discovered a wide new world of literature and fine arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned a B.A. and an M.A., and his talent as an artist manifested itself in teaching assistantships and in painting awards and early shows. His affinity for European painting was strong, and he yearned to go to New York and immerse himself in the museums and in the current work being done by the abstract expressionists. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Spain in 1960, Harry fulfilled his dream of traveling to Europe and studying Goya's Disasters of War at the Prado. His commitment to finding a visual language to express his deep ethical concerns began at this time. He produced a series of works dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust and called the Buchenwald Landscapes and exhibited this body of work at the end of his year in Spain. He agonized over it, feeling that the imagery was too literal. He was searching for something--a formal instrument that reached a meaning beyond the obvious horror of the subject matter. On his return to the United States, he relocated to New York City, believing that his artistic roots lay there. He first made a living by teaching extension courses, while studying great paintings in the city's museums, participating in the current art world and developing his own work. Between 1961 and 1965, Harry made paintings of strange spaces filled with autobiographical objects. The poetry of Wallace Stevens powerfully affected him especially. For Harry, the activity of painting was a way of connecting separate realities. The work of imagination, metaphor, or "seeming" as Stevens described it, takes place in the gap between disparate elements, making connections of meaning on a deeper level. In this gap, he struggled to formulate with precision his understanding of his tools: his materials, his knowledge of philosophy and art history, his religious tradition, his life experience. In this gap, he lived with the anxiety of knowing, with faith in a process larger than himself. And he worked. Geometry became a way of speaking about ultimate purity, wholeness, relatedness; the sensuous material of paint and the particular way he combined those materials became a way of expressing the quality of his own experience. He named a painting series Description Without Place, in honor of Stevens. In this series, windows and boxes hold images of experience (painted objects, that both separate and merge the spaces of the painting. He combines images of crucifixion and blackness, with the vitality of life in both object and color. The breaking of edges and boundaries, merging the spatial and the temporal, continued throughout his life. In 1965, he was offered a teaching position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. There he began his series, Homage to Ingres, shown in New York City in 1969, followed by a sports series...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Lace Swirls - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Lace Swirls - Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper A dynamic abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). A brownish-r...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

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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