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Modern Abstract Photography

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: 1970s
Monaco Grand Prix (Estate Edition)
Located in New York, NY
British racing driver James Hunt (1947 - 1993) at the Monaco Grand Prix, 22nd May 1977. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certi...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Lambda

'Hotel Il San Pietro' Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Located in London, GB
'Hotel Il San Pietro' Slim Aarons Estate Edition Guests at the Hotel Il San Pietro in Positano, Italy, August 1979. In his words, he photographed 'be...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

C Print

Untitled from "Sirague City"
By Vilem Kriz
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed and dated in ink on image. Dated and stamped on verso. 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches. Toned gelatin silver print.
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

9/11 - Twin Towers in Angelic Light, Architecture
Located in Miami, FL
Since its construction, Mitchell Funk has been chronicling the Twin Towers, of the World Trade Center. More specifically, he has been recording how light affects and transforms the two giant monoliths. Like us all, Mitchell was inspired by the formidable presence of the two buildings. Living in Brooklyn Heights with great views of lower Manhattan gave him a special advantage and opportunity to assemble some of the most iconic Twin Tower images ever taken. To Mitchell Funk, the Twin Towers, of the World Trade Center were the perfect synthesis of commerce and art. Most modern architecture is simply functional. Minoru Yamasaki's Twin Towers were in fact something quite radical. They were a steel and glass expression of Minimalism on the grandest scale in human history. Everything in the towers was stripped down to its essential quality with nothing extraneous added ….. except light. The way the buildings reflected light made them unique and inspired Mitchell to record them in color for 32 years. Although, the exterior was actually made of a very reflective blue/grey stainless steel the warm light of daybreak and sunset could change their color and transform them from buildings into and mystical monumental sculptures. With the help of the sun as a key player, Mitchell’s images of the Twin Towers progress from the mystical to the spiritual as they reflect the sun’s intense golden energy. Under these conditions, one could argue, that the Twin Tower housed the same type of divine energy as the adjacent churches. In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, one could interpret Twin Tower sunset images differently. A sunset can be a symbol for the end of the day or simply The End. The 1969 image “Dead End” is a visual prognostication. The North Tower is under construction in the background and in the foreground, Mitchell has framed it between two street signs that read Dead End. In Mitchell’s Twin Tower photographs, he is not taking a tourist picture that says “here I am on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Slim Aarons Estate Edition - Las Brisas
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons - Las Brisas - Estate Stamped Edition Limited to 150 only A villa in Las Brisas, Acapulco, February 1972 (Photo by Slim Aarons). This photograph epitomises the trave...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

C Print, Color

Slim Aarons - Boca Raton - Estate Stamped
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons - Boca Raton - Estate Stamped A swimming pool in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, circa 1978. (Photo by Slim Aarons) This photograph epitomises the ...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

C Print

'Racing At Baden Baden' Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Located in London, GB
'Racing At Baden Baden' Spectators dine in the open air as the horses go by at Baden Baden racecourse, Germany, September 1978. In his words, he phot...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

"Red Wave, " Photograph, circa 1975 by Michael DeCamp
Located in Long Island City, NY
This photograph was created by American artist and avid scuba diver Michael DeCamp. DeCamp's abstract photos have an enigmatic quality, and the interactions between shapes and colors...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Life Magazine Cover July 1980, Mithcell Funk Lighthouse
Located in Miami, FL
alternative photo - done on assignment in Cape Hatteras Signed lower right, numbered, 3/15 dated
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Vogue
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a suite of five original photographic collages by American artist Jan Stussy. The artist took various images on paper, some perhaps from magazines, and cut and assembled these five original collages, all of Vogue models. Jan Stussy was a prolific artist, a close companion of artist Stanton Macdonald Wright, and was head of the arti department at UCLA for thirty years. Stussy also received an academy award for his short film, "Gravity is my Enemy," This suite of collages are absolutely brilliant, in the surreal manner of Man Ray. Please contact our West Hollywood gallery...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Black and White

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Architectural Gelatin SIlver Print Vellum Photograph Mark Citret Vintage Photo
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Vintage Color Abstract Art Landscape Photography Large C Print Photo Terry Evans
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Agaves Signed Limited Edition
Located in London, GB
Agave by Justin Creedy Smith 2005 Agaves in Tangiers, Morocco. Photo, July 2005. Exquisite large oversize 20 x 20 inches / 51 x 51 cm silver gelatin print signed and numbered by the artist. 1/50 biography Justin Creedy Smith is a British photographer. Having graduated with a bachelor of arts degree – including a thesis on the role of war photography as a propaganda tool – he moved to Paris in 1984. Initially working as a studio assistant, his apprenticeship in fashion and advertising photography was both intense and diverse. He rapidly started assisting on a free-lance basis the likes of Horst P. Horst and Steven Meisel. From 1985 until 1987 he was assistant to Peter Lindbergh. In 1987 he travelled to Japan for the first time, a voyage that had a profound impact on him. Returning to Europe in 1988 he started working for Japanese magazines...
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Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Jacques Lipchitz Bronze Sculpture Photo Signed
Located in Surfside, FL
Adolph Studly, Swiss born American photographer. His work is kept in the Photographic Archive at The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. He was known for his gallery photographs of works by artists represented primarily by the Buchholz gallery, Curt Valentin, and Stephen Radich Galleries. Artists whose work he shot include Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon, Chaim Soutine, Allan Kaprow, Clyfford Still, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Georges Rouault. He worked with Louis H. Dreyer, the pre-eminent architecture photographer in New York City. Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, 1891-1973, was born in Lithuania and came of age in Paris during the early 20th century, where he was active in the avante-garde community of Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, and Juan Gris. Art historian H. H. Arnason, who ranked Lipchitz with Picasso and Marc Chagall, wrote, "Lipchitz, as a pure sculptor, is ...unquestionably one of the greatest sculptors of this century." The architect Philip Johnson asked Lipchitz to make a wall sculpture to be placed on the brick chimney over a fireplace of a guest house owned by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III on West 53rd Street in New York. Lipchitz decided to develop the piece from his Pegasus designs and call it Birth of the Muses in honor of the Rockefellers' interest in the arts. In 1950 he completed the work as a bronze relief five feet high. It was installed as planned and later was acquired by Lincoln Center. He participated in the Flight portfolio...
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1950s Modern Abstract Photography

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The Sea signed limited edition
Located in London, GB
'Calm Sea' by Stuart Möller A view of the sea at dusk in Sri Lanka during a rainstorm. A fabulously atmospheric image of the sea, and the seemingly blurred horizon between water an...
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Environmental aerial landscape color photograph: "My Land, My Landscape #9"
Located in New York, NY
32"x48" edition of 3 signed by the artist (fine art color photograph) This aerial landscape photograph depicts the sediments and water interacting at a tailing dam. The bright field ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment

Previously Available Items
'Hotel Il San Pietro' Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Located in London, GB
'Hotel Il San Pietro' Slim Aarons Estate Edition Guests at the Hotel Il San Pietro in Positano, Italy, August 1979. In his words, he photographed 'beautiful people in beautiful p...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

C Print

'Disco Club Studio 54' (Chromaluxe Aluminium Print)
By Waring Abbott
Located in London, GB
'Disco Club Studio 54' by Waring Abbott The awning at the infamous disco club Studio 54 in New York City in 1978. A beautiful authentic Chromaluxe Aluminium Print. Made and supervi...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

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Aluminum

Homage-Eminence Grise
Located in Concord, MA
NAOMI SAVAGE (1927-2005) Homage-Eminence Grise, 1980 Multiple-toned photographic print on paper 8 ½ x 9 inches (image) 20 ¼ x 16 ¼ inches (framed) Signed, titled, and dated on original mat attached verso: Homage-Eminence Gris / Naomi Savage 1980 Aluminum frame with linen mat and museum glass Naomi Savage was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1927. From a very early age, Naomi was interested in the arts. Her mother encouraged her to pursue music, and as the niece of famous Dada and Surrealist painter, sculptor, and photographer, Man Ray, she was able to pursue her interests with much support from her family. During high school, Naomi attended a class taught by Bernice Abbott, Man Ray's assistant in the 1920’s, at the New School for Social Research. She later attended Bennington College, where she studied music and the arts. Shortly after college, she traveled to California to study and apprentice with her uncle, Man Ray. Ray was a great inspiration to the young Naomi; he encouraged her to let her imagination create her art. Savage said later in her life that her strongest inheritance enriching her artistic career came from her uncle, Man Ray. "I never forgot his insightfulness," she said. "With him you could try anything - there was nothing you were told not to do, except spill the chemicals. With Man Ray, you were free to do what your imagination conjured and that kind of encouragement was wonderful". In 1950, Naomi married painter, sculptor, and architect, David Savage. Shortly after, the couple moved to Lambertville, New Jersey, residing there for three years before moving to Princeton, New Jersey. She had her first exhibition in 1952 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and exhibited there again in 1960, 1966, and 1968. Her work can now be seen in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the International Center of Photography in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, and the Noyes Museum in Oceanville, New Jersey. Savage pioneered the use of photographic engravings for which she is best known. With a photographic engraving, the actual metal photographic plate itself is the art. It is described as a kind of topographic photograph with forms in three dimensions and with a variety of metallic surfaces and tones. Some of her most famous photographic engravings involve a series of portraits of her sister, which she manipulated in countless ways over many years. But her most famous photographic engraving (perhaps her most famous work of all) is a fifty-foot long mural she did on the side of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. Her approach to photography represents an involvement with process as medium, and an interest in art as image manipulation, a pursuit shared by contemporaries like Robert Heinecken, Betty Hahn, and Bea Nettles...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Jalapa 31, Jalapa 43, Lima 58, Jalapa 6, & Rome 83
Located in Dallas, TX
Five photographs by Aaron Siskind. All prints are signed, titled, dated and numbered. PHOTOGRAPHS: Jalapa 31, 1973 Jalapa 43, 1974 Lima 58, 1975 Jalapa 6, 1973 Rome 83, 1973
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Modern abstract photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Modern abstract photography 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 abstract photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, red, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Stuart Möller, Adolph Studly, Mitchell Funk, and Howard Schatz. Frequently made by artists working with Archival Pigment Print, and Pigment Print 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 abstract photography, so small editions measuring 3.63 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $320 and tops out at $18,000, while the average work sells for $2,200.

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