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

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Vintage American Modernist Stark Red House Landscape Framed Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring 23 by 38 inches overall and 15 by 30 painting alone. In excellent original condition. Hands...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Desert Rose" - Still Life on a Retaining Wall with Landscape in the Background
Located in Soquel, CA
Clean and modern still life against a landscape background by Kipp Stewart (American, b. 1928). The still life consists of a rose in a pitcher, two Native American baskets (Salish an...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

1954 Mid-Century Modern Expressive Figurative Oil Painting - Quiet Repose
Located in Bristol, GB
QUIET REPOSE Size: 29 x 60.5 cm (including frame) Oil on board A brilliantly executed and emotive mid-century modernist figurative composition that presents a reclining nude figure ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

An Ideal Head of a Woman
Located in Greenwich, CT
In the tradition of Modigliani, Maurer's depictions of women are expressive and lively. America had very few modernists who painted in this manner but Maurer is famous for exactly t...
Category

1920s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Oil, Board

1971 Aluminium Engraved Painting Abstract Figure by Alberto Viani
By Alberto Viani
Located in Brescia, IT
This aluminium painting engraved by Alberto Viani, is a soft female portrait. The woman's figure is in an ethereal way, as a poetry. This artwork is a multiple of a limited edition o...
Category

1970s Modern Paintings

Materials

Metal

Peonies. Floral original painting
Located in Zofingen, AG
"Peonies" is a vibrant and expressive painting that captures the beauty and delicacy of blooming peonies. Created with bold, sweeping brushstrokes and a vivid palette, this artwork b...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Mini Mid-Century Modern Landscape Framed Oil Painting - Fresh Fields
Located in Bristol, GB
FRESH FIELDS Size: 24 x 29 cm (including frame) Oil on Board A lively mid-century post-impressionist landscape composition, executed in oil onto board. Small yet impactful, the pai...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Artists Sketching, California, 1940s Large Modernist Gouache Painting, Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1940s American Modernist gouache painting, "Artists Sketching (California)," captures a dynamic scene of three artists at work against a majestic mountain backdrop. With expressive brushwork and a rich color palette, the piece embodies Frederick E. Shane’s signature blend of realism and modernist abstraction. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower margin, this remarkable artwork reflects the era’s Regionalist influence and the artist’s keen eye for capturing creative moments in the natural landscape. The painting is professionally housed in a custom archival frame, ensuring long-term preservation. Frame dimensions: 25.5 x 37.5 x 1.5 inches. Image size: 20.25 x 29.75 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Frederick Shane About the Artist: Frederick E. Shane (1906-1992) A celebrated Missouri Regionalist painter and printmaker, Frederick E. Shane was known for his compelling genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes, and portraits in a variety of media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, and lithography. While fundamentally a realist, Shane often incorporated elements of abstraction, expressionism, and surrealism, adding depth and emotion to his compositions. During the summers of 1925-26, Shane studied under Randall Davey at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs, an institution founded in 1919 by philanthropists Spencer and Julie Penrose. Shane remained closely connected to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Academy’s successor, throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, participating in Artists West of the Mississippi exhibitions and forming lasting friendships with key figures like Boardman Robinson and Adolph Dehn...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Antique French Impressionist School Opera Scene Interior Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique French impressionist opera scene oil painting. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Framed. No signature found
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

20th Century French Modernist Oil Painting of a Young Woman in Pensive Thought
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Young Woman in Thought by Bernadette Kelly (French b. 1933) Unsigned Medium: oil painting on board, unframed Painting size: 11.25 inches (height) x 9.5 inches (width) Condition: over...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The Manifestation" Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas Illustrator Bill Shields
Located in Arp, TX
William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "The Manifestation" 1994 Oil on canvas 48"x36" artist framed Signed lower center William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Scale Painted Desert Oregon Abstracted Landscape -- Spring Mountain View
Located in Soquel, CA
Substantial and exceptional Cezanne inspired abstract of Spring Mountain scene of the John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Desert in Oregon by Erle Loran (A...
Category

1970s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

A Large, Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Figurative Landscape Painting by Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A large, dynamic Mid-Century Modern summer landscape painting with standing female bathers by noted Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. A wonderful example of the artist's uniquely express...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Polo Players
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

Ballerina - Oil Paint by Miroslava Vrbová-Štefková - mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Dancer  is a beautiful oil on panel realized by  Vrbová-Štefková in the mid-20th Century.  Signed and framed, 60 x 50 cm.  Good condition. 
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Cityscape Ashcan School 59th Street Bridge Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American ashcan school New York City oil painting by Robert Hallowell (1886 - 1939). Oil on board, circa 1929. Signed. Displayed in a period giltwood frame. Image, 30"L x 25"H.
Category

1920s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Blue Landscape - Oil Paint by Antonio Mellone - mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Blue landscape is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Mellone in the mid-20th century. Mixed colored oil painting. Hand signed on the lower margin. Includes frame.
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

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

Canvas, Oil

"Buttermilk Bay, Cape Cod, " Georgina Klitgaard, Woodstock School Female WPA
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard (1893 - 1976) Buttermilk Bay, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1933 Oil on canvas 18 x 30 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York Harold Ordway Rugg Private Collection, Western New York Georgina Berrian was born in Spuyten Duyvil, New York in 1893. She was educated at Barnard College...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Mini Abstract Figurative Landscape Oil Painting- The Path Less Taken
Located in Bristol, GB
THE PATH LESS TAKEN Size: 24.5 x 25.5 cm (including frame) Oil on board A brilliantly executed abstract figurative oil composition painted by the established Swedish artist Ivar Mor...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Portrait of African American Woman by Anthony Sisti Circa 1930's
Located in Rochester, NY
Portrait of an African American Woman by Tony Sisti (1901-1983). Sisti was a master draftsman. With just a few lines he captures the moment. Sisti was a professional boxer and an acc...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper

Fleeting beauty
Located in Zofingen, AG
This painting captures the fleeting beauty of tulips. The delicate flowers, embraced by the young woman, symbolize the transient nature of life’s most exquisite moments. Their soft p...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Flora
Located in Oslo, NO
The gallery presents the Norwegian artist Nadezda (Nadya) Stupina , a high professional who has been working in the international art market for many years. Professional artist with ...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1980s Autumn Harvest, Original Semi-Abstract Landscape Oil Painting with Figures
Located in Denver, CO
This original oil painting, titled Autumn Harvest by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), was created in 1987. It features a stunning autumnal landscape, with seven women actively engaged in ...
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Roman Ruins - Painting attr. to Francis Harding - 17th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Roman ruins is an original old master artwork realized realized by a follower of the artist Giovanni Paolo Panini and attributed to Francis Harding (1730-1766). Mixed colored oil on canvas. Includes frame. The work is a replica of Panini's canvas made around 1740, made known by Ferdinando Arisi in his 1986 monograph (Cat.456) as belonging to the Galleria Taccani in Milan and recently reappeared on the London market...
Category

17th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paint, Oil

Landscape of a village with a view of steeples - Oil on canvas
Located in Geneva, CH
Dated, signed Signature unknown Work on wood Gray wooden frame with golden patina 82 x 997 x 6 cm
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Beau Temps en Aout - Deauville - Modern Landscape Oil Painting by André Hambourg
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed figures in landscape oil on canvas circa 1980 by French modernist painter Andre Hambourg. This beautiful piece depicts families enjoying a day out at the seaside in the height...
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare 1950s New York Modernist Judaica Rabbi Oil Painting signed A. Einstein
By A. Einstein
Located in Surfside, FL
Rare Mid Century Judaic figure of a Jewish rabbi at prayer. signed A. Einstein.
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Monk - Painting by Antonio Feltrinelli- 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
The monkis an orignal modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s. Mixed colored oil painting on canvas. Not signed. Good condition. Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paint, Oil

Still Life - Oil on Canvas - Late 19th century
Located in Roma, IT
Still Life is an artwork realized by an unknown artist in the late 19th Century. Oil on Canvas Mounted on Board. Original wooden frame. 18 x 13 cm. Good conditions
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas, Board

Twin Capri - Paint by Dario Cusani - 1996
Located in Roma, IT
TECHNIQUE PHOTO-PAINTING The technique used was defined as PHOTO-PAINTING by the art critic Silvia Pegoraro of Ravenna Italy and was and Artist's invention in 1994. In fact, since 19...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

The woman by the window, the menorah: large poignant mysterious Jewish interior
Located in Norwich, GB
A mysterious blond young woman is standing by the window in a plush drawing room which has a velvety feel. With her back turned to us, she is looking out over the spires and roofs of...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'Copper & Blue' - Horses in a landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
William Robin Jennings (1927-2005) 'Copper & Blue' - Horses in a landscape Oil on canvas Signed lower right Canvas Size - 14 x 18 in Walter Robin Jennings was a distinguished Briti...
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

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

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

Cornish Fishing Boats At First Light Mid-20th Century Cornwall Original Painting
Located in Sutton Poyntz, Dorset
Joan Gillchrest. English ( b.1918 - d.2008 ). Cornish Fishing Boats At First Light. Oil On Paper Mounted On Board. Signed Monogram Lower Right. Image size 26.2 inches x 22 inches ( 66.5cm x 56cm ). Frame size 35.8 inches x 31.3 inches ( 91cm x 79.5cm ). Available for sale; this original oil painting is by the Cornish artist Joan Gillchrest and dates from around the late 1980s. The oil painting is presented and supplied in a sympathetic new replacement frame (which is shown in these photographs) that suits the artwork’s color palette and behind non-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass. This painting is in excellent condition and presents superbly. It wants for nothing and is ready to hang and display. The painting is signed with her monogram lower right. Joan Gillchrest is one of Mousehole’s and Cornwall’s most recognised and celebrated artists. Her vibrant art sits firmly alongside other great artists of the St. Ives School from the 1960s. She was born Joan Scott in London in 1918 into a wealthy and illustrious family. She was the third of four children. Her father was a pioneer of radiology – and a skilful caricaturist - and her Australian mother was an accomplished pianist. Sir George Gilbert Scott was her great grandfather, who designed the imposing Midland Grand Hotel at St. Pancras as well as countless parish churches. Grandfather, George Gilbert Scott Jnr, is remembered for three Cambridge colleges, Christ’s, Pembroke and Peterhouse. Her uncle Giles, (Giles Gilbert Scott) to whom Joan was close, is best known for his magnificent Anglican Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station and the iconic and ubiquitous red telephone box. Coming from such a long line of eminent architects it is not surprising that Joan always loved architecture and the churches and chapels of the Penwith peninsula feature prominently in her work. She said that buildings were “in her blood”. Her early childhood was spent at the family home in Buckinghamshire, but she was a difficult child – the family hired one nanny for her and one for the other three children- and at one point she was sent to Upper Chine School in the Isle of Wright to give her family some peace! She was however the apple of her father’s eye and he encouraged her obvious artistic talent. In 1934, aged only 15 but encouraged by her parents, she went to Paris to study art and learn the language. There she met Gwen John and studied in various studios, sometimes working as a model. In 1936 she enrolled at the Grosvenor School of Art and subsequently studied there under Iain McNab, whom she described as a marvelous teacher. Her early artistic career was very promising; she first exhibited at the Royal Academy when she was just 18 and showed works at the New England Art Club in 1937 and the London Group in 1938. When the Second World War broke out Joan was 21. She took a crash course in nursing and first aid and volunteered as an ambulance driver for Westminster Hospital. She later drove a mobile rescue unit. She was not able to paint much during the war but kept in touch with McNab; when the area around St Paul’s was blitzed, leaving the cathedral relatively unscathed, McNab got Joan and a few others to paint the scene. Her work, created with a thick paint and a palette knife, hung in the art school for many years. Joan’s painting career stalled in the 1940s. In 1942 she married a barrister and Coldstream Guards officer Samuel Gillchrest, and they soon had a son, then a daughter. With a young family, she had little time to paint, and had to hide the work she did produce as her husband thought that work as an artist was beneath them. Sadly, the marriage broke down and in 1953 they divorced. In leaving a difficult marriage at this time, she forfeited money, security and her previous place in society. Despite the huge changes in her life, her overwhelming desire to paint remained constant. She ignored the disapproval of her friends and family and started to explore new ways of expressing herself on canvas. She moved to a studio in Chelsea, an area much favored by the artistic community. To support herself, her children and her painting she also found regular work as an artist’s model. She was tall, strikingly good looking and combined elegance with bohemianism. She also carried an air of mystery from her rich and privileged past, and so she became sought after as a fashion model. In the flat below hers lived an artist who had enjoyed some professional acclaim, Adrian Ryan...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil, Board

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

Oil, Canvas

Föhn Wind Weather by Ernest Voegeli - Oil on Canvas 38x55 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Ernest Voegeli is an artist who has found his path through a combination of solid technique and a clear, insightful approach to color, form, and composition. While his work is primar...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Autumn Trees by Ernest Voegeli - Oil on Canvas 38x50 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Ernest Voegeli is an artist who has found his path through a combination of solid technique and a clear, insightful approach to color, form, and composition. While his work is primar...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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

Vintage Mid-Century Modern Seaside Figure Scene Oil Painting - Drift & Thought
Located in Bristol, GB
DRIFT AND THOUGHT Size: 35 x 44 cm (including frame) Oil on board A mid-century modernist painting that presents a tranquil seaside scene, executed in oil onto board. The painting ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Ballerina - Oil Paint by Miroslava Vrbová-Štefková - mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Dancer  is a beautiful oil on panel realized by  Vrbová-Štefková in the mid-20th Century.  Signed and framed, 60 x 50 cm.  Good condition. 
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WWII Aircraft Factory Workers Industrial 20th Century American Scene WPA Modern
Located in New York, NY
WWII Aircraft Factory Workers Industrial 20th Century American Scene WPA Modern Frederick Buchholz (1901-1983) WW2 Aircraft Factory 18 x 24 inches Oil ...
Category

1940s Modern Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Still Life Oil Painting on Canvas by Denis Paul Noyer, Framed
Located in Encino, CA
Untitled (Still Life), an original oil on canvas by Denis Paul Noyer, is a piece for the true collector. Noyer's use of red immediately captures the viewer, which serves as the backd...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Impressionist Framed Young Woman Portrait Exhibited Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Very finely painted early 1900s American impressionist portrait painting by Alexander Oscar Levy (1881 - 1947). Oil on canvas, lain to board. In excellent original condition. Hand...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Large Vintage Painting Titled: “Goodbye Arnie”
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Large Vintage Airbrush Painting Titled: “Goodbye Arnie” Wayne A. Timm MFA In the 1960's, Wayne Timm rubbed elbows with the likes of Warhol, L...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Female Portrait - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1931
Located in Roma, IT
Female Portrait is an original artwork realized in 1931 by Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 - Gargnano, 1942). Original Painting on canvas. Hand-signed on the lower right corner. ...
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mountain landscape with chalets - Oil on paper 19x21 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work on cardboard Unsigned work
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Joan Gillchrest oil painting 'Titus and Moet', British, female artist
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Joan Gillchrest (British, 1918 – 2008) Titus and Moet Oil on board Signed with initials ‘JG’ (lower left) 32 x 44.1/4 in. (81.5 x 112.5 cm.)
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mary Magdalene - Oil on Canvas by Italian School 19th cent.
Located in Roma, IT
Oil on canvas. cm 60.5 x 2 x 50 Nice Oil painting (Italian School of XIX century) with a rapid sign and intense colors backgrpound. Some color cracking on left margin and top edge, ...
Category

18th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage American Modernist Dog Portrait Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist dog portrait. Finely painted. Measuring 24 by 30 inches.
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Milly
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
George Petrie (1790–1866) - Romantic Irish Landscape, Oil on Canvas This captivating oil on canvas by the renowned Irish artist George Petrie, often referred to as the "Father of Ir...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

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

'Birds of Paradise, Hawaii', Mid-century, New York Woman Artist, Woodstock, ASL
By Ethelyn Cobb
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Ethelyn Pratt Cobb' (American, 1884-1973) and dated, verso, 1962. Additionally signed and inscribed, verso, 'Tropical Flowers in our cabin in Hawaii - before crossing the Pacific Ocean, 1962. Painted on our return from three months on the continent'. Ethelyn Pratt Cobb studied at the Art Students League in New York City with Frank Vincent DuMond, Woodstock Landscape...
Category

1960s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

In Tune 68 - Small Modern Resin Warm Tone Minimalist Artwork
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

On the Path
Located in London, GB
'On the Path', pastel and ink on art paper, by Suzanne Tourte (circa 1950s). Executed with a lively palette of colour, this is a surprisingly sophisticated modern work of art which belies its rather naive style. Flowered fields, green grassy patches, a curved path and blue skies all figure in this engaging landscape with two figures. Newly framed and glazed in anti-reflective glass, this work is in good overall condition. Signed: 'S X Tourte' in the lower right hand. Please enjoy the many photos accompanying the listing. Upon request, a video may be provided. About the Artist: Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979) was a French painter, engraver, medalist, fresco artist, lithographer and illustrator. She was also an excellent vocalist. She studied at the school of Beaux-Arts in Reims while continuing her musical studies at the Conservatoire de la Ville. She chose painting as a profession and returned to Paris to continue her studies. She was friends with artists Yves Brayer and Robert Humblot...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Pastel, Ink

Portrait of a Girl. What is Love?
Located in Zofingen, AG
In this painting, a girl is portrayed deep in thought, contemplating the nature of love, creating an atmosphere of tenderness and gentle introspection. Her dreamy gaze reflects her i...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Untitled, Edition - 5/5, Woodcut on Paper by Jogen Chowdhury "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Jogen Chowdhury - Untitled Edition - 5/5 Woodcut on Paper Print Size - 7.1 x 9.6 inches Paper Size - 9.5 x 14.8 inches 2019 (Unframed & Delivered) Modern Indian artist Jogen Chowdh...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

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

Mid-Century Modern Swedish Abstract Oil Painting - Geometric Still Life
Located in Bristol, GB
GEOMETRIC STILL LIFE Size: 57 x 48 cm (including frame) Oil on board A striking and brilliantly executed mid-century modernist style still life composition, executed in oil onto boa...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Riders, Oil Painting by Joyce Roybal
Located in Long Island City, NY
Riders Joyce Roybal, (1955) Oil on Canvas, signed lower right Size: 19.75 x 24 in. (50.17 x 60.96 cm) Frame Size: 26 x 29.75 inches
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Duomo of Milan with Pesants- Oil Painting - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Duomo of Milan with peasants is a modern artwork realized by an Italian Artist in 18th century. Mixed colored oil on canvas 40x33cm with frame included. Good conditions.
Category

18th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

' Poolside Smiles ' oil on canvas
Located in London, GB
' Poolside Smiles ' 2010 oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm signed on reverse by artist. Unique work. About the artist : Katherine Russell is a London based Painter. Her current body of work seeks to deconstruct our daily encounter with media images. From war zones to deserts, from solitary figures to candle-lit night markets, her choice of source material is indiscriminate of specific content, yet resonant with the unfamiliar and unsettling nature of our media-driven age. Education: 2014-15 MA Fine Art Painting; City and Guilds London Art School 99-02: BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree; University of Northumbria at Newcastle 98-99: BTEC Diploma Foundation Studies in Art and Design; Wimbledon School of Art and Design Selected Exhibitions: 2019 Made In Britain 82 Painters of the 21st Century, The National Museum Gdańsk, Poland, 14 March - 2 June Contemporary British Painting An Exhibition of 34 Painters, The Hostry, Norwich Cathedral...
Category

2010s Modern Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Swiss Mountains by A. Zosso - Oil on canvas 46x55 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Oil on canvas sold with frame Total size with frame 58x67 cm Signed A. Zosso (artist unknown from the gallery) Dated 1951
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage Mid-Century Modern Abstract Landscape Oil Painting - Golden Horizon
Located in Bristol, GB
GOLDEN HORIZON Oil on Board Size: 53 x 73 cm (including frame) A serene yet energetic and beautifully textured mid-century abstract landscape composition, painted in oil onto canvas...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Large 1960's Modernist Signed Oil Painting Venice Grand Canal Atmospheric Work
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Grand Canal, Venice Alvarez ( Mid 20th Century) signed oil on canvas, framed framed: 25 x 33 inches canvas: 20 x 28 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

1967 Vintage Mid-Century Swedish Landscape Oil Painting - House by the Tree
Located in Bristol, GB
HOUSE BY THE TREES Size: 39 x 47 cm (including frame) Oil on Board A very pleasant modernist-style street scene composition, executed in oil onto board and dated 1967. In the foreg...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Automne d'or by André Brasilier
Located in New Orleans, LA
André Brasilier French I b. 1929 Automne d'or Signed “André Brasilier” (lower right) Oil on canvas In Automne d'or, celebrated French artist André Brasilier exquisitely conveys th...
Category

20th Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Female Artist Italian Venice View Surreal Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist view of Venice by Enid Smiley. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Geneva countryside
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas Wooden frame 74 x 61.5 x 4 cm
Category

1930s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil

1957 Mid Century Modern Expressive Coastal Landscape Oil Painting - Black Boat
Located in Bristol, GB
BLACK BOAT Oil on board Size: 63 x 83 cm (including frame) An expressive mid-century modernist style coastal landscape painting, executed in oil onto board and dated 1957. The comp...
Category

1950s Modern Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

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

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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