American Modern Paintings

Beautiful, historic painting of the California desert in bloom by listed Santa Cruz artist Charles O. Fuson (American, 1898-1981). Signed "C.O. Fuson" lower left. Titled, signed on v...

Oil on artist board original painting by the well known American artist, Nicolai Cikovsky. Thick vibrant colors with a vase of flowers, a banjo and a notebook with photographs with a rough sea as the background. Circa 1940. Condition is very good. Overall framed in a circa 1960 frame, 23 by 27.25 inches. Landscape and figure painter Nicolai S. Cikovsky, 1894-1984, was born in Russia, where he studied at the Vilna Art School, 1910-1914; the Penza Royal Art School, 1914-1918; and Moscow High Tech Art...

Floral Still Life (44) John F. Leonard American (1921–1987) Date: circa 1965 Oil on Board Size: 16 in. x 12 in. (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm)

Provenance Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist); Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Sale #2326, 27 January 1965, Lot 168; Private Collection (acquired from the abo...

Original Painting. New Yorker Cover Proposal Baseball c. 1939 Modern Cubist Deco Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Play Ball New Yorker cover proposal, c. 1939 12 x 8 inches (sight) Framed 18 1/2 X 14 3/4 inches Gouache on board Estate sticker verso BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...

A diminutive & humorous 1945 Painting titled "En Route to VT, Hotel Room" by artist Harold Haydon. Haydon called these diminutive paintings "Thumb Box" paintings. Image size: 6" x...

This colorful late spring scene is most likely around Erie, Pennsylvania. Artist and teacher Joseph M. Plavcan generally painted around the area in which he lived for over 50 years. Joseph Michael Plavcan was born near Pittsburg, in Braddock. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy in 1926, studying with renowned New Hope artist Daniel Garber. Through a scholarship, he went to Europe to study. He returned to Erie in 1932 and became an art instructor, teaching for the next 38 years. Plavcan went far beyond teaching trade school requirements and instilled a true sense of sophisticated artistry in his students. During his artistic career, he exhibited often in Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Chicago. This painting, oil on canvas, demonstrates Plavcan’s style, utilizing figurative abstraction with a modernist color palette. The paint is not over applied and areas are treated with smooth broad brush strokes. The hint of late blooming leaves are dashes of paint applied in a fast yet confident manner. Plavcan’s sense of light, demonstrated in the distant church tower is spot on. While not signed, there are two official estate stamps on the reverse that attest to the authenticity of Plavcan’s work. The piece measures 16” x 20” and appears to be canvas applied to a back board. This was likely done by the former retailer, Hudson House Galleries in Hagerstown, Maryland. That shop was a fine regional art gallery and antiques shop for decades until its closure about five years ago. The painting is nicely framed in a modernist gold wood frame with a subtle pink liner. The overall framed dimensions are about 20” x 24”. The painting is in very good condition, bright and crisp. There is a very minor vertical crease above the peak of the house that is truly barely noticeable from any distance. Other than that, all is fine with the work and its frame. This strong, colorful work by Joseph Plavcan...

A large, dynamic Mid-Century summer landscape painting with female bathers by noted Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. A wonderful example of the artist's uniquely expressive figurative w...

A Wonderfully Subtle, Atmospheric, Mid-Century Modern Dune Landscape Painting by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. Most likely painted in the 1960s along the shores of Lake Mich...

The Painted Stallion William Henry Dethlef Koerner (German, American, 1878-1938) Oil on Panel Signed Lower Right Titled Verso 21.5 x 37 inches 26.5 x 42.5 inches with frame Written ...

Subtle and moody portrait of a Pensive man by Joan Tidwell (American, 1930-2002). The sitter in the portrait is a middle-aged man looking slightly downwards, wearing a collared shirt. This piece is completed in a tan and green palette, creating a somber feeling. Of particular note are the confident, thick brushstrokes - each one is well-placed in the modernist style. Similar in some ways to Picasso's portraits. Signed "Joan Tidwell" on verso Unframed. Canvas size: 30"H x 22"W oan Gay Tidwell (American, 1930-2002) was born and raised in Hollywood, CA, where she had some success as a child actor. Later, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in English Literature and Drama. Tidwell moved to the Bay...

Hand signed and dated leeks on a kitchen table 31.5 X 39.5 framed. 21 X 28.5 sheet without frame. Bernard Chaet (born 1924, Boston, MA - 2012) was an American artist; Chaet is known for his colorful, dynamic modernist paintings and masterful draftsmanship, his association with the Boston Expressionists, and his 40-year career as a Professor of Painting at Yale University. His works also include watercolors and prints. In 1994, he was named a National Academician by the National Academy of Design. Chaet was instrumental in transforming Yale’s traditional art program into one with a more modernist approach that gained national prominence. Chaet melded landscape and abstraction in a traditional established by Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Edvard Munch, Piet Mondrian, and Ferdinand Hodler. His own tenure began in 1951 at Yale, where he worked closely with Josef Albers to revamp Yale’s art program. Between 1959 and 1962 he was the chair of what was then called the Yale Department of Art of the School of Fine Arts — prior to becoming one of the independent professional schools at Yale in 1973. Chaet taught painting and drawing and mentored generations of emerging talents. Chaet was the author of the 1970 textbook “The Art of Drawing” and “An Artist’s Notebook 1979,” both of which have since been reissued several times. In the latter book, alongside examples of work by his favorite artists, are student drawings by Yale graduates such as Robert Birmelin, Michael Mazur and Eugene Baguskas. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1924, Chaet studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and then earned a B.A. at Tufts University. Known for his expressionist landscapes and still lifes, Chaet’s work has continuously been shown in galleries in his native Boston, in New York City, and around the country. In 2010, a retrospective of his seascapes was featured at the Cape Ann Historical Society in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he had a home and a summer studio in nearby Rockport. His has also exhibited at David Findlay Gallery in New York and at Swarthmore College. Many of Chaet’s students went on to notable art careers, including Janet Fish, Chuck Close, and Richard Serra. His work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT, and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA. Chaet is the recipient of many awards including: the National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities, Sabbatical Grant in 1967-68, the National Academy of Fine Arts, Benjamin Altman Award in Painting in 1997, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jimmy Ernst Prize in 2001. Chaet was born and raised in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, MA. He completed a dual program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—studying painting with Karl Zerbe—and Tufts University, graduating with a B.S. in 1949. Chaet is known for his association as a first generation Boston Expressionist. (along with Hyman Bloom and Jack Levine) Chaet was a contributing editor to Arts Magazine. In 1960 he published the book Artists At Work, which features in depths conversations with artists Pat Adams, Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Al Blaustein, Hyman Bloom, James Brooks, Robert Engman...

A beautiful, colorful Mid-Century Modern portrait of a seated young woman in a pink dress by famed Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin. A fashionably dressed, young model is seate...

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

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Hospitalities Long Past, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 37 x 27 inches "Looking into store front windows has always i...

This dramatic mid-century oil and spackle painting by Henriette “Yetti” Stolz (American, 20th century) presents a bold abstract interpretation of a cityscape, featuring a dynamic bri...

Charles Blum (New York, 1925-1998), Windowsill Garden, Oil on Masonite Panel, 1966, signed and dated lower right, wood frame. Image: 48" H x 23.75" W; frame: 53" H x 29" W. Provenanc...

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s San Pedro Post Office: History of Writing Mural South, Preliminary Mural Maquette right panel...

Stunning mid century mixed media collage of Roman travel items and photos by James A. Couglin, a Berkeley Abstract Expressionist (American, 1929-1979), c.1966. Painted during his Par...

Stark, surrealist study of two nude figures in a color saturated room by Clayton Anderson (American, 20th Century), 1970. Signed and dated by the artist, left margin. Presented in a ...

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

"Industrial Cityscape, Chicago" WPA Modernism Mid-Century Cityscape 20th Century Aaron Bohrod (American 1907 – 1992) Industrial Cityscape 20 x 16 inches Oil on board Signed lower ri...

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

Will Beger and his contemporary-minimalist paintings, take on an entirely unique approach to southwest art. Influenced by his youth and inspired by nature, he effortlessly captures a...

Elizabeth Dailey Untitled, c. 20th Century Oil on board Sight: 19 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Framed: 21 x 25 x 1 in. Signed lower right: Elizabeth Dailey This lovely painting by an American a...

Born in 1933, Otis Huband declared his intention to be an artist at age 6. He earned his BFA and MFA at Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William & Mary, now Virginia...

William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "The Manifestation" 1994 Oil on canvas 48"x36" artist framed Signed lower center William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields...

Paul Jenkins American, 1923–2012 Paul Jenkins’s intuitive, chance-based painting techniques helped pioneer new approaches to Abstract Expressionism. Jenkins made his vibrant composi...

Image is 48 X 36 inches. Still life of flowers in a vase. In bold red, orange green and yellow color. Born and educated in Cleveland, Gary Bukovnik has lived in San Francisco for more than a third of a century. Primarily using the media of watercolor, monotype, and lithograph, Bukovnik fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colorations, creating floral and culinary images of great depth, intensity, and size. In 2003 and 2005, invited Bukovnik was Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2003 and 2005 and was an artist-in-residence at the Michigan Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo in 2010, as well as making a tour of exhibitions and watercolor demonstrations across Japan in 2010. Solo exhibitions include Caldwell Snyder Gallery in San Francisco and in St. Helena, CA, Campton Gallery in New York City; the Concept Gallery in Pittsburgh, the A.C.T. Gallery in San Francisco, and the Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland. Other recent exhibitions have been organized by the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Paula Brown Gallery, Toledo, Neuhoff Gallery, New York; Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis; Irving Galleries, Palm Beach; Galerie Kutter, Luxembourg; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Chin Show Cultural Center, Taipei; Takashimaya, Tokyo; the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; and Brevard Museum of Art, Melbourne, Florida. SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario The Art Institute of Chicago Atlanta Botanical Garden Brooklyn Museum Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown Dallas Museum of Art Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Frye Art Museum, Seattle Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow Library of Congress, Washington, DC The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Modern Art, New York The Richard L. Nelson Gallery, U.C. Davis, California The New York Public Library Oakland Museum of California Philadelphia Museum of Art Phoenix Art Museum Portland Art Museum, Oregon Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence San Francisco Museum of Modern Art University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson University of California, Berkeley Art Museum SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS ALZA Corporation, Mountain View ART In Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State AT&T, New York Atlantic Richfield, Los Angeles BankAmerica Corporation, Charlotte Citigroup, New York Cleveland Institute of Music Clorox Company, Oakland Comerica Bank, Costa Mesa & San Jose H.J. Heinz Company, Pittsburgh Illinois Bell...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Quadratic, 1979 Acrylic and collage on textured paper Signed and dated lower right 30 x 22 inches 31.5 x 23.5 inches, framed A surreal...

Alfred Nunamaker, son of Pennsylvania impressionist Kenneth Nunamaker, was born in Akron, Ohio in 1915. The family moved to Center Bridge, Bucks Count...

Artist: Honey W. Kurlander, American (1929 - ) Title: Greenhouse Year: circa 1975 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.l. Size: 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

A delightful 1940 painting of two women lounging in the Vermont wilderness by artist Harold Haydon. Haydon had a summer compound in Calais, Vermont, where he often painted. Images ...

"Money Lender" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Mervin M Jules (1912-1994 "The Money Lender" 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower left F...

Portrait of Franklin Atwood Park, VP of Singer Mfg. Co. Stately portrait of Franklin Atwood Park by Arthur Trevethin Nowell (British, 1862-1940). Park is sitting for a classical portrait, wearing a suit with a blue bowtie against a dark background. Of particular note are his glasses and moustache, both rendered with expert detail. Park was the VP and Chairman of the Board for Singer Manufacturing Company and Manager of the Singer Division in Scotland when the portrait was commissioned. We show a digital image of a photographic portrait of Franklin. Signed and dated "A T Nowell. 1922" Includes paper with biographical information on the sitter. Frame size: 37.5"H x 32.5"W Canvas size: 30"H x 25"W Arthur Nowell (British, 1862-1940) was born at Garndiffath, near Pontypool, and was the youngest of six children born to the Rev. John Nowell and his wife Mary...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Up the Avenue, 1979 Acrylic and collage on paper Signed and dated lower right 15 x 11 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract...

George Ennis The Humber River Signed lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Ennis studied at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Chase School. He was a member of the Fed...

Modern Cézanne style still life with collage by Dorothy Jane (Milne) Eggen (American, 1907-1986) Her still life is a Homage to Paul Cézanne's ...

Girl with Blue Face, 48 X 36 X 1.5 This large scale painting of a woman's face hints at Picasso. Both technically accomplished and classically approached, the thick gestural brushstrokes add a fragmented & tactile character to the canvas. The cool palette makes it easy to live with and makes it perfect for any room. This comes stretched and ready to hang. Message me for shipping quote About the artist: James Koskinas, born in Terre Haute...

Mid Century Fields of Wheat Landscape - Oil on Canvas-Wrapped Illustration Board Idyllic landscape of a path winding through a field of wheat, punctua...

American painter and illustrator Amos Carter Brinton was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1888. He went on to have a successful career in illustrations, mainly maritime themed. Fishi...

A mid-century modern oil painting by listed female artist Helen L. Roberts. This painting depicts an interior scene with a vase of beautiful flowers and decorative pitcher. Housed ...

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

Bold outlines and strong weighty forms coalesce with a compositional delicacy that forms the hallmark of Hartley's work. The work has a long and distinguished provenance and exhibit...

"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative Estate stamp on the stretcher, verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist. 20 x 24 inches. Look at the last two photos in the listing. A new book about Leon Bibel was just published and there's a photo of the artist taken in front of the painting. Amazingness. BIO Leon Bibel continued painting through 1941 and resumed work in both painting and especially wood sculpture by 1960. He worked until his very last day in 1995. His last series of large wood sculptures were modeled on spice boxes, which were miniature buildings...

An original oil on canvas painting by American artist James Koenig created in 1944.

1940s Tromp L'oeil Still Life Rose and Amaranth in Alcove Wonderful rose and amaranth still life in an alcove by Riverda Kapunas (American/Greek, 20t...

Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto Abstract expressionist figurative composition of a nude woman by California artist Harald "Harry" Dr...

Beautiful American realist view of Pack River in Sandpoint, Idaho by Laura Lindberg (American, 1904-1976). Signed lower right corner "64 L Lindberg". 26 Pack River Laura Lindberg and...

Portrait of William James (39) John F. Leonard American (1921–1987) Date: 1949 Oil on Board Size: 16 in. x 12 in. (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm)

Untitled (Collapsed Shacks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 20 ½ x 26 ½ inches, presented in a period frame This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: ...

This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness. Oil on canvas, 29 x 22 inches, Signed on frame verso “Painted by Charles L. Goeller” Exhibited: (Perh...

Fanciful mid-century modern abstract of trapeze artists by Brooklyn artist Hilda Dora Pape Arp (b. 1909). This 1962 highly abstracted depiction of trape...

A charming 1950s painting depicting a lighthouse in Martha's Vineyard, titled "Vineyard Light" by notable artist Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 8" x 9 1/2". Framed size: 9" x 10 1...

This piece is an original oil painting on panel by American artist Ginny GC Williams. It was painted en plein air. Celebrating the agricultural heritage of her New England town, the artist has captured the patchwork of color that comprises a farmscape. The piece is beautifully framed in a handmade maple floater frame with contrasting spline joints at the corner. a beautiful presentation. The overall framed dimensions are approximately 11x11 inches. GC Williams has a degree in art history which gave her an understanding of, and appreciation for, not only the art of the past, but the historical events and ideologies that fostered various aesthetics, movements, and styles. She has studied at several classical ateliers, including three years at Boston's Academy of Realist Art. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout the US and is included in public and private collections. She maintains a studio on the north shore of Massachusetts. "My work is about the little moments of beauty that comprise our existence: the greening of the landscape in early spring, the glint of light on an object; growing things and made objects. I enjoy creating interesting interactions, and making up narratives. I love the way light animates objects...

Elm trees in autumn at the edge of Salt Creek, Illinois, by Mary H. Brubaker (American, b. 1891). Signed and dated "Mary H. Brubaker 35" in the lower left cor...

Oil on cradled board. Signed and dated on back. Part of an ongoing series of man vs beast by the artist

WWII Aircraft Factory Workers Industrial 20th Century American Scene WPA Modern Frederick Buchholz (1901-1983) WW2 Aircraft Factory 18 x 24 inches Oil ...

"Spring Storm" is a powerful original painting by acclaimed American modernist Doel Reed (1894–1985), celebrated for his dramatic Southwestern landscapes and mastery of tone and text...

Original Painting Steel Workers Fabric Design Industrial Deco American Modernism Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Steel Workers Textile design 19 1/4 X ...