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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
Item Ships From: Continental US
"Fanti Fishing Boat" Modern Abstract Figurative Woodcut Print 47 of 86
Located in Houston, TX
Abstract figurative woodblock print of a beach landscape with a boat. The print is stamped by the artist and titled and editioned in pencil. This print is editioned 47 of 86 and the print is not currently framed. Artist Biography: Born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1924, John Biggers studied at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) under Viktor Lowenfeld and muralist Charles White. In 1943, Biggers' mural, Dying Soldier, was included in the exhibition curated by Lowenfeld, Young Negro Art, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After serving in the United States Navy, Biggers transferred to Pennsylvania State University where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as his doctorate in art education. In 1949, Biggers accepted a faculty position at Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University) in Houston, where he founded and chaired the art department until his retirement. In the early 50s, he won prizes for his work at annual exhibitions held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 1957, he traveled to Africa on a UNESCO fellowship to study Western African cultural traditions, becoming one of the first black artists to study the culture first-hand rather than through library research. His work was profoundly influenced by his experiences in Africa. He was known for his murals, but also for his drawings, paintings, and lithographs, and was honored by a major traveling retrospective exhibition from 1995 to 1997. He created archetypal imagery that spoke positively to the rich and varied ethnic heritage of African Americans, long before the Civil Rights era drew...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Woodcut

Rare & Special Painting by Important Chicago Modernist Artist Davenport Griffen
Located in Chicago, IL
A 1936 Modernist landscape painting with figures by important Chicago artist (William) Davenport Griffen. His paintings tend to be rare. Image size: 18" x 20". Framed size: 22" x 24". (William) Davenport Griffen was born in 1894 in Millbrook, NY. He graduated from Iowa State College in Ames, IA in 1918 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering; however, Griffen’s true love was painting. In 1919, he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1923-1928. In 1926, he was awarded the American Travel Scholarship and began painting in Provincetown, MA. In 1928, he was awarded the John Quincy Adams Scholarship and spent six months painting in Paris, France. Griffen also painted in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 11 months between 1930-1931. Griffen had one-man exhibitions of his Virgin Islands paintings...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Charles Chartier 1951 French Cubist Modernist Oil Painting Surreal Paris Village
Located in Surfside, FL
Alex Charles Chartier, French, 1894-1957 Oil painting on board 1951 Quartier Plaisance, Paris village scene Hand signed and dated '51 lower left. Dimensions: 21" x 25-3/4", frame...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Dandelion" Original Vintage Oil Painting
Located in Soquel, CA
"Dandelion" Original Vintage Oil Painting Like a scientific illustration, Edith Bruning (American, 1899-1961) depicts various stages of a dandel...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Spring Ploughing" Georgina Klitgaard, Modernist American Farmed Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard Spring Ploughing Signed lower right Oil on canvas 34 x 42 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign artists ...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

King David, Jerusalem (after Marc Chagall) Oil Painting Israeli Judaica Art
Located in Surfside, FL
Framed 41.5 x 29.5 image 35.5 x 23.5 This large painting depicts a man and woman, Adam and Eve, interlocked and embracing one another. The woman holds an enticing apple as they are thrusted from the Garden of Eden. This is an original painting. Zamy Steynovitz was born in Liegnitz Poland, in 1951. He immigrated to Israel in 1957. The aspiration to be a painter stems from his childhood and before leaving Poland, he won the first prize in an art competition for children. Zamy was formally educated at the Art School in Tel-Aviv and at the Royal Academy of London. Upon completing his studies, Zamy earnestly pursued his career and establish his place in the art world by displaying his work in one man exhibits and arts fairs around the world. His art displays chromatic and thematic richness and his choice of subjects has been strongly influenced by Jewish tradition, his Eastern European Jewish heritage and folklore. Zamy’s popular themes include Paris cafes, still-life, flowers, circuses and landscapes. Circus with acrobats and Harlequin. In the early stages of his career, he was partial to rich pastels and light brush strokes. In the early 1980s, Zamy visited South America, where the new surroundings enhanced his work with local brightness and color. His art gained chromatic power and his palette became richer in tones as the textures became thicker and the background darker and more colorful. These changes coupled with his thematic persistence allowed him to develop into a sensitive and mature artist. Zamy expresses a universal humanistic vision in his creations: man’s connection to his heritage and physical surroundings, two imperative aspects of our lives that should be heralded during these estranged technological times. As a result of his devotion to world peace, Zamy is known in the circles of the Nobel Institute for Peace in Norway. He is acquainted with many Nobel Prize winners including Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, the Dalai Lama, Itzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel, Desmond Tutu and Oscar Arias, the ex-President of Costa Rica, along with many other politicians and artists. Zamy tragically passed away in September 2000. Exhibitions One Man Show 1970 - Museum - Ramat - Gan 1973 - Brussels - Gallery L'Angle Aigu 1974 - London - International Gallery 1974 - Paris - Grand Palais Gallery 1975 - Milan - Brera Gallery 1976 - N.Y. Valentino Gallery - N.Y. Hilton 1977 - N.Y. Valentino Gallery - N.Y. Hilton 1978 - Basel - Actual Gallery 1978 - Geneve - Bohren Gallery 1978 - Oslo - Nobel Peace Prize Exhibit 1979 - London - Hamilton Gallery 1979 - N.Y. - Art Israel Kalt - Waldinger Gallery 1979 - N.Y. - Canty Art Gallery 1979 - Amsterdam - Schipper Gallery 1979 - Washington - International Art Fair 1980 - Cleveland -Jewish Museum 1980 - Tel-Aviv - Habima National Art Fair 1981 - Abraham - Goodman House N.Y. 1981 - San Lucas Galley - Bogota 1982 - Pedro Gerson Gallery - Mexico City 1983 - Simon Bolivar...
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"China Town" Ernest Fiene, 1925 Modernist Watercolor on Paper Chinatown Scene
Located in New York, NY
Ernest Fiene China Town, 1925 Signed and dated to lower right ‘Ernest Fiene 1925’. Watercolor on paper 18 1/2 x 14 5/8 inches Ernest Fiene was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1894. As a teenager, Fiene immigrated to the United States in 1912. He studied art at the National Academy of Design in New York City from 1914 to 1918, taking day classes with Thomas Maynard and evening classes with Leon Kroll. Fiene continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York from 1916 to 1918, adding classes in printmaking at the Art Students League in 1923. Fiene began his career as an artist in 1919 with his first exhibition of watercolors at the MacDowell Club arranged by his mentor Robert Henri. In 1923 the Whitney Studio Club mounted a large exhibition of his works. The following year he had an exhibition at the New Gallery in New York, which completely sold out all fifty-two works, including paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings. With the proceeds of sales from the New Gallery exhibition, Ernest Fiene and his younger brother Paul, a sculptor, built studios in Woodstock, New York in 1925. In the early Twenties Ernest Fiene painted mostly landscapes of Woodstock and both the Ramapo and Hudson River Valleys. The first monograph from the Younger Artists Series was published on Fiene in 1922. Published in Woodstock, the series went on to include Alexander Brook, Peggy Bacon, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The book reproduced 1 illustration in color and another 27 reproductions in black and white. Around 1925 Fiene became fascinated with the intensity, excitement, and opportunities for color harmonies New York City offered as a subject. His paintings shifted to urban and industrial themes with architecture, industry, and transportation becoming his subjects. By 1926 Fiene had attracted the dealer Frank K.M. Rehn, who gave him a one-man exhibition that year, which travelled to the Boston Arts Club. C.W. Kraushaar Galleries gave Fiene a one-man exhibition of urban, landscape, portrait, and still life paintings in 1927. Julianna Force, the director of the Whitney Studio Club and first director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, included two of Fiene’s paintings in a fall exhibition in 1928. The Whitney Studio Club showed Fiene’s paintings in a two-man exhibition with Glenn O. Coleman that year and acquired three of Fiene’s paintings. Also in 1928 Fiene became affiliated with Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery where he had an exhibition of 20 lithographs in the spring. Fiene sold his house in Woodstock in 1928 to spend more of his time in New York City. With so many successful exhibitions, Fiene returned to Paris in 1928-29 where he rented Jules Pascin's studio and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In France, Fiene painted both landscape and urban subjects developed from ideas influenced by Cubist geometry and the use of flat areas of broad color. Upon returning to New York in 1930, Fiene used this new approach to continue to paint New York skyscraper and waterfront subjects, as well as to begin a series of paintings on changing old New York based on the excavations for Radio City Music Hall and the construction of the Empire State Building. Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries exhibited this series, titled “Changing Old New York,” in 1931. Fiene also has solo exhibitions at Rehn Galleries in 1930 and 1932. Fiene’s oil paintings are exhibited at the Chicago Arts Club in 1930 as well. Fiene was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans in December of 1931. Visiting New York, Henri Matisse saw the exhibition and called Fiene’s Razing Buildings, West 49th Street the finest painting he had seen in New York. Fiene had two mural studies from his Mechanical Progress series exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Murals by American Painters and Photographers in 1932. Fiene sent View from my Window which depicts Fiene working on a lithograph stone while looking out his window to the newly completed Empire State Building to the Carnegie International in 1931. In 1932 Fiene participated in the first Biennial of American Painting at the Whitney Museum and his prints were included in exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery and the Wehye Gallery. In the same year, Fiene was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to further study mural painting in Florence, Italy. On his return from Italy in 1933 Fiene re-engaged himself in New York City life and won several public and private mural projects. Fiene resumed his active exhibition schedule, participating in two group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum and a one-man exhibition of recent paintings at the Downtown Gallery in January 1934. In 1933 he purchased a farm in Southbury, Connecticut, which added Connecticut scenes to his landscape subjects. This was also the year Fiene began to spend summers on Monhegan Island, Maine, where he painted seascapes, harbor scenes, and still lifes. Fiene’s landscape paintings attracted numerous commissions as part of the American Scene movement. Through the fall and winter of 1935-36, Fiene took an extended sketching trip through the urban, industrial, and farming areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Most of the twenty-four Pennsylvania urban and rural paintings from this trip were featured in an exhibition held at the First National Bank in Pittsburgh in October of 1937 by the Pittsburgh Commission for Industrial Expansion. Fiene said of these works that he formed rhythm, opportunity for space and color, and integrity in the Pennsylvania mill and furnace paintings. Fiene received the silver medal for one of the Pittsburgh paintings...
Category

1920s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Vintage Yacht Race Oil Painting by Listed Artist Amos C. Brinton (1888-1982)
Located in Baltimore, MD
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...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Impressionist Ashcan School Nocturnal Cityscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique original nocturnal cityscape oil painting. Oil on board, circa 1920. Signed illegibly. Image size, 12L x 16H. Housed in a period frame.
Category

1920s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American School Modernist Rose Flower Still Life Nicely Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist still life oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 10H by 8L.
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board

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

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Charles Burk– American (1947-) Title: Doorway, old Building Year: unknown Medium: Watercolor on watercolor paper Size: 10 x 15 inches. Framed size: 19 x 23.5 inches Signatu...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

'Bird Abstraction' — Mid-Century Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Stephen Harty, Untitled (Bird Abstraction), gouache, 1953. Signed and dated lower left. A fine, meticulously rendered, mid-century, modernist gouache painting, with fresh colors on 1...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Christopher Street (abstract Greenwich Village cityscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). Christopher Street, 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15.5 x 20 inches. Window in matting measures 15 x 19 inches. Framed measurement: 23 x 30 inched. Bears fragment of original label affixed on verso. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC Exhibited: The American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition. From the facade of The Waverly at Christopher is depicted One Christopher Street, the 16-story Art Deco residential building erected in 1931. It is not a casual coincidence that the structure appears in this cityscape: 1 Christopher Street is the subject. The original intention of this project was to transform the neighborhood, bring a bit of affluence and make a bid to rival the Upper West Side. Margules, a sensitive aesthete, understood how a massive piece of architecture such as One changes a neighborhood. Sound, scale and focal points are forever altered. A pedestrian's sense of depth and distance becomes pronounced. All of these factors contribute to the intent behind this image. Tall buildings disrupt the human scale, change the skyline and carve up space. In this piece, negative space conforms to the man-made geometries. Clouds become gems fixed in settings. De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

Girl on a Rock with Mask , Florence, Italy
Located in Hudson, NY
Oil on Canvas , Made in Florence, Italy Daylight explores a playful world where dreams and reality meld together to create surreal moments. When engaging with Piussi's work, we enter an arena where we are immersed in childlike delight. We experience snapshot images of a world reduced to its essence, in a seemingly comic-book style that has echoes of Giotto and Paolo Uccello, and even of medieval illuminations. My work is simple: the subject matter is stripped to basics, so all that is engagement, controversy and links to reality is taken away, and what remains is an icon with an aura of philosophical suspension, and a window into the enigma of existence. Piussi’s work is directly influenced by artists Alex Katz and David Hockney, and his style reflects a comprehensive understanding of the work of Giotto and Paolo Uccello. In "Girl on a Rock with Mask”, the figure represented in this painting conveys a blank mood, such that the viewer is invited to examine their own intimate feelings that arise when observing the image. Piussi creates a universe of more profound truths in his examination of the tranquility of everyday life: he reminds us of our need for reflection, shows us a fearlessness in the face of stillness and the passage of time. The broad repertoire of his paintings, with their naturalistic color and semi-abstract shapes, presents us with Piussi’s views concerning our contemporary lives. Rather than mimic the appearance of nature, Piussi reaches for its essence, in visions that are devoid of distracting details. Women stand on the shores of quintessentially peaceful seas; they are self-contained, at ease. These women are unwitting replicas of classical goddesses. Or we see a proud diver echoing Neptune, holding his trident. Piussi was born in 1967 in Udine and raised in Florence, where he majored in sculpture at the Institute D’Arte. He completed his artistic education at Milano's Brera Art Academy where he majored in painting. Piussi went on to live in Florence, where he now pursues his passion for painting, bronze, terracotta sculpture and bas-reliefs. Giacomo Piussi...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Historically Important American Army Soldiers in Paris Cafe WPA Ashcan Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American oil painting. Oil on canvas. Measuring 18 by 22 inches.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blue Lake
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s. Blue Lake, c. 1940s, oil on masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 36 inches, label and inscriptio...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

'The Soul is Music' France, Provence, California, Post Impressionist Figural Oil
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'J.da Silveira' for Jose Da Silveira (French-American, born 1965), titled, 'The Soul is Music' and painted circa 2002. Additionally signed and titled, and with figural drawing, verso; Previously with: Chabot Gallery, Campbell, California Born in a tiny jungle village in Mozambique to a Portuguese bullfighter and the daughter of one of the leaders of the French Resistance...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1940s Modernist Oil Painting – Adobe Church Landscape, New Mexico Southwest Art
Located in Denver, CO
This evocative vintage oil painting from the 1930s–1940s captures a classic adobe church in New Mexico, likely inspired by the historic San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Rancho de Taos. Painted by Denver modernist Paul K...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Young Broodmares
Located in Atlanta, GA
A passion for horses, equestrian pursuits, and painting define Brooke Major's life and career. A native of Atlanta, GA, Brooke Major has been living and working as a professional art...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique French Modernist Paris School Signed Street Scene Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique French modernist Paris school cityscape street scene oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring 27 by 40 inches overall and 26 by 39 painting alone. In excellent...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Signed Antique American Modernist Ethereal Woman Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Very finely painted 1940 American modernist portrait painting. Oil on canvas. In excellent original condition. Signed. Handsomely framed in a period giltwood molding. Excellent...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Early 20th Century Landscape -- Columbia Blue Mountain
Located in Soquel, CA
Vivid mountain Landscape by Antioqueño, Medellín painter Humberto Valencia Chaves (Columbian, 1891-1971). Signed "Valencia Chaves" lower left. Presented in a rustic wooden frame. Ima...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas, Illustration Board

A Large Exceptional Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Chicago Night Club Showgirl
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Esteban Vicente “Sagapoback” Oil on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
“Sagapoback”, a beautiful oil on canvas color field painting by American artist Esteban Vicente (1903-2001). He was born in Turégano, Spain and was one of the first generation of New...
Category

1990s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paint, Canvas

Still Life
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed "P. Bisiaux" at lower right The overall dimensions, including the frame, are 29 x 34 7/8 inches
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Lovers - Nude Couple in Bed - Figurative Composition in Acrylic on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Lovers - Nude Couple in Bed - Figurative Composition in Acrylic on Paper Expressive depiction of a nude couple by Byron Richard Rodarmel (American, 1932-2007). A couple is intertwin...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Dressing
By Miriam Tindall Smith
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Smith studied at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia under Edward Warwick. In 1935 she was asked by the Art Institute of Chicago to loan her painting, "Repose" to the forty...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Coastal Clouds Sunrise Seascape
Located in Soquel, CA
A dynamic landscape featuring a beautiful sunrise reflecting on storm clouds above the quiet shoreline by Santa Cruz artist Don Hannan (American 20th c). An Airplane flies into the s...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board

Figures Riding Horses, Oil Painting by Joyce Roybal
Located in Long Island City, NY
Figures Riding Horses Joyce Roybal, (1955) Oil on canvas, signed lower right Size: 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm) Frame Size: 35.5 x 45.5 inches
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American School Signed Modernist Woman Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted American modernist interior portrait oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 28H by 22L.
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oceans Apart
Located in East Hampton, NY
fun with Color Theory As seen at Art on Paper 2024 at The Mannix Project East Hampton NY 12"x12" (14"x14" framed) each These come in a white frame. Acrylic on Paper Artist Statement...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Reclining Figures
Located in Dallas, TX
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...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Scale Modernist Abstract Square and Circle
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful large scale natural toned mixed media abstract comprising a rectangle of antiqued white texturized with gesso'd hemp sacking and set above second ivory rectangle in pale ivory with circle of scumbled grey by British contemporary artist Richard Lawrence...
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil

Stylish Hawaiian Luau Oil Painting by Listed artist Mario Larrinaga (1895-1979)
Located in Baltimore, MD
Mario Larrinaga was born in Baja California in 1895 and moved with his brother to Los Angeles in 1909. He had no formal training in art, but had natural talent that was noticed by local movie studios. He was hired by Universal Studios as a designer, art director and creator of background scenes. He produced some of the background effects for King Kong in 1933. After a career in set design and illustration he focused on painting for pleasure in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He belonged to local art clubs and exhibited his works often. This stylized modernist work was likely created around 1960. It is oil on wood panel and of a horizontal format, 18” x 36”. It portrays a procession of seemingly Hawaiian natives...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Modernist Art Deco Exhibited Signed Portrait Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Wonderful and finely painted American modernist portrait painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 20H by 16L.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Coastal Cottages', Mid-century Massachusetts Woman Artist, California
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Swinson' for Marjorie E.G. Swinson (American, born circa 1904) and painted circa 1955; additionally signed, verso, 'Marjorie E. G. Swinson'. Marjorie Swinson...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Signed Modernist Abstract Coastal Harbor Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Very nicely painted American modernist harbor oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 16H by 20L.
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat
Located in Soquel, CA
"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat Abstract expressionist portrait of a woman wearing a hat by California artist Harald "Harry" Dry Schmidt (America...
Category

1970s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Nude
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Provenance The artist; Collection of Walter Stuempfig, Philadelphia; Private collection, Massachusetts until 2022 The Philadelphia modernist Arthur B. Carles was a brilliant coloris...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1950s "View from the Window" Jack Hooper Mid Century Still Life Oil Painting
Located in Arp, TX
Jack Hooper "View From the Window" c. 1950s Oil on Canvas 32"x25.25" silver and black wood frame 26.5"x33.25" Unsigned Minor wear consistent with age and ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Harem: Sexy Nude Girl Illustration for Playboy. First Black Illustrator
Located in Miami, FL
Playboy Magazine ran this joke cartoon illustration in color on page 43 for the October 1960 edition. Signed lower right. The work is executed on a heavy Whatman Illustration board....
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Illustration Board, Pencil, Gouache

San Francisco Cable Car WPA Artist Adolf Dehn Modernist Art Gouache Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) San Francisco Bay Area street scene, with Trolley, Streetcar, Cable Car with bay and Alcatraz Island in background. Hand signed LRC. Sight 19" x 15", overall 23" x 19". Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Adolph Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Oil

'Ginger Cat with Still Life', American Modernist, WPA Muralist, SFAA, GGIE, MoMA
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Jay Risling' (American, 1896-1993) and dated 1941. A psychologically penetrating study of a contented, golden-eyed ginger cat shown re...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Farm in the Valley - Plein Air California Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Farm in the Valley - Plein Air California Landscape Beautiful mid century landscape of a California farm by Baumgardner (American, 20th Century). The viewer stands on a dirt road, w...
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Ledge" Georgina Klitgaard, Modernist Upstate New York Country Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard The Ledge, 1936-37 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 30 x 52 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign artist...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Old Master Continental School Bird Still Life Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique oil painting featuring brids. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.
Category

Early 1800s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Don Nieves
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Pablo O’Higgins (1904-1983). Portrait of Don Nieves, 1960. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24.5 inches; 19 x 25.5 inches in original frame. Signed lower righ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Antique French Impressionist Paris Street Scene Framed Exhibited Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Large and powerful French modern street scene. A paris view by Claude Aliotti (1925 - 1989). Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 18"L x 24"H.
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Washington Street" Modern Abstract Warm Toned Downtown City Street Scene
Located in Houston, TX
Modern warm toned downtown city street scene by Texas-based artist Herb Mears. The work features a variety of building facades including a grill, bar, and wholesale store. Signed in ...
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'Pink and White Poppies beneath Blue Skies', Whitney Museum, PAFA, AIC, ASL, ICA
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'C G Nelson' for Carl Gustaf Simon Nelson (American, 1898-1988) and dated 1956. A substantial, Modernist oil showing a profusion of white and pink poppies contra...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

English mid century oil painting Portrait of Saluki dog
Located in Woodbury, CT
Wonderful English mid century portrait of a Saluki dog. Kate Gray was a British animal portrait painter during the last half of the 20th century. She also painted flower subjects. ...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'Figure Seated in Interior', Woman Artist, Berkeley, San Francisco Museum of Art
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Millicent Tomkins' for Millicent Hanson Tomkins (American, 1930-2021) and dated 1959. Millicent Tomkins began painting at a young age and, as a child, was awarde...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School New York City Modernist Central Park View Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist central park, new york city oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvasboard . Image size, 18H by 24L.
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Changing Everything Forever: River #7 bright colorful abstract landscape
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Changing Everything Forever: River #7 Exuberant brushwork, bright colorful abstract landscape Acrylic, w some dirt, some grass, on canvas. Painted at the Blackstone-Seekonk River.
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Peacock Blue Green Painting, Mixed Media Textured on Canvas 60 H X 40" W
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
Peacock Blue Green Painting, Mixed Media Textured on Canvas 60 H X 40" W inches, Mixed Media: Digital, Watercolor, Acrylic, Gel Medium One-of-a-kind 2017 in Los Angeles SPECIFICATI...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Digital

Alfred Birdsey Vintage Bermuda Bayscape Painting
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Transporting mid century acrylic painting on board of a Bermuda bayscape with houses, boats, and a lone figure, executed in a loose modernist style. Signed Birdsey in the lower right...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

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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