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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
Period: 1930s
Chicago Modernist Gouache Painting Shabbat Hebrew Calligraphy WPA Artist Judaica
Located in Surfside, FL
A Judaica painting with Hebrew Calligraphy by noted Chicago Modernist. Alexander Raymond Katz (his Hungarian first name, Sandor, was anglicized to A...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Japan Issue Fortune Magazine Cover Proposal Japanese Mid-Century Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Japan Issue Fortune Magazine Cover Proposal Japanese Mid-Century Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) JAPAN ISSUE Fortune cover proposal, c. 1936 14 1/4 x 12 inches (sight) Framed 19 3/4 X 17 3/4 Inches Gouache on board Signed lower left BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Board, Gouache

Rare 1930s New York Tenement Market Scene Gouache Painting (WPA Era) Jewish Art
Located in Surfside, FL
Abram Tromka was born May 1, 1896 in Poland. At the age of seven he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in New York City. It was on the boat coming to New York where Tromka first became interested in art. Fascinated by a woman who was painting, he decided that he wanted to become an artist. Upon arrival at immigration headquarters, Tromka’s family adopted the surname “Phillips,” which he kept until 1930. Hence the artist’s early works bear the signature — ‘Phillips.’ Having a rough childhood, Tromka left home at 15 and spent the remainder of his teenage years living at the Henry Street...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache

New Year's Day 1937, celebration at the English Garden, Geneva
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Golden molded wooden frame 76 x 66 x 7 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Original Painting. Vanity Fair Illustration Proposal. Art Deco Modern 1930s
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. Vanity Fair Illustration Proposal. Art Deco Modern 1930s Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Vanity Fair Illustration proposal, c 1930’s 18 X 13 3/4 inches (sight) ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Art Week Poster Design American Scene Modern c. 1930s WPA Era Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Art Week Poster Design American Scene Modern c. 1930s WPA Era Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Art Week 22 X 17 inches Gouache on board, c. 19...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Tabletop Still Life, Modernist Still Life with Food, Flowers, and Wine, Signed
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Tabletop Still Life" by Philadelphia born modernist and surrealist painter Leon Kelly, is a framed painting of a set dinner table with food, flowers, and wine. The 36" x 44" oil on ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Bricklayers House Beautiful Cover Proposal American Scene Modern 1930s Workers
Located in New York, NY
Bricklayers House Beautiful Cover Proposal American Scene Modern WPA 1930s Industrial Workers Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Brick Layers House Beautiful cover proposal, c. 1939 ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Board, Gouache

Fetiche 6, Abstract Expressionist Painting by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
Set against a deep green background of layered paint and wavy lines, Benjamin Benno’s textured composition features an array of unidentifiable figures of varying sizes and shapes. Th...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Vintage Large Signed American Modernist Interior Scene Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed portrait oil painting by Sidney Gross (1921 - 1969). Oil on canvas. Signed.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Signed Alexander Kreisel New York Modernist Painting
Located in Larchmont, NY
Alexander Kreisel (1901-1952) Montmarte, Early 20th century (c. 1920-1950) Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in. Signed lower right: Inscribed verso: Montmarte At the end of the 19th century, the agrarian village of Montmarte had been annexed into Paris' ever-growing city limits, and it became a hub for artists and their dealers, cabarets, and even brothels. Vincent Van Gogh lived in this area with his brother, an important moment in his artistic development. Here, Kreisel depicts a nude, white model being depicted by a Black female artist...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

French Animated Street Scene Oil on Canvas Painting by Renzo Gori
Located in Atlanta, GA
Italian artist Renzo Gori (1911 - 1998) designed this oil on canvas painting which features an animated urban street scene in France. The artist's signature is in the bottom right corner. Contemporary framed in an elegant black wood textured pattern frame with gilded garland. Measurements: With frame: 20.25 in. high (51.5 cm) x 27 in. wide (68.5 cm). Opening view: 14.38 in. high (36.5 cm) x 21 in. wide (53.5 cm). About: Renzo Gori is an Italian painter from Florence of the 20th Century (1911 - 1998). In the thirties, he stayed in Paris with the Florentine painter Dario Mecatti...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Large Modernist Interior View Fauvist Palette Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique large modern interior scene oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1920. Unsigned. Image size 35.5L x47.5H.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Signed WPA Black Artist Studio Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American signed modernist artist studio oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Image size, 18L x 24H.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bouquet of flowers in vase
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 52 x 37.2 x 4 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

1930s Colorado Modernist Landscape Painting of Trees, Mountains & Houses
Located in Denver, CO
Colorado Modernist landscape, watercolor on paper by Turner B. Messick (1878-1952) from 1938. Tree with houses and mountains in the background, pain...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Antique European School Modernist Village Landscape Original Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique European modernist landscape painting. Oil on board, circa 1930. Unsigned. Image size, 20.5L x 17.5H. Housed in a period giltwood frame.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Bird of Sea and Land, Abstract Gouache Painting by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
An original cubist gouache painting by American artist Benjamin Benno. This surreal teal composition does little to resemble anything from its title, i...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Original Painting. Fortune Cover. Sept 1933 Illustration American Modern WPA Era
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. Fortune Cover. Sept 1933 Illustration American Modern WPA Era Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Wild Horses & Dynamo Fortune cover published, September 1933 13 X ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Siamese Cat with Kittens by Orovida Pissarro - Egg tempura painting
Located in London, GB
Siamese Cat with Kittens by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968) Egg tempera on linen 39 x 48 cm (15³/₈ x 18⁷/₈ inches) Signed lower right Orovida and dated lower left 1934 Provenance J Ankri, 8th October 1967 Literature K L Erickson, Orovida Pissarro: Painter and Print-Maker with A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, (doctoral thesis), Oxford, 1992, Appendices, no. 51, p. 56 (illustrated) Exhibition London, The Leicester Galleries, Paintings by Orovida, February 1935, no. 6 Women’s International Art Club, 20th February - 13th March 1937, no. 273 London, Redfern Gallery, Ten Years of Work by Orovida, 5th-28th May 1938, no. 7 London, The Royal Society of British Artists, Summer Exhibition, 1947, no. 281 (possibly the etching) London, O’Hana Gallery, Paintings, Drawings and Coloured Etchings: Orovida, 3rd-18th October 1957, no. 13 Artist biography Orovida Camille Pissarro, Lucien and Esther Pissarro’s only child, was the first woman in the Pissarro family as well as the first of her generation to become an artist. Born in Epping, England in 1893, she lived and worked predominantly in London where she became a prominent member of several British arts clubs and societies. She first learned to paint in the Impressionist style of her father, but after a brief period of formal study with Walter Sickert in 1913 she renounced formal art schooling. Throughout her career, Orovida always remained outside of any mainstream British art movements. Much to Lucien's disappointment she soon turned away from naturalistic painting and developed her own unusual style combining elements of Japanese, Chinese, Persian and Indian art. Her rejection of Impressionism, which for the Pissarro family had become a way of life, together with the simultaneous decision to drop her famous last name and simply use Orovida as a ‘nom de peintre’, reflected a deep desire for independence and distance from the weight of the family legacy. Orovida's most distinctive and notable works were produced from the period of 1919 to 1939 using her own homemade egg tempera applied in thin, delicate washes to silk, linen or paper and sometimes embellished with brocade borders. These elegant and richly decorative works generally depict Eastern, Asian and African subjects, such as Mongolian horse...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Linen, Egg Tempera

By the lagoon in Moorea
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 48 x 61 x 3 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Post Impressionist Oil Painting Still Life with Fruit William Meyerowitz WPA Art
Located in Surfside, FL
William Meyerowitz (1887 - 1981) Oil painting on canvas Depicting a still life scene with fruit bowl, bananas, flowers and quilt. Post Impressionist oil painting. Hand signed low...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique American Modernist Tropical Woman Portrait Artist Studio Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Oil on board. Great color and thick impasto. Signed illegibly. Framed. Image size, 17.5L x 14.5H
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Sea and Rocks - Oil on Canvas by Gino Pira - 1937
Located in Roma, IT
Sea and rocks is an original artwork realized by Gino Pira in 1937. Original mixed colored oil painting on plywood. Hand-written dedication on the back. Beautiful and representati...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Gold Mine, Central City, Colorado
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Goldmine, Central City, Colorado, oil on canvas, 36 x 28 inches, c. 1936, signed lower right, ex collection of Platt Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois (label verso). About the Painting Joseph Meert’s painting, Goldmine, Central City, Colorado, depicts the short-lived resurrection of a once prominent city just outside Denver. Central City was founded in 1859 soon after John Gregory struck gold in the area. As word spread, thousands of miners converged into “Gregory’s Gulch” and its surroundings became known as the “richest square mile on earth.” Mining production quickly increased resulting in Central City to becoming Colorado’s largest city in the early 1860s. Despite some technical difficulties transitioning to lode mining and the rise of competition from Leadville, Central City remained an economic boom town through the turn of the century. But, with every boom, there is a bust. World War I marked the end of Central City’s prominence as ore production ground to a halt and by 1925, the town’s population shrank to only 400 people. The desperation of the Great Depression and a nearly 100% increase in the price of gold lured labor and capital back to Central City. Meert painted in Colorado during the mid-1930s, a time when he created his most desirable works. It is during this period of renaissance that Meert captures one of Central City's outlying dirt streets bordered by 19th century wooden houses from the town's heyday and the more recently installed electric lines leading to a distant gold mine. A lone figure trudges up the hill, a mother with a baby in her arms, putting us in mind of the rebirth of the town itself. Meert had solo exhibitions at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1936 and the Denver Art Museum. Although it is not known whether Goldmine, Central City was included in either of these exhibitions, it seems likely. Moreover, the painting is closely related to Meert’s painting, The Old Road, which was painted in 1936 and exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and at the Dallas Museum of Art. About the Artist Joseph Meert was a well-regarded painter and muralist, who initially made a name for himself in the American Scene and later as an abstract expressionist. Although initially successful, Meert struggled financially and with mental illness later in life. He was born in Brussels, Belgium, but moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri. As a child, a chance encounter at the Union Pacific Railyard changed his life. Meert happened upon a worker repainting and stenciling a design on a railroad car. Meert later recalled that this experience introduced him to the idea of being a painter. Without support from his father, Meert obtained a working scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. After four years at the Kansas City Art Institute, Meert studied seven years at the Art Students League and in Europe and Los Angeles. At the Art Students League, Meert fell under the spell of Thomas Hart Benton and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. In 1931, he befriended Jackson Pollock. By 1934, Meert was part of the Public Works of Art Project when he met his wife, Margaret Mullin...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Cabin on stilts by WALY - Oil on canvas 41x60 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Oil on canvas without frame One point of restoration Swiss artist of the 20th century
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American School Modernist Flower Still Life Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist still life painting. Oil and gouache on board, circa 1940. Housed in a period modernist frame. Image size, 24L x 18H.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Simka Simkhovitch WPA Artist Oil Painting Gouache American Modernist Powerline
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Oil, Board

'Still Life, Roses with Figure Approaching', German Expressionist, Robert Graves
By Karl Goldschmidt
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left, 'Karl Goldschmidt' (Anglo-German, 1912-1995) and painted circa 1930. Photo of Karl Goldschmidt (Kenneth Gay) with Robert Graves courte...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Surreal Street Scene Unsigned Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist street scene painting. Oil on board, circa 1930. Unsigned. Image size, 24L x 20H. Housed in a period modern frame.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Gouache

Sitting girl with open book
Located in Wien, 9
As a pupil of William Straube, Dora Hitz, Max Pechstein and Willy Jaeckel, Edith Meyer von Kamptz achieved her own individual aesthetic designs with colourfu...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Female figure - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Female figure is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s. Includes frame: 93.5 x 73.5 cm Mixed colored oil painting on canvas Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 – Gargnano, 1942) He was born in Milan on June 1, 1887 to Giovanni Feltrinelli, the nephew of Giacomo, who was the founder of the Feltrinelli partnership. Feltrinelli was not only a prominent figure in the Italian economic and financial field, but he was also a painter, who was characterized as a strong, impetuous hot colorist, and preferred still lifes, portraits and landscapes. He started his career in 1930 at La Permanente (Milan), where he exhibited a portrait and a still life that won him the Fornara award. That same year, Feltrinelli exhibited his work at the Venice Biennial and at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan. Together with other prominent avant-garde artists, he participated in various foreign exhibitions on modern Italian painting...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Rock and a Hard Place, Abstract Oil on Canvas Painting by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
A small-scale oil painting by Benjamin Benno, executed in 1934. A large boulder perches precariously on a tiled slab of earth, echoing a sense of stillness. A Rock and a Hard Place...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

#90 Strange Creature
Located in Fairlawn, OH
#90 Strange Creature Oil and pencil on board, 1932 Signed and dated in the image lower right (see photo) Provenance: Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland, OH Condition: excellent Archival framing Image size: 10 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches Frame size: 25 x 24 inches Painter, illustrator and commercial artist Norbert Lenz was born in Norwalk, Ohio and received his artistic training at both the Huntington Polytechnic Institute and the Cleveland School of Art. During his career Lenz exhibited his paintings and drawings at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art. Today the art of Norbert Lenz is held by the Columbus Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art. Lenz was also a very highly regarded commercial designer of stamps. He worked for a number of years at the House of Farman, a leading vendor of first day covers...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Poseidon - Ink and Tempera on Paper by Lucie Navier - 1933
Located in Roma, IT
Poseidon is an original painting realized by Lucie Navier in 1933. Original Ink and tempera painting on paper. Dated on the lower right corner (23-6-2033). Fair conditions except...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Watercolor, Ink

Pueblo Near Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1930s Southwestern Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on board landscape painting of a Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico signed by artist Eliot Candee Clark (1883-1980), painted in 1932. Signed by the artist in the lower left corner. Composed of shades of brown, tan, and blue. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 23 ½ x 25 x 1 3⁄4 inches. Image size is 17 1⁄4 x 19 1⁄2 inches. About the Artist: Son of landscape painter Walter Clark and Jennifer Woodruff Clark, a student of psychic phenomena, Eliot Clark was a precocious artist who became a landscape painter in the late American Impressionist style. Moving to Albemarle, Virginia in 1932, he was one of the few Impressionist artists of the Southern states. Likely this was a result of his association with James Whistler and his painting in 1900 at Gloucester, Massachusetts with John Twachtman, a family friend. Showing his obvious interest in Impressionism, he wrote a book about its exponents including Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, Childe Hassam, Julian Weir, and Robert Vonnoh. Clark was a teacher including at the National Art Club from 1943, the Art Students League, and New York City College. Early in his youth, Clark traveled with his father and other prominent artists to paint in the summer art colonies at Annisquam, Gloucester, Chadd's Ford and Ogunquit where he met artists of stature such as Edward Potthast and John Henry Twachtman. Clark's only formal instruction was a short two months at the Art Students League in New York. His landscapes evoked a "spiritualized rendition of nature" that was to stay with him for the rest of his life. Clark (perhaps related to his mother's interest in physic phenomena) developed an early interest in oriental philosophy that ended up having a major effect on his artistic development, the sense of spirituality in his landscape paintings slowly grew in importance. Clark was educated in the New York public schools, and at age 13 exhibited with the National Academy and the New York Water Color Club. By 1912, he had won national painting awards, and by 1916 was writing books on American artists as well as the history of the National Academy. In his early years Clark was privately tutored, and then later graduated from Washington Irving High School at the early age of fifteen. Although he later was quoted as saying "he had no formal training from his father", his early work was notable influenced by Walter Clark's tonalist style. Between 1904 and 1906, Clark studied in France in Paris and Giverny, and in London he saw the impressionist work of James Whistler. He wrote to his father about the Whistler Exhibit stating that some of Whistler's work impressed him, "not so much in the handling, but in the use of color, and subtle arrangement of line and balance of masses." He engaged in a "walking tour" of Europe with a fellow artist whom he met in earlier in Paris. They visited many of the major galleries in Holland and then traveled through the Alps, finally reaching Venice on August 10, 1906. I n Venice, he produced some Whistlerian style pastels similar to the ones he had seen in the Whistler Exhibition. He returned to New York in 1906, and a year later took a studio in the Van Dyke Studio Building on Eighth Avenue...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Still life - Oil Painting by Valentino Ghiglia - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Still life is an original modern artwork realized by Valentino Ghiglia in the mid-20th Century. Mixed colored oil on board. Hand signed on the back. Includes frame.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paint

“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

"Drama Teacher" 1938 WPA Mid 20th Century American Theatre Surrealism Modernism
Located in New York, NY
"Drama Teacher" 1938 WPA Mid 20th Century American Theatre Surrealism Modernism. 30 x 24 inches. Oil on Canvas. Signed land dated ’38 lower left. The photograph in the listing depicts the artist's friend who taught drama and about whom the painting is based 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...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Feminine Figure - Oil Painting by R. Melli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Feminine Figure is a modern artwork realized by Roberto Melli in 1930s. Mixed colored oil painting. Includes vintage frame (fair conditions) : 42 x 2 x...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

The blacksmith in his workshop
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 75 x 88.5 x 4 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

The worried bather
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Still Life of Fruit, " Albert Swinden, American Abstract Association, AAA
By Albert Swinden
Located in New York, NY
Albert Swinden (1901 - 1961) Still Life of Fruit, 1937 Oil on canvas 18 x 30 inches Provenance: Graham Gallery, New York Albert Swinden (1901–1961) was an English-born American abstract painter. He was one of the founders of the American Abstract Artists, and he created significant murals as part of the Federal Art Project. Albert Swinden was born in Birmingham, England in 1901. When he was seven, he moved with his family to Canada, and in 1919 he immigrated to the United States. He lived in Chicago, where he studied for about a year and a half at the Art Institute. He then relocated to New York City, where his art education continued briefly at the National Academy of Design. He soon changed schools again, to the Art Students League, which he attended from 1930 to 1934. He studied with Hans Hofmann and gained an appreciation for Synthetic Cubism and Neoplasticism. According to painter and printmaker George McNeil, Swinden "could have influenced Hofmann ... He was working with very, very simple planes, not in this sort of Cubistic manner. Swinden was working synthetically at this time." While still a student, Swinden began teaching at the Art Students League, in 1932. Swinden married Rebecca Palter (1912–1998), from New York. Their daughter, Alice Swinden Carter, also became an artist. Carter, who attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, received an award from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston for her large sculptures. Swinden was hired for the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and he is best known for the murals which he painted as part of that project. In 1935, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia attended the opening of the inaugural exhibit at the Federal Art Project Gallery, accompanied by Audrey McMahon, New York regional director for the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project. Among the works on display was Abstraction, a sketch by Swinden; it was the design for a mural planned for the College of the City of New York. A newspaper account described it as consisting of "brightly colored T-squares, triangles and rulers in horizontal, vertical and diagonal positions". La Guardia asked what it was, and upon being told it was a mural design, he said he didn't know what it depicted. Someone joked that it could be a map of Manhattan. The displeased mayor stated that "if that's art, I belong to Tammany Hall." (Tammany Hall, which the Republican mayor referenced, was the New York Democratic Party political society.) Fearing that the mayor's negative attitude could jeopardize the future of abstract art within the Federal Art Project, McMahon dispatched an assistant to summon an artist who could speak to the mayor in defense of abstraction. The assistant returned with Arshile Gorky. Swinden played an important role in the founding of the American Abstract Artists. In 1935, he met with three friends, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, her future husband Byron Browne, and Ibram Lassaw, with the goal of exhibiting together. The group grew and started meeting in Swinden's studio, which adjoined those of Balcomb and Gertrude Greene...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sea and Rocks - Oil on Canvas by Gino Pira - 1937
Located in Roma, IT
Sea and rocks is an original artwork realized by Gino Pira in 1937. Original mixed colored oil painting on plywood. Hand-written dedication on the back. Beautiful and representati...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Woman on Sofa - Painting by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Woman on Sofa is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in the 1930s. Another painting of human figure on rear. Includes frame. Mixed colore...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Madame in the Blossom Garden - Tempera on Paper by Lucie Navier - 1931
Located in Roma, IT
Madame in the blossom garden is an original painting realized by Lucie Navier in the 1931. Original tempera on paper. Very good conditions. Colorful composition representing a f...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Tempera

Ships - Painting by Bruno Croatto - 1938
Located in Roma, IT
Ships is an original painting realized by Bruno Croatto in 1938. Signed and datet by the Artist at bottom left. Includes a wooden frame.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

American Regionalist WPA Period Industrial Worker Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist portrait painting of an industrial worker. Oil on canvas, circa 1925. Signed lower right "Maurice Lee". Displayed in a giltwood frame. Image, 14"L x 18"H.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique American School Modernist Winter Landscape Signed Framed Oil Painting
By Rosario Urbino Gerbino
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape abstraction. Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed. Image size 30L x 25H. Housed in a period modern frame.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Salève mountain, Geneva by I. Ch. Goetz - Gouache on paper 36x54 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work on paper
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Nude - Painting by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Nude woman is a beautiful and impressive oil on canvas by Antonio Feltrinelli. It was realized between the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s and represents a nude woma...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paint

Simka Simkhovitch WPA Artist Oil Painting American Modernist Landscape w Tower
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. Thes...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Odalisques - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Odalisques is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s. Mixed colored oil painting on canvas, realized in 1930s. Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 – Gargnano, 1942) He was born in Milan on June 1, 1887 to Giovanni Feltrinelli, the nephew of Giacomo, who was the founder of the Feltrinelli partnership. Feltrinelli was not only a prominent figure in the Italian economic and financial field, but he was also a painter, who was characterized as a strong, impetuous hot colorist, and preferred still lifes, portraits and landscapes. He started his career in 1930 at La Permanente (Milan), where he exhibited a portrait and a still life that won him the Fornara award. That same year, Feltrinelli exhibited his work at the Venice Biennial and at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan. Together with other prominent avant-garde artists, he participated in various foreign exhibitions on modern Italian painting...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Model with Swan - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Model with swan is an original artwork realized by the Italian artist Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s. Oil on plywood. Beautiful and representative artwork of a female figure. Anton...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Woman - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Woman is an original artwork realized by the Italian artist Antonio Feltrinelli in the 1930s. Original oil on plywood. Beautiful and representative artwork of a female...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative
Located in New York, NY
"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative Estate stamp on the stretcher, verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist. 20 x 24 inches. BIO Leon Bibel continued painting through 1941 and resumed work in both painting and especially wood sculpture by 1960. He worked until his very last day in 1995. His last series of large wood sculptures were modeled on spice boxes, which were miniature buildings...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Signed Swiss Modern Mountain Landscape Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage Swiss impressionist painting. Oil on board, circa 1940. Framed. Signed. Image size, 10L x 16H.
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Still life with vase
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 52 x 45 x 3.5 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

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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