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Modern Paintings

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Artist: Nahum Tschacbasov
"Untitled"
Located in Southampton, NY
Acrylic on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated 1978. This is a later version of an earlier Tschacbasov painting titled "T...
Category

1970s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

“Untitled”
Located in Southampton, NY
Early oil on canvas painting by the well known American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov done in the “Social Realism” period of the artist’s career. Signed lower left. Original artist inventory label on stretcher verso dates the painting to 1937. Condition of the painting is very good. The painting is housed in a contemporary version of a House of Heydenryk frame that measures overall 14.25 by 27.25 inches. Provenance: Estate of the artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Nahum Tschacbasov Biography : Russian-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblance to work of another Russian-American artist--David Burliuk. He was somewhat of a late starter, moving to Paris in 1932 to study under Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger. He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1934. He then returned to the US where he joined Rothko and Gottlieb at the Galery Seccession. He was one of the co-founders of The Ten, a group of social conscious abstract painters which included Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and Ilya Bolotowsky, among others. In 1944, he began to work at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17, a center for surrealistic ideas. Between 1936 and 1943, he had five one-man exhibitions at the ACA Galleries and participated in five group shows. He also exhibited at the Whitney, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Knox Albright Museum, the Chicago Institute of Fine Art and Corcoran, among others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Met, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum. Tschacbasov has been the subject of two recent retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY and Arthur...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Seated Man Portrait, Large Modernist Oil Painting WPA Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Nahum Tschacbasov was born in Baku, in the southeast of Russia. When he was eight years old, he came to America, where his family settled in Chicago. His career, spanning more than five decades from the 1930’s to the 1980’s, is a kaleidoscope of influences, from modernism to the Byzantine style and expressionism of his Russian roots. Tschacbasov’s paintings of the 1930’s reflect the social and political preoccupations of the times. He received considerable critical attention for his powerful dramatic satirical depiction of social injustice. In the 1940’s he gained wider recognition when his style evolved into a fusion of Cubism and Surrealism. Through the influence of Jung, as well as currents brought to America by the newly arrived group of European Surrealists, he created a powerful personal iconography in which the inner workings of the psyche are revealed as myth and metaphor. His first encounters with modern art are the works of Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Rouault. 1932-33 Tschacbasov moves for a short time to New York City in order to be in a modern art center and then to Paris, where he adopts the name Tschacbasov, an anagram of different family names. He studies with Leopold Gottlieb for eight months, then with Marcel Gromaire, who teaches him pictorial structure, and briefly with Fernand Leger. Working in his studio on the edge of Montmartre and later in the Hotel de Sante in Montparnasse, he produces a large body of work, retaining fifty paintings. After trips to North Africa, Spain, and the Balearic Islands, he travels often from Paris to New York City, where he spends six months painting a series of Depression-inspired pictures after finding that his American business has gone bankrupt in his absence. 1934 In Paris, Galerie Zak exhibits landscapes from his trip to Majorca in the first one-man exhibition of Tschacbasov paintings; Salon de Tuileries also exhibits his work. His savings exhausted, he returns to New York via Tunisia in the midst of the Depression. 1935 Living on Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights, Tschacbasov works on the WPA Federal Arts Project, Easel Division, where he meets other artists and becomes politically involved. His works are shown at Galerie Secession with those of Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and other modernist and expressionist painters. Tschacbasov, Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and others from Galerie Secession form a group called The Ten combining common aims of social consciousness with an expressionist and abstract style. Themes of social injustice are more dominant in Tschacbasov's work than in that of others of The Ten, as he draws on his own childhood experiences of the harsh realities of immigrant life in industrial Chicago. In the summer, a one-man exhibition of his non-objective paintings is held at Galerie Secession, and in December, Montross Gallery in New York City holds the first exhibition of The Ten, including two works by Tschacbasov, "Handout" and "Three Graces." 1936 In January, an exhibition of The Ten is held at Municipal Art Galleries in New York City, and later in the fall an exhibition, also of The Ten, is held at Galerie Bonaparte in Paris. 1936-38 Among the paintings exhibited in the "Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting" at the Whitney Museum of American Art are Tschacbasov's "Deportation", "Clinic", "Friday Night", "Harbor Sunset", and "The Matriarch". 1936-37 Tschacbasov is appointed business manager of Art Front Magazine, a publication associated with the Artists' Union. His circle of friends at this time include Philip Evergood, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, David Burliuk, William Gropper, the Soyer brothers, Robert Gwathmey, Marsden Hartley, and Max Weber. Due to cut-backs in WPA funding, he teaches at his 38 West 22nd Street studio and at the American Artists' School. On the faculty are David Burliuk and the Soyer brothers, as well as Elaine de Kooning and other artists with similar aesthetic and social points of view. Personal and artistic crises lead to his entering into Jungian psychoanalysis, which provides new impetus and direction to his painting. Under the influence of analysis, he starts to write portions of a surrealistic autobiography, The Moon is My Uncle. His paintings, "Refugees" and "Friday Night" are shown with works by Avery, Burliuk, and DeHirsh Margules in a group exhibition at Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In September, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts focuses on themes of social criticism in an exhibition entitled "The World Today", curated by Elizabeth McCausland, which includes Tschacbasov's, "Little Red School House". 1940 Tschacbasov takes up photography. Photographing the works of friends and other artists, he builds a collection of color slides...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American WPA Jewish New York Modernist Madonna Mother and Child painting
Located in Norwich, GB
A magnificent oil on canvas by Russian American WPA artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984), dating from 1943. Depicting a Maternity scene - or possibly a m...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Nude in Interior”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting of a busy interior scene by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov’. Signed lower right and dated 1948. Condition is good. The artwork is housed in its original wormy chesnut frame. House of Heydenryk frame. Overall framed measurements are 17 by 14.75 inches. Provenance: A Long Island, New York estate. Nahum Tschacbasov Biography : Russian-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblance to work of another Russian-American artist--David Burliuk. He was somewhat of a late starter, moving to Paris in 1932 to study under Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger. He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1934. He then returned to the US where he joined Rothko and Gottlieb at the Galery Seccession. He was one of the co-founders of The Ten, a group of social conscious abstract painters which included Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and Ilya Bolotowsky, among others. In 1944, he began to work at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17, a center for surrealistic ideas. Between 1936 and 1943, he had five one-man exhibitions at the ACA Galleries and participated in five group shows. He also exhibited at the Whitney, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Knox Albright Museum, the Chicago Institute of Fine Art and Corcoran, among others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Met, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum. Tschacbasov has been the subject of two recent retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY and Arthur Kalaher...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Woman with Orange Necklace”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on hardboard (a type of masonite) painting by the Russian American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed, dated 1946 along with a dedication to his wife on their 17th wedding anniversary. Condition is very good. The back of the painting has a sketch as well by Nahum Tschacbasov. Framed in a semi-antique ornate gold frame...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

“The Wizard”
Located in Southampton, NY
Here for your consideration is a mid century modern oil painting on masonite by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. The painting depicts an old man with a long wispy beard holding a group of birds. Signed lower right and dated 1954. Presently unframed. Condition is very good. Provenance: The estate of the artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Nahum Tschacbasov Biography : Russian-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblance to work of another Russian-American artist--David Burliuk. He was somewhat of a late starter, moving to Paris in 1932 to study under Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger. He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1934. He then returned to the US where he joined Rothko and Gottlieb at the Galery Seccession. He was one of the co-founders of The Ten, a group of social conscious abstract painters which included Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and Ilya Bolotowsky, among others. In 1944, he began to work at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17, a center for surrealistic ideas. Between 1936 and 1943, he had five one-man exhibitions at the ACA Galleries and participated in five group shows. He also exhibited at the Whitney, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Knox Albright Museum, the Chicago Institute of Fine Art and Corcoran, among others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Met, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum. Tschacbasov has been the subject of two recent retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY and Arthur...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

“Abstract in Purple & Red”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original monotype on heavy archival paper by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Image size is 16 by 12. Sheet size is 21.25 by 15.5 inches A monotype is a one of a kin...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Monotype, Archival Paper

“Portrait of Sasha”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting by Nahum Tschacbasov of his daughter Sondra Tschacbasov (Sasha) at approximately the age of eleven or twelve. Signed lower left and dated 1942. Condition is very good. The painting has been relined. Sasha Tschacbasov later became the second wife of the famous American writer Saul Bellow...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Russian Peasant Woman”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting of a Russian peasant woman in a moonlit landscape by the well known Russian American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lo...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Woman with Birds”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original mid-century modern oil on canvas board painting of a woman with birds by the well known Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and ...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

“Woman with Red Dog”
Located in Southampton, NY
Modern oil on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov.. Signed top right and dated 1960. Condition is very good; no restorations.. Presently unframed. Provenance: Estate of the artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Nahum Tschacbasov was born in Russian in 1899 but moved to Chicago when he was a young boy. He moved to New York City as a young man and spent over 50 years living and working from a series of apartments in the Chelsea Hotel. He learned to paint as a young man in France with his early teacher being Georges Rouault. Tschacbasov returned to New York and for years exhibited at ACA gallery, Perls Gallery and later with John Heller...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“The Green Necklace”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas original painting by The Russian/ American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower left and dated 1943. Condition is very good. Framed in custom contemporary gold le...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Acrobat"
Located in Southampton, NY
Circa 1950 Signed top right Newly matted with natural oak frame Sight size 13.75 x 8 in. Overall size with frame 21 x 14 in.
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel

“Flowers and Figures”
Located in Southampton, NY
Fabulous oil on masonite by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated lower left, 1954.. In very good original condition; no issues. The painting ...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

"Blue Harlequin"
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on thick artist board by Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed upper right and dated 1948. Provenance: Woodstock, New York estate. Housed in a custom sil...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Woman with Bird, " Nahum Tschacbasov, figurative, modern, 1956
Located in Wiscasset, ME
Born in Baku, Russia in 1899, prolific avant-garde artist and painter Nahum Tschacbasov studied in Paris with Leopold Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fe...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Untitled"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on masonite painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated 1946. In good condition. The painting is framed in a contemporary...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

“Solar Sunset”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on masonite painting by the Russian/ American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right. Circa 1950. Unframed. Condition: Good. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Nahum Tschacbasov’s paintings are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Philadelphia Museum, the Pennsylvania Museum of Fine Art, as well as numerous college and private collections. His work was shown at ACA Gallery in New York, as well as Perl’s Gallery and John Heller...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

“Children in the Park”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on masonite encaustic painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated top right, 1952. In good to very good condition. Provenance: Est...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

“Portrait of Esther”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting of the artist’s wife in a red chair by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top left and dated 1960. Condition is good. Unframed. Provenance...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Woman with Red Bow”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top right and dated 1957. Condition is good. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Biography : Russia...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Surreal Family”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated top right, 1942. Condition: Good. Old relined canvas.. Provenance: Estate of The artis...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Abstract Sailing, 1945”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on academy board by the Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated lower left, 1945. Condition: Excellent. Presently not framed. Biography : Russian-America...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Fiberboard

"Sasha"
Located in Southampton, NY
Portrait of the artist's daughter Sasha at 8 years old by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Oil on masonite on a wooden stretcher backing. Signed lower right and dated 1938. Sasha later was to become the second wife of the the writer, Saul Bellow. Condition is good with some wear to top left of painting. In original, unrestored condition. Unframed. Nahum Tschacbasov lived in New York City for most of his adult life, arriving in the United States as a young boy in 1907. His numerous one man shows included ACA gallery, Perls Gallery and John Heller...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

“Profiles”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on masonite painting by Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top right and dated 1952. Condition is good. Presently unframed. Provenance: Estate of the artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Biograph...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

"Le Cheval Blanc"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on masonite painting by the Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed middle right and dated 1955. It depicts a white stallion riding on a wooden raft in rough seas with...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

"Fireglow Sunset"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on artist board mounted on wood panel. Tschacbasov sunset sets the trees ablaze in this beautiful painting done in the late 1950's while two small figures in the lower right side...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The General"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Done with a thick impasto paint the artist portrays the powerful yet colorful nature of the general...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Girl with Butterfly"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on masonite painting done in 1945 by Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated lower right, 1945. In original wood and gilt frame 37.5 by 31.5 inc...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Portrait of Millen Brand"
Located in Southampton, NY
Here for your consideration is a museum exhibited oil on canvas work by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower left and dated 1975. The border of this painting...
Category

1970s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Untitled”
Located in Southampton, NY
Unframed Signed and dated lower left 1946
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

"Twin Cities"
Located in Southampton, NY
This rare and wonderful oil on canvas landscape by Nahum Tschacbasov was done circa 1947. A slightly smaller version of this painting by Tschacbasov called "Night and Day" is illust...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Woman with Braids
Located in Southampton, NY
Signed and dated lower right 1935 Unframed
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Woman and Birds”
Located in Southampton, NY
Mid-century oil on masonite modern painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top left and dated 1949. Titled verso. Condition is good. Provenanc...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Modern paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Modern 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, orange, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Bernard Labbe, Christel Haag, Sunil Das, and Antonio Feltrinelli. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Modern paintings, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available.

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