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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
Mid-Century 1950s Italian Signed Landscape Painting
Mid-Century 1950s Italian Signed Landscape Painting

Mid-Century 1950s Italian Signed Landscape Painting

Located in Roma, IT

A beautiful and evocative painting by Vittorio Tom Novelli, a rare artist from the Roman school of the first half of the 20th century. Signed and dated lower left "Vittorio Novelli '...

Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Modern Colorful Abstract Oil Painting
Modern Colorful Abstract Oil Painting

Modern Colorful Abstract Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original 1950's unsigned abstract. This whimsical bright work comes housed in a contemporary natural wood frame presentation which signs on the w...

Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Figura Col Pappagallo
Figura Col Pappagallo

Figura Col Pappagallo

By Vittorio Maria Di Carlo

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Figura Col Pappagallo" is an oil painting on canvas by Italian artist Vittorio Maria Di Carlo, 1939-2015. It is hand signed at the lower right corner by the arti...

Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Crowded Houses
Crowded Houses

Crowded Houses

Located in Sheffield, MA

Cesar Buenaventura y Espinosa Filipino, 1922-1983 Crowded Houses Oil on canvas 23 ¾ by 35 ¾ in, w/ frame 30 ¼ by 41 ¾ in Signed lower right and dated 1966 No one knows the exact sc...

Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Still Life with Flowers  - Oil Paint - Mid-20th Century
Still Life with Flowers  - Oil Paint - Mid-20th Century

Still Life with Flowers - Oil Paint - Mid-20th Century

Located in Roma, IT

Stil life with flowers is an artwork realized by an artist of the mid-20th Century.  Oil on panel, 35 x 48 cm with frame; panel 20 x 32 cm. Good conditions

Category

Late 19th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Modernist Coastal Interior Figures Abstract Gouache Painting
Modernist Coastal Interior Figures Abstract Gouache Painting

Modernist Coastal Interior Figures Abstract Gouache Painting

By Guy Nicod

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Modernist Coastal Interior with Figures French Abstract Gouache Painting By Guy Nicod (French, 1923–2021) Gouache and watercolour on artist's paper, unframed. 15.75 × 19.25 inches (h...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

"Wally's Pond" Rural Landscape in Oil on Masonite
"Wally's Pond" Rural Landscape in Oil on Masonite

"Wally's Pond" Rural Landscape in Oil on Masonite

Located in Soquel, CA

"Wally's Pond" Rural Landscape in Oil on Masonite Idyllic rural landscape by Richard M. Bacon (American, 20th Century). A small pond is reflecting the nearby surroundings - birch tr...

Category

Early 2000s Modern Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Lost Sheep

Lost Sheep

By Martin Mull

Located in New York, NY

Martin Mull is a singular artist whose iconography directly translate the American culture.

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Jenik Cook, Contemporary acrylic painting, Big size painting.
Jenik Cook, Contemporary acrylic painting, Big size painting.

Jenik Cook, Contemporary acrylic painting, Big size painting.

By Jenik Cook

Located in La Canada Flintridge, CA

Artist signed lower right. The canvas size is 56.5x64inches. Jenik Cook’s work embodies a lyrical form of abstraction where gesture, color, and movement merge into a deeply expressi...

Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Teatro. 2018, oil on canvas, 60x70 cm
Teatro. 2018, oil on canvas, 60x70 cm

Teatro. 2018, oil on canvas, 60x70 cm

By Igor Maikov

Located in Riga, LV

Igor Maikov (1966) Education: 1981 - 1984 The Art Academy of Latvia 1973 - 1983 Salaspils Primary and Secondary School Exhibitions: 1994 - Group Exhibition «Rol-Art», Latvia ...

Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Helene Sardeau (The Artist’s Wife)

Portrait of Helene Sardeau (The Artist’s Wife)

By George Biddle

Located in Los Angeles, CA

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Fresco, 20 x 16 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inch...

Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Plaster, Mixed Media

In Tune 75 - Original Contemporary Shiny Resin Minimalist Warm Tone Layered Art
In Tune 75 - Original Contemporary Shiny Resin Minimalist Warm Tone Layered Art

In Tune 75 - Original Contemporary Shiny Resin Minimalist Warm Tone Layered Art

By Ricky Hunt

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Minimalist Flower
Minimalist Flower

Minimalist Flower

Located in Zofingen, AG

Minimalist Flower Painting, Henri Matisse Inspired Black Flowers in Turquoise Vase, Naive Gouache Art with Peach Dot Pattern, Modern Wall Decor Acrylic Painting on canvas One of a k...

Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Antique American Signed Cubist Still Life Silver Frame Modernist Oil Painting
Antique American Signed Cubist Still Life Silver Frame Modernist Oil Painting

Antique American Signed Cubist Still Life Silver Frame Modernist Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Antique American modernist flower still life painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a period silver leaf molding. Excellent condi...

Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1946 Mid-Century Modern Expressive Landscape Oil Painting - Rural Tranquility
1946 Mid-Century Modern Expressive Landscape Oil Painting - Rural Tranquility

1946 Mid-Century Modern Expressive Landscape Oil Painting - Rural Tranquility

Located in Bristol, GB

RURAL TRANQUILITY Size: 60.5 x 72 cm (including frame) Oil on board A tranquil mid-century landscape composition, executed in oil onto board and dated 1946. The painting captures a...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Tree, Trunk, and Roots, New York" Joseph Stella, American Modernism
"Tree, Trunk, and Roots, New York" Joseph Stella, American Modernism

"Tree, Trunk, and Roots, New York" Joseph Stella, American Modernism

By Joseph Stella

Located in New York, NY

Joseph Stella (1877 - 1946) Tree, Trunk, and Roots, Bronx, New York, circa 1924 Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches inscribed in another hand Joseph Stella/Estate and bears Joseph Stella Estate stamp (on the reverse) Provenance: The Estate of the Artist Rabin & Kreuger, New Jersey Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, March 14, 1968, Lot 147 ACA Galleries, New York Thence by descent Stella was born June 13, 1877 at Muro Lucano, Italy, a mountain village not far from Naples. He became painter laureate of Muro Lucano when he was in his teens with a representation of the local saint in the village church. Stella immigrated to America in 1896 and studied medicine and pharmacology, but upon the advice of artist friend Carlo de Fornaro, who recognized his undeveloped talent, he enrolled at the Art Students League in 1897. Stella objected to the rule forbidding the painting of flowers, an indication of his lifelong devotion to flower painting. He also studied under William Merritt Chase in the New York School of Art and at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island in 1901-1902, displaying the bravura brushwork and dark Impressionist influence of Chase. Stella liked to paint the raw street life of immigrant society, rendering this element more emotionally than the city realists, the Aschcan School headed by Robert Henri. Stella went through a progression of styles--from realism to abstraction--mixing media and painting simultaneously in different manners, reviving styles and subjects years later. The "Survey" sent Stella to illustrate the mining disaster of 1907 in Monongah, West Virginia, and in 1908 commissioned him to execute drawings of the Pittsburgh industrial scene. Steel and electricity became a major experience in shaping his responses to the modern world, and Stella succeeded in portraying the pathos of the steelworkers and the Pittsburgh landscape. Stella went abroad in 1909 at the age of thirty-two, lonely for his native land. He returned to Italy, traveling to Venice, Florence and Rome. He took up the glazing technique of the old Venetian masters to get warmth, transparency, and depth of color. One of Stella's paintings was shown in the International Exhibition in Rome in 1910 and was acquired by the city of Rome. The influence of the French Modernists awakened his dormant individuality. His friendship with Antonio Mancini, a Futurist, also played a role in his new style. At the urging of Walter Pach...

Category

1920s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Deux

Deux

By Jean Tannous

Located in Atlanta, GA

Born in Byblos lebanon, in 1946, is a contemporary plastician artist franco-canadian. Artistic journey Early days (1970-1975) Paris (1976-2001) Quebec (2002 - present) China (2011-...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Folk Singer oil painting by Byron Browne
Folk Singer oil painting by Byron Browne

Folk Singer oil painting by Byron Browne

By Byron Browne

Located in Hudson, NY

Lovely oil painting by Byron Browne. Measures 18" x 14" and framed 24" x 20" x 1 3/4". Signed "Byron Browne" lower left. Inscribed on canvas verso: Byron Browne / 1958 / – Folk Singer– / 18 x 14 / N.Y.C. About this artists: Through an oeuvre displaying the re-envisioning of figural subjects and the formation of an abstract expressionist style, Byron Browne stands out among the American abstractionists of his generation. Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1907, the artist was a bright talent at the National Academy of Design in his teens. From 1924 to 1928 Browne studied at the Academy under notable artists Robert Aitkin, Charles Courtney Curran, Charles Hawthorne, Alice Murphy...

Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Modernist Persian Iranian Middle Eastern Abstract Fereydoun Assa Oil Painting
Modernist Persian Iranian Middle Eastern Abstract Fereydoun Assa Oil Painting

Modernist Persian Iranian Middle Eastern Abstract Fereydoun Assa Oil Painting

Located in Surfside, FL

Fereydoun (Fred) Rahimi Assa (Iranian, b. 1936) "Lonely Soul in Desert" Oil and mixed media on canvas, Hand signed lower left Framed : 40-1/2"h x 30-1/2"w Sight: 40"h x 30"w Made with metallic foil or paint, the patchwork-like piece bears geometric designs and symbols. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Fereydoun Rahimi Assa (b. 1936) moved to Tehran at the age of three. He attended the College of Decorative Arts, Tehran in the same year group as well-known formidable masters, Hossein Zenderoudi and Massoud Arabshahi. After being awarded a travelling scholarship in 1964, Rahimi-Assa went to Israel for three months of study. Although Rahimi-Assa saw success through the several exhibitions he held in Israel, unable to secure a long-term visa and not keen to return to Iran, he found himself in the US – in no small part, thanks to the help of Eric Azari in obtaining a long-term residency visa. Fred Rahimi-Assa went first to New York and later settled in New Jersey. While in New York, he worked in some capacity at Columbia University’s Painting department where he also exhibited several times, including a solo show in 1968. In the same year, Rahimi-Assa participated in a group exhibition of Modern Persian painting, sponsored by the Centre for Iranian Studies at Columbia University – founded that year by Professor Ehsan Yarshater (Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies, Columbia University). After moving out of the City, to New Jersey in the 1970s, Rahimi Asa continued to exhibit with local institutes and organized art seminars in the homes of various artists. His work was included in the Middle East auction held by Sotheby's. It includes pioneering artists such as Egyptian Mahmoud Mokhtar, Moroccan modernism, Mohamed Melehi...

Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Foil

Untitled

Untitled

By Robert McCauley

Located in Bozeman, MT

When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...

Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Wood Panel

Modernist Rabbi at Study Judaica Oil Painting Ben ZIon Member of "The Ten"
Modernist Rabbi at Study Judaica Oil Painting Ben ZIon Member of "The Ten"

Modernist Rabbi at Study Judaica Oil Painting Ben ZIon Member of "The Ten"

By Ben-Zion

Located in Surfside, FL

Genre: Judaica Subject: Religious Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States Dimensions: 17.5" x 21.75" Dimensions w/Frame: 24" x 28" This does not appear to be hand signed. ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

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.