Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.
Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.
Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.
Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.
Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.
Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.
Alden 1
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Turkish Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2008. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Shingles (red)
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 3/3 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Shingles (green)
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 3/3 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Reynaud
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Moonrise (over Tivoli)
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/3 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently premiere...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Jetsam
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently pr...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Family
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/1 on verso. This is a unique print. Artist Andrew George is based in Los ...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Across 2
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently premiere...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Mohamed Yakub White Gray Abstract Flower Oculus Architectural Figurative
Located in Nantucket, MA
Printed on Hahnemuhle paper. 310gsm 100% cellulose. This paper gives the illusion of velvet- gorgeous texture to image. Epson Ultrachrome ProInk printer. Unframed image is 35.5"h x 33"w. Available unframed plus shipping in a tube. Photograph can be printed larger sizes. This photograph is part of the Oculus Series. Mohamed roamed the Oculus Transportation building designed by Calatrava in NYC. Formal, elegant and other worldly. Mohamad does not use titles for his photographs. Such naming or framing can constrain or shape a viewer’s engagement with an image. Without such titles, his imagery conjures imaginative spaces, movement and flow, worlds without the constraints of gravity, a visionary place of the mind or an otherworldly cosmos. In this way, his earlier fascination with streams of...
Archival Paper
Turkish House
Located in New York, NY
Type-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Semimatte, 2003. Signed, dated, and numbered 1/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns his lens towards chance coll...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Blues
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently premiered his late...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Green Lake
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss. Signed and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently premiered his latest ser...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Sisters 2
Located in New York, NY
Type-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns his lens ...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Popsicle
Located in New York, NY
From the Secondhand Nature series #22. Archival Pigment Print on Canson Baryta Photographique IISigned, dated, and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angel...
Photographic Film, C Print, Color, Archival Pigment
New Leaf
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Fujiflex Archival Super Gloss. Signed and numbered 1/4 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in Los Angeles. He recently premiered his latest series of ...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
$2,200
Home
Located in New York, NY
From the series "Light Leaks" (2008) Type-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2008. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. Artist Andrew George is based in L...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda
Cupola
Located in New York, NY
Type-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2004. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns his lens ...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color
$2,200
3AM
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Vacation
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Three Rivers
Located in New York, NY
"Three Rivers" from the "Light Leaks" series. Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/1 on verso. This is a unique...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Pooltrees
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 5/6 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
LA Story
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/1 on verso. This is a unique print. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Greenhills
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Avuncular
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/1 on verso. This is a unique print. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
$2,200
76
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 2/2 on verso. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2003) Andrew George turns...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
3rd St. Shadows
Located in New York, NY
Lambda digital-c print on Ilford Ilfoflex Archival Super Gloss, 2003. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1/1 on verso. This is a unique print. In the series ‘Weights & Measures’ (2...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital, Lambda
Retina #13, 2022, digitally handmade print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
In this work from At the Center of Seeing, a dark, six-pointed star anchors the center, radiating outward in pulses of amber, peach, and glowing white. The form is sharp yet dissolvi...
Archival Pigment
Retina #6, 2022, digitally handmade print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Retina #6, an edition of 3, is part of the artist's "At The Center of Seeing" Series. This archival pigment print is printed on Epson Enhanced Matte paper. Image size is 22" x 16" ...
Archival Pigment
Retina #9, 2022, abstract digitally made print, edition 2 of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Retina #9, edition of 2 of 3, is part of the artist's "At The Center of Seeing" Series. This image radiates with a quiet luminosity, its pale gold and ivory tones softening into a ...
Archival Pigment
Retina #10, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Retina #10, an edition of 3, is part of the artist's "At The Center of Seeing" Series. Like a burst of vision at the moment of perception, six radiant forms extend from a darkened...
Archival Pigment
Red Eye #4, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Red Eye #4 intensifies the series’ exploration of perception and vision. Here, a dark circular void sits at the center, like a pupil pulled into infinite depth. Radiating outward ar...
Archival Pigment
Red Eye #1, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
In Red Eye #1, the palette is saturated with crimson and ember-like tones, evoking heat, intensity, and an almost bodily vibration. A central star shape anchors the composition, radi...
Archival Pigment
Pupil #10, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Pupil #10 blooms outward like a radiant mandala, its six-petaled form evoking both a flower in full opening and the geometric harmony of a stained-glass rose window. This work feels...
Archival Pigment
Red Eye #6, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Red Eye #6 continues the inward journey of At the Center of Seeing, shifting from fiery intensity toward a more diffused, radiant glow. At its center, a soft golden orb hovers like ...
Archival Pigment
Pupil #2, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Pupil #2 suggests a rose window, a star chart, or a rotating mandala. The faint, glowing greenish points orbiting the darkened center also carry the implication of a clock face, with...
Archival Pigment
Iris Eye #11, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
Iris Eye #11, feels lighter and more architectural than some of the others in the Iris Eye series. The central pale star, with its softened hexagonal geometry, radiates outward like ...
Archival Pigment
Pupil #5, 2022, digitally made abstract print, edition of 3, signed
By Gary Cruz
Located in New York, NY
In Pupil #5, this composition feels more iconographic and symbolic, almost altar-like. The eye has become less about perception and more about presence—an emblem or vessel holding meaning. At the center-bottom, a pale, egg-shaped form rises above a deep violet structure that resembles both a heart and a pair of unfurling scrolls. This motif carries associations of birth, fertility, and transformation, as if the pupil has turned inward to reveal a seed of becoming. Above it, faint concentric rings form a flower-like pattern, encircled by delicate white marks that suggest both orbiting satellites and the notches of a clock. Time, in this work, feels suspended, it hovers in a state of expectancy, like the pause before emergence. The muted palette—lavender, rose, smoky brown—further emphasizes the contemplative quality. Pupil #5 reads like an inner diagram of potential, a moment of quiet before transformation. In the language of the series, it occupies the space between measurement and blossoming: the seed of sight itself, holding within it both time and vision yet to unfold. This archival pigment print is printed on Epson Enhanced Matte paper. Image size is 28" x 16" with a 1" white border...
Archival Pigment
Cuarto Oscuro (espejo)
Located in Cuernavaca, Morelos
Digital print mounted on Diasec with lead
Mixed Media, Digital
"Line of Cows" Contemporary Abstract Aerial Landscape (Color Photograph),
Located in New York, NY
20"x30" limited edition of 5 archival pigment print photograph, signed by artist. Horizontal lines and a sandy, grey beige gradient along the surface of this grazing field create a ...
Archival Pigment
Helipad, Contemporary Abstract Color Photograph, limited edition
Located in New York, NY
28x30" limited edition of 5, signed on reverse by the artist. The graphic markings on a helipad are composed by the photographer, Zoe Wetherall, to give a sense of pattern and rhyth...
Archival Pigment
"Divided" Contemporary Abstract Landscape Photograph
Located in New York, NY
40"x60" limited edition of 5, signed and editioned by the artist. This photograph by Zoe Wetherall is an impressively composed to capture a view of composed geometry in nature. Hori...
Archival Pigment
"Crops" Contemporary Abstract Landscape Photograph
Located in New York, NY
28"x40" signed on reverse, edition of 5. Vertical stripes of earth alternate with rows of verdant green foliage in this abstract landscape photograph. Wetherall presents a unique vi...
Archival Pigment
"Cattle Trough" Large Scale Contemporary Minimalist Landscape Photograph
Located in New York, NY
This minimalist landscape photograph is meticulously composed with a central form of a black circle, surrounded by white and a halo of verdant green. Light lines seem as if they are ...
Archival Pigment
Remedy Weekend (Pink) metallic paper
By Wendy Small
Located in New York, NY
40"x32" photogram, metallic paper Wendy Small’s “Remedy” photograms are made by collecting leaves, weeds, or flowers from a specific place (indicated in the title) and placing those ...
Photogram
Urban Landscapes - Serie Reglisse N° I, Abstract C Print, 2010+
Located in Miami, FL
Born 1959, Geneva, Switzerland Vanna Karamaounas aka Iseult Labote – Lives and works in Geneva and Berlin. Born in Geneva of mixed Greek and Swiss heritage, Labote studied art his...
C Print, Digital
$6,000
Trimmings
Located in New York, NY
40"x 60" unframed photograph, edition of 5 (signature and edition on reverse) This is from Stephen Mallon's series, "American Reclamation" which captures the abstract beauty withi...
Photographic Paper, C Print
Urban Landscapes - Serie Voile N° VI, Abstract C Print, Unframed
Located in Miami, FL
Born 1959, Geneva, Switzerland Vanna Karamaounas aka Iseult Labote – Lives and works in Geneva and Berlin. Born in Geneva of mixed Greek and Swiss heritage, Labote studied art his...
C Print, Digital
Nothing Has Changed (framed)
Located in New York, NY
40"x 60" framed photograph, edition of 5 This photograph is from Stephen Mallon's series, "American Reclamation" and depicts bails of recycled metal. It is presented framed and m...
C Print
Aluminum Siding
Located in New York, NY
40"x 60" unframed photograph, edition of 5 This photograph is from Stephen Mallon's series, "American Reclamation" and depicts a painterly composition of bailed ...
Photographic Paper, C Print
Wall Scratches
Located in New York, NY
C Print Photograph, signed on reverse available as 30"x45" edition of 5 This is from Stephen Mallon's series, "American Reclamation" which captures the abstract beauty within d...
C Print
$4,200
Trimmings
Located in New York, NY
C Print Photograph, signed on reverse available as 30"x45" edition of 5 This is from Stephen Mallon's series, "American Reclamation" which captures the abstract beauty within d...
C Print
After Leonardo Da Vinci: Mona Lisa 1 1503, 2017
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --In 2013, I first saw Carol Inez Charney’s striking semi-abstract photographs depicting details of modernist architecture partially ob...
C Print
After Henri Matisse: The Goldfish 2 1912, 2017
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --In 2013, I first saw Carol Inez Charney’s striking semi-abstract photographs depicting details of modernist architecture partially ob...
C Print
$5,200
CB4
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Charney writes of her process: “For many years, I'd been trying to combine painting and photography with very contrived results...
Aluminum
Chrysler Building Spire from Grand Central Station
Located in Miami, FL
The Chrysler Building is one of the most photographed buildings in the world, with millions of images of it taken from various perspectives. Yet, it has never been captured quite li...
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
$6,000
Abstract photograph, Susan Wides The Bubble (Rockefeller Center, March 10, 2014)
By Susan Wides
Located in White Plains, NY
Abstract photograph of Rockefeller Center in New York City by contemporary photographer Susan Wides, in silver, gold, black, and blue. NY photographer, Susan Wides, is best known fo...
C Print
Abstracted NYC Photograph, Susan Wides, 'The Bubble (Park Ave 2)'
By Susan Wides
Located in White Plains, NY
'The Bubble (Park Ave 2)' 2000 by Susan Wides. Chromogenic print, 50 x 40 in. C-print of Park Avenue from the Bubble Series by photographer Susan Wides. Colors in black, white, gray ...
C Print
Abstract photograph, Susan Wides, The Bubble (Rockefeller #3)
By Susan Wides
Located in White Plains, NY
C-print of an abstracted Rockefeller Center at night in New York City by contemporary photographer Susan Wides, in yellow, black and green. NY photographer, Susan Wides, is best kno...
C Print
Abstract photograph, Susan Wides The Bubble (Park Avenue 9)
By Susan Wides
Located in White Plains, NY
C-print of an abstracted Park Avenue, in NYC by contemporary photographer Susan Wides in blue, orange, gold. From the Bubbles series, Ed of 7. NY photographer, Susan Wides, is best...
C Print