American Modern Paintings

NYC Subway Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Contemporary David Atkins (1910 – 2012) Subway Train Departure 30 x 24 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1960s Signed lower r...

Lillian Delevoryas Untitled (Nude & Interior), 1969 Oil on board 19 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. Framed: 24 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. Signed and dated lower righ...

This large painting is a ca. 1960 copy of a famous Rockwell Kent painting that was executed in Vermont in 1921. The work is oil on canvas and well represents the original image, tho...

"Dreamcatcher" is a 28 x 42 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is painted in a vibrant color palette. The work ...

"Untitled - Yellow and Blue" is a 46 x 34.25 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. This abstract work is painted in a vibra...

"Tools" is a 25 x 30 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is painted in a earth-tone color palette. The work is e...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904–2000) Over and Above: No. 6, 1963 Oil, sand & fish bones on canvas Signed and dated upper left 53 x 31 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achie...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Over and Above Surprise (Serpent), 1967 Casein on board Signed lower right 7.75 x 5.5 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a lev...

A colorful Mid-Century still-life painting by Wisconsin artist William C. Buxton. William Buxton was born in Appleton, WI in 1935. He studied art at the Layton School in Milwaukee,...

This colorful painting of two duck hunters on a trip to the eastern side of the Hudson Bay in Canada is done in a modernist style. Unsigned, the work includes an abstracted rocky co...

"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right. As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible. Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery. Provenance: "Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico. Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...

Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 17.5 x 21.5 Medium: Oil "Still Life Fruit" Biography Michael Frary (1918 - ...

Robert Gwathmey Girl with Guitar, 1965 Signed upper right Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Provenance: The artist ACA Galleries, New York Mr. Moses Asch, New York Terry Dintenfass Galle...

Vintage modernist landscape signed Nannette Rhodes Hayes. Titled on the reverse Berkshire Hills and dated 1961.

Oil on canvas 1979 Large cat peering out window Framed 45.25x55.5 Unframed 36x47

A Cubist watercolor on paper, titled "Dry Dock, Burrard Shipyard, Vancouver" by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell).

Maurice Newman was active/lived in Massachusetts / Lithuania. Maurice Newman is known for sculpture-abstraction, impressionist landscape painting, diorama. Born in Lithuania, Mauric...

A watercolor on paper Cubist representation of purple irises by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell).

This oil painting from the 65s by California Artist Bruce McCracken derives its title and inspiration from the mythical Arno River in Tuscany. Dividing the historic city of Florence into two distinct parts, the Arno has long captivated the collective imagination and continues to be a subject of exploration for many contemporary artists. Set against the backdrop of the Arno's picturesque banks, the artist likely sought inspiration from the vantage point of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence. The painting is divided into two distinct horizons. The upper section showcases architectural buildings poised upon a medieval arch...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Medieval Heads, 1966 Acrylic on scintilla Signed and dated upper right 23.5 x 30 inches Clarence Holbrook...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Mandala No. 15, 1969 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated verso 27.5 x 22 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national ar...

Jersey Shore III Casein on Masonite, 1967 Signed lower right (see photo) Initialed, dated and titled verso Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn (the artist's widow) Dehn Quests Created on location on the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore was the main playground for thousand to escape the summer heat of New York. This small painting shows Dehn's mastery of patterning color to depict movement and recreation. Part of a suite of paintings done on this theme. Within a year of it's creation, Dehn dies from a heart attack. Casein on Masonite Condition: Excellent Image: 6 x 11" Frame: 9 3/8 x 14 1/2" Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer, the publisher of the most notable modernist art and poetry magazine...

Leonard Creo (American, 1923-2019) Untitled, c. 1960s Oil on canvas 29 x 48 in. Framed: 30 1/8 x 49 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Creo Creo was bor...

Night Life in the City - Figurative Cityscape Mid 1960s cityscape by an unknown artist. Oil on artists board. Image, 16"H x 20"W

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Double Ovoids with Blue and Black, 1960s Acrylic on scintilla 15.25 x 12.25 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting....

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...

"Mutual Admiration" Flower Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Monterey Artist Mid-Century Modern painting of a little blonde girl in a white apron adoring her flowers by Monterey Artist Rose Marie (Smith) Ansel, (American, 1921-2012) Rose Marie was born and lived in the Monterey area all her life. She volunteered in various city government associations and founded the Parade of Nations in 1970 which celebrated the many ethnic cultures on the Monterey Peninsula...

Solitary Mister 1964 Oil on canvas 52 x 38 inches (132.1 x 96.5 cm) This work is offered by CLAMP in New York City.

Franklin for KARL MANN ASSOCIATES, New York (American, active in the 1960 's) The boarded up Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Skyline - Oil on ...

Art critic Hilton Kramer called the Greek-American artist Aristodimos Kaldi's paintings "beautifully executed landscapes in a lyric mode. . . all delicacy and nuance and romance. . . " Kaldis was a New York School painter...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Torso No. 1, 1967 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated upper right 15 x10 inches 24 x 20 inches, framed A mid-century figural abstract painting. Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Richard Joseph Ericson (American, 1922-2010) Untitled, 1962 Oil on canvas 18 x 16 in. Framed: 20 x 18 in. Signed lower left: RJE '62 Richard Joseph Ericson (b. October 22, 1922-d. November 21, 2010), born in Chicago, Illinois. Son of Claire (b. 1899) and Arthur Ericson (b. 1899). His father was an accountant for a food products company and the family moved to Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York, when he was a young child. Ericson, a twin, first began to draw at age five and took up painting in oils at age twelve. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City in 1941, where he received an honorable mention during the annual scholarship competition held that year. During this period he worked as a commercial artist. After America's entry in World War II Ericson enlisted in the Army in 1942, where he served as a warrant officer. He saw service in North Africa, France, and Germany. While overseas, he did many drawings of the places in which he was stationed. He eventually found himself guarding Italian prisoners of war who had been captured in Sicily and southern Italy. While performing his duties during 1943 and 1944 he found time to paint several important, large scale portraits of the prisoners who were happy to pose for him. As the war concluded he was able to visit Holland to study. After nearly three years overseas, Ericson returned to America and traveled back to his home town of Chicago where he furthered his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. He married in 1948 and moved his young family to Mexico, where he attended Mexico City College. He studied art and exhibited while living there, receiving his Master of Arts degree, cum laude, in 1953. For a time after his return to the United States he taught art in Dutchess County, New York, where he and his wife built their own house by hand. Eventually the family, which would come to include seven sons, settled in Hicksville, Long Island, New York. Ericson joined the staff of Hicksville High School as the art teacher in 1962, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1983. As a teacher, Ericson was open to all fields and styles of art, constantly experimenting and experiencing new forms and styles. He had started printmaking in the late 1940's and continued to work in this medium for many years, producing mezzotints, etchings, and wood block prints. He also continued to paint, creating portraits, scenes in southern Dutchess County, and Long Island landscapes - for which he would become well known. Ericson grew to love the area in which he lived, and depicted it quite often in his paintings. He became enamored with the historic village of Cold Spring...

'Two Ladies Trying to Out-Mystify Each Other', Original 1969 semi-abstract cubist style oil painting portraying two female figures with still life. Figural abstraction, oil paint on ...

Midcentury oil on canvas , Wharf scene, possibly Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco. Mel Fowler (1921-1987) was a listed Italian-American painter known for ...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Eye of the Desert, 1965 Collage, graphite and gouache on paper Signed and dated lower right 16 x 12 inches 25 x 21 inches, framed A mid-century figural abstract painting. Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Chromatic, 1965 Acrylic and collage on scintilla Signed and dated upper right 30 x 22 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstrac...

"Homesteaders" is an original oil on board painting by artist Harold Vincent Skene (1883-1978) painted in 1960. The painting depicts two figures plowing a field with a pair of oxen, ...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Torso No. 3, 1967 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated lower right 13 x 9 inches 21 x 17 inches A mid-century figural abstract painting. Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) People, 1964 Ink and crayon on paper Signed and dated upper right 36.5 x 24 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of nation...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Vetriculus Egg, 1965 Acrylic and collage on textured paper Signed and dated lower right 30 x 22 inches A surrealist mid-century figura...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Pinnacle, c. 1960s Acrylic and collage on scintilla 22 x 8 inches 23.25 x 9 inches, framed A surrealist mid-century figural abstract p...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Over and Above: Kangaroo, c. 1960s Acrylic on paper, mounted on matte board Signed lower right 14 x 5 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Rockefeller Center, 1962 Acrylic and sand on scintilla Signed and dated lower left 25 x 20 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a ...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Terror of History No. 1, 1962 Acrylic and sand on scintilla Signed and dated upper left 23 x 30 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Departing from the System, 1961 Mixed media on paper Signed and dated lower right 36 x 24 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abst...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Seeing Egg, c. 1960s Acrylic on textured paper 30 x 22 inches 38.5 x 30.5 inches, framed A surrealist mid-century figural abstract pai...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) King Tut No. 2, 1968 Gouache on paper Signed and dated upper right 11.25 x 8.25 inches 25.5 x 20.5 inches A surrealist mid-century fig...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Seeing Egg No. 2, 1965 Acrylic and collage on scintilla Signed and dated upper right 30 x 22 inches 34 x 29 inches, framed A surrealis...

"Audience" Mid 20th Century American Figurative Theatre Performance Contemporary Leon Bibel (1912 - 1995) "The Audience," 52 ½ x 41 ¼ inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1963. Signed lower right. Framed. BIO Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Leon Bibel was born in San Francisco in 1913. He trained at the California School of Fine Arts and received a scholarship to study under the German Impressionist Maria Riedelstein. He worked in collaboration with Bernard Zackheim, a student of Diego Rivera, to create frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the University of California Medical School. In 1936 Bibel moved from California to join the Federal Art Project at Harlem Art...

Original oil on canvas painting by Anton Refregier of a young girl resting in the grass. Signed upper right and dated 1962. Condition is very good. The painting is in its original oa...

This strobe-like dynamic composition with bright and bold colors reflects the energetic taste of the 7 Up brand. It lies somewhere between abstraction and figuration. Peaks' use of b...

This large green field overlooking the Long Island Sound Beach depicts a parent without definition, mother or father, observing their child in the gr...

The Dance of Salome or the Dance of the Seven Veils is a Triptych painted in 3 panels in oil on board. Each panel depicts a semi-abstract, cubist style individual figure: Herod, Herodias and Salome. Painted in bright colors of yellow, orange, red, green, fuchsia, purple, pink, white, blue, black and brown. Presented in vintage frames, framed dimensions of each panel measure 29 x 17 x 1 ½ inches, Image size is 23 ½ x 12 ¼ inches, each. Overall dimensions of the triptych measure 29 x 53 ½ x 1 ½ inches as displayed with 1 inch spacing between each panel. Based on the Dance of Seven Veils in which Princess Salome danced...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Dichotomy, 1962 Oil on paper Signed and dated upper left 20 x 25 inches Mid-century figural abstract green painting of woman swimming ...

Modernist beach scene; signed lower right; image size is 11.5 x 8.5 inches, framed it measures Ruth Gikow (January 6, 1915 Ukraine - 1982 New York City) was an Important American Jewish woman...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Air Chamber, 1965 Collage, graphite and gouache on paper Signed and dated upper left 30 x 22 inches Provenance: Descended through the family. Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Torso No. 5, 1967 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated upper right 25 x 20 inches A mid-century figural abstract painting. Clarence Hol...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Cicada, c. 1960s Watercolor on scintilla 30 x 20 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that wa...