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Abstract Prints For Sale
Litografia Original VI (Abstract, Modern, Surrealism, Colorful, Iconic, 40% OFF)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Joan Miró Litografia Original VI Color Lithograph Year: 1975 Size: 13.25 × 10 inches (33.65 x 25.4 cm) Catalogue Raisonné: Queneau, Miro Lithographe II, 1952-1963, p.35 Publisher: Ma...
Category

1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jean Cocteau, Scene XXXV, Bacchus, from Theatre, 1957
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), titled Scene XXXV, Bacchus (Scene XXXV, Bacchus), originates from the 1957 album Jean Cocteau de l'Academie francaise, Theatre,...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Better Together, Minimalist Diptych in Blue, Abstract Modern Shapes Cyanotype
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern minimalist shapes. "Better Together" it's made by layering paper cutouts and ...
Category

2010s Post-Minimalist Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Monotype

Donald Judd- Series of Ten Woodcuts in Three Color States Vintage
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This fold-out card showcases Donald Judd's Series of Ten Woodcuts in Three Color States: Cadmium Red Light, Ultramarine Blue, and Ivory Black. Published by Brooke Alexander, the card...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Homage to the Square - P2, F13, I2 - Geometric Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
"Homage to the Square - Portfolio 2, Folder 13, Image 2" from the portfolio “Formulation: Articulation” created by Josef Albers in 1972. This monumental series consists of 127 origin...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Interaction of Color: Homage to the Square, Abstract Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
This "Homage to the Square" print was created by Albers for the occasion of an exhibition at Grippi Gallery in Manhattan in 1973. It is in an excellent white contemporary frame. Art...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

“Untitled”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original screen print on archival paper by Theodorus Stamos. Untitled. Signed in pencil lower left. Edition. 73/75 in pencil lower right. Executed in 1965. Condition is excellent. ...
Category

1960s Post-Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Screen

Yellow, Blue, Orange (1955) By Mark Rothko
Located in Dubai, Dubai
Yellow, Blue, Orange (1955) By Mark Rothko 1988 Medium: Offset Lithograph Paper Size: 39 x 27.5 inches ( 99 x 70 cm ) Image Size: 27.5 x 18 inches ( 70 x 46 cm ) Edition Size: ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Werner Bronkhorst - On the Right Track - Formula 1
Located in London, GB
Werner Bronkhorst On The Right Track, 2025 Giclée Hahnemühle Photorag paper with black solid wood frame, bordered by a white mount 42.5cm x 42.5cm Unknown edition size self-released...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

Reef - X large format photograph of sun reflections on a coral reef
Located in San Francisco, CA
large format photograph of sun reflections on a coral reef water surface, mesmerizing light reflections of glistening sunlight on turquoise aquamarine water surface, an homage to th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment

Hand painted One Off Artist Proof-Tea Time Bloom-British Awarded Artist-Large
Located in London, GB
This stunning Artist's Proof is an one-off, hand-painted with highlights by the artist , signed at front and on the back label too; this proof is 80% hand painted with original oil a...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Gesso, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Giclée

Henri Matisse, Portrait of the Artist, Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Portrait de l’Artiste (Portrait of the Artist), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matis...
Category

1950s Fauvist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Homage to the Square - P2, F14, I1 - Geometric Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
"Homage to the Square - Portfolio 2, Folder 14, Image 1" from the portfolio “Formulation: Articulation” created by Josef Albers in 1972. This monumental series consists of 127 origin...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Henri Matisse, Mrs. M.P., from Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Madame M.P. (Mrs. M.P.), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), originates from th...
Category

1950s Fauvist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

"Dawn, " Limited Edition Giclee Print, 48" x 48"
Located in Westport, CT
This abstract, limited edition print by Elwood Howell features a predominantly green palette, with a muted yellow area at the top of the composition. Subtle circle shapes and long ve...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Digital, Giclée

Frank Stella, Line Up, from Jasper's Dilemma, signed/n, geometric abstraction
Located in New York, NY
Frank Stella Line Up, from Jasper's Dilemma (Axsom 85), 1973 Lithograph in colors on J. Green mould-made paper Signed, dated and numbered 56/100 in pencil lower right front 16 × 22 i...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Los Gatos Surrealist Giclée Print, Framed, Signed, 2010, 88x88 cm
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
-Pedro Friedeberg signed print featuring a fantastical surrealistic scene. Includes whimsical figures, optical art elements, and surreal details. framed in a hand-painted black and g...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

Kandinsky at Galerie Karl Flinker - 1977 Exhibition Poster - in Ink on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Kandinsky at Galerie Karl Flinker - 1977 Exhibition Poster - in Ink on Paper Poster with a reproduction of "Merry Structure" by Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944). This posted i...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Ink, Lithograph

"Untitled #364 " watercolor print on fine art paper
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Over the past 20 years, Michelle Oppenheimer has become well known for composing paintings that capture the imaginative and organic possibilities of abstract watercolor and acrylic. ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Inkjet

Deluxe Signed Edition of Film Festival Lincoln Center (Feldman & Schellmann, II)
Located in New York, NY
Andy Warhol Deluxe Signed Edition of Film Festival Lincoln Center (Feldman & Schellmann, II.19), 1967 Silkscreen, die-cut on opaque acrylic Edition 2/200 (Signed and numbered on the back with engraving pen) Hand-signed by artist, As this work was done on acrylic, Warhol signed and numbered it by hand on verso with an engraving needle. Printed date with copyright Frame included: Elegantly framed in a museum quality wood frame with UV plexiglass. A die-cut window has been created in the back of the frame to reveal Warhol's incised signature and edition Publisher: Leo Castelli, New York Printer: Chiron Press, New York Catalogue Raisonne: Feldman & Schellmann, II.19 This work is often hung and displayed both vertically and horizontally - see photos for inspiration This work is one of only 200 done on opaque acrylic rather than wove paper, signed and numbered on the opaque acrylic by Andy Warhol with an engraving pen. (Separately, there was an unsigned edition of 500 on wove paper). What distinguishes this rare, extremely desirable signed edition of 200, other than that it is signed and numbered by hand by Andy Warhol, is that the black graphic text FIFTH NEW YORK is placed directly over the text Film Festival of Lincoln Center; whereas in the edition of 500, the text black text FIFTH NEW YORK is placed on top of the white text. An innovative feature that appears in this special edition is a perforated line running across the surface of the print, at its triangular cut out sides, mimicking the tear line present in real commercial movie admissions tickets. Chiron Press commissioned by Lincoln Center, devised a special process expressly to imprint the edition with this perforation using a die cut stamp. This work is quintessential early Warhol, with characteristic bright neon colors, featuring text, along with the artist's very recognizable flower motif. The Lincoln Center ticket...
Category

1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Plastic, Mixed Media, Screen

Miro vertical. black. red. yellow. TAPIZ DE TARRAGONA
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
"Tapiz of Tarragona" 1970 Lithography. virtual frame 76x56 Cm. 200 Copies Edition Exemplary HC Papel Guarro with Water Filigree of the Sala Gaspar Signed in Monogramada and numbered ...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Window on Another Dimension, signed/n lithograph by Picasso's famous mistress
Located in New York, NY
Françoise Gilot Window on Another Dimension, 1981 Lithograph on Arches mould made Johannot paper Signed and numbered in graphite pencil; also bears artist's monogram with date, edition of 60 Unframed 27.25 inches by 19.75 inches Francoise Gilot was not just Picasso's muse; she was an accomplished artist in her own right, and at age 100, the New York Times dubbed her the art world's latest "It Girl".! Signed and numbered in graphite pencil; also bears artist's personal monograph with date. Held in original vintage frame under plexiglass. Charmingly, there is a sticker label on the back of the frame, from the "Picasso Gallery Custom Framing" in D.C. This silkscreen is based upon Gilot's eponymous painting, also done in 1981 Excerpt from Alan Riding's 2023 New York Times obituary on Gilot: " Françoise Gilot, an accomplished painter whose art was eclipsed by her long and stormy romantic relationship with a much older Pablo Picasso, and who alone among his many mistresses walked out on him, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 101...But unlike his two wives and other mistresses, Ms. Gilot rebuilt her life after she ended the relationship, in 1953, almost a decade after it had begun despite an age difference of 40 years. She continued painting and exhibiting her work and wrote books. In 1970, she married Jonas Salk, the American medical researcher who developed the first safe polio vaccine, and lived part of the time in California. Still, it was for her romance with Picasso that the public knew her best, particularly after her memoir, “Life with Picasso,” written with Carlton Lake, was published in 1964. It became an international best seller, and so infuriated Picasso that he broke off all contact with Ms. Gilot and their two children, Claude and Paloma Picasso. Ms. Gilot’s frank and often-sympathetic account of their relationship — she dedicated the book “to Pablo” — provided much of the material for the 1996 Merchant-Ivory movie, “Surviving Picasso,” in which she was played by Natascha McElhone, with Anthony Hopkins as Picasso. If Ms. Gilot’s book sold well, so has her art. With her work in more than a dozen museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, her paintings fetched increasingly higher prices well into her later years. As recently as June 2021, her painting “Paloma à la Guitare” (1965), a blue-toned portrait of her daughter, sold for $1.3 million in an online auction by Sotheby’s. That surpassed her previous record price, $695,000, paid for “Étude bleue,” a 1953 portrait of a seated woman, at a Sotheby’s auction in 2014.. And in November 2021, her abstract 1977 canvas “Living Forest” sold for $1.3 million as part of a retrospective of her work at Christie’s in Hong Kong. Lisa Stevenson, the head of curated sales for Sotheby’s in London, told ARTnews after the 2021 auction, “It isn’t commonly known that Gilot’s commitment to art was present long before her relationship with Pablo Picasso, and she was sadly often left in his shadow.”.. Marie Françoise Gilot was born into a prosperous family on Nov. 26, 1921, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, the only child of Emile Gilot, an agronomist and chemical manufacturer, and Madeleine Renoult-Gilot. Her 19th-century ancestors had owned a couturier house of fashion whose clientele included Eugenia, the wife of Emperor Napoleon III. Marie Françoise was drawn to art from an early age, tutored by her mother, who had studied art history, ceramics and watercolor painting. Her father, however — recalled by Ms. Gilot as an authoritarian who had forced her to write with her right hand, though she was left-handed — had other ideas. Envisioning a career in science or the law for his daughter, he persuaded her to enroll at the University of Paris, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1938 at age 17. She went on to study at the Sorbonne and the British Institute in Paris and receive a degree in English literature from Cambridge University. As war crept closer to France in 1939, her father sent her to the city of Rennes, northwest of Paris, to enroll in law school. All the while she continued working on her paintings. Then came the German occupation of Paris, in June 1940, and she joined other students in an anti-German protest march at the Arc de Triomphe. In a clash with the French and German authorities, Ms. Gilot was arrested, briefly detained and put under watch. “From day one, we were not the kind of people who would become collaborators,” she said of her family. She continued her law studies at the University of Paris, but after taking her second-year examinations, in June 1941, she lost interest and abandoned the field, deciding to devote herself to art. She began private lessons with a fugitive Hungarian Jewish painter, Endre Rozsda...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Loteria Canina Giclée Print, Surrealist Style, Framed, 1970s, Signed
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
-Pedro Friedeberg signed print featuring a collection of various dogs. Includes whimsical figures, optical art elements, and surreal details. framed in a hand-painted black and gold ...
Category

1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

Henri Matisse, Miss M.A., from Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite heliogravure after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Mademoiselle M.A. (Miss M.A.), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), originates...
Category

1950s Fauvist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Diffraction (Transformation) - Original lithograph, Handsigned and numbered /100
Located in Paris, IDF
Julio LE PARC (1928-) Diffraction (Transformation), 1988 Original lithograph, airbrush and stencil Signed in ink Numbered / 100 copies On black wove paper, 56 x 38 cm (c. 22 x 15 in...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Ciudad de Medio Millon y 25 Huevos Duros Giclée Print, Surrealist Art
Located in Cuauhtemoc, Ciudad de México
-Pedro Friedeberg signed print featuring a fantastical surrealistic scene. Includes whimsical figures, optical art elements, and surreal details. framed in a hand-painted black and g...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

BASKET DRAWING Signed Lithograph Free-form Abstract Drawing Graphite Pearl Blue
Located in Union City, NJ
BASKET DRAWING, by Dale Chihuly(American b.1941) renowned glass sculpture artist depicts one of his signature abstract basket forms. This unique, limited edition lithograph was print...
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Exposures (Deluxe Edition) Monograph Hand Signed, Numbered #1 by Andy Warhol COA
Located in New York, NY
Andy Warhol Deluxe Collectors' Edition of Exposures (Hand Signed and Numbered), 1979 Hardcover Monograph in leather with gilt edge and stamped in gilt. Hand signed by Andy Warhol on...
Category

1970s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Mixed Media, Graphite, Lithograph, Offset

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, from XXe siecle, 1959
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph and pochoir by Lucio Fontana (1899–1968), titled Concetto Spaziale (Spatial Concept), from the album XXe siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXIe Annee, No. 12, Mai-Jui...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, from San Lazzaro et ses Amis, 1975 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Lucio Fontana (1899–1968), titled Concetto Spaziale (Spatial Concept), from the album San Lazzaro et ses Amis, Hommage au fondateur de la revue XXe si...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Ellsworth Kelly, Yellow Shape, from Derriere le Miroir, 1958
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), titled Forme Jaune (Yellow Shape), originates from the historic 1958 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 110. Published by Maeght ...
Category

1950s Hard-Edge Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Homage to the Square - P2, F32, I1 - Geometric Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
"Homage to the Square - P2, F32, I1" from the portfolio “Formulation: Articulation” created by Josef Albers in 1972. This monumental series consists of 127 original screenprints that...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Wassily Kandinsky, Komposition, from XXe siecle, 1939
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite woodcut by Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), titled Komposition (Composition), from the album XXe siecle, Chroniques du jour, 13 rue Valette (5e), Directeur G. di San Laz...
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Hand Painted Large-Gladiolus Glorious-British Awarded Artist-Limited Edition#7
Located in London, GB
This rare X-large Limited Edition is 80% hand painted and highlighted with original paint and brushstrokes painted by artist Shizico Yi. Only 10 Limited Edition has been made, last ...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Gesso, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Giclée, Oil

Henri Matisse, Miss L.L., from Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Mademoiselle L.L. (Miss L.L.), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), originates f...
Category

1950s Fauvist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Woodcut Heart 1993 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
Artist: Jim Dine Title: Woodcut Heart. 1993 Image Size: 15 1/8 x 13 1/8 inches Paper size: 23 × 17½ inches Carrier: Mohawk Superfine Cover Medium: Woodcut Proiect Began:January 26, 1...
Category

1990s Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Newman, Sans titre, In Memory of My Feelings (after)
By Barnett Newman
Located in Southampton, NY
Lithograph on vélin Mohawk Superfine Smooth paper. Paper Size: 11.937 x 8.96 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the folio, In Memory of M...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Homage to the Square - P2, F14, I2 - Geometric Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
"Homage to the Square - Portfolio 2, Folder 14, Image 2" from the portfolio “Formulation: Articulation” created by Josef Albers in 1972. This monumental series consists of 127 origin...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

After Turner-One Off, Proof No 1-British Awarded Artist-Seascape-river Thames
Located in London, GB
This is a large Artist's Proof with original oil and gesso paint highlighting; it is the No 1 of the only 3 Proofs; the colours of the painting and Shizico's expressive brushstrokes ...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée, Gesso, Oil, Acrylic

Red Centered Purple Circle
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS PIECE: Color is the foundation of my work. My circles start as a mood or idea that eventually evolves into a colored circle. I am curious how different colours interact when they're placed next to each other. I experiment with intensity of colours and the different sensations colours evoke. Why a Circle? When I explore my fascination with this shape I discover that the circle represents all that is familiar and comforting. It is the shape of the rising sun, of a mother's nipple, of the iris of the eye, and of a full moon. I use the latest digital technology as a medium to create my circles. ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Ruth Adler is a Canadian artist whose mediums include paintings, works on paper, animated films and textiles. She is inspired by the city of Tel Aviv, music (she plays the harmonica) and her personal memories. Jim Kempner Fine Art...
Category

2010s Abstract Prints

Materials

Photographic Paper

Red Composition, Preface to 52 Affiches - Original Lithograph (Cramer #84)
Located in Paris, IDF
Joan MIRO Red Composition, Preface to 52 Affiches, 1963 Original lithograph in colors (Atelier Mourlot, Paris) Signed in pencil by Fernand Mourlot Dated in pencil Numbered on / 125 ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Blue Rectangles, Abstract Geometric Screenprint by Cris Cristofaro 1978
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Cris Cristofaro, American Title: Blue Rectangles Year: 1978 Medium: Screenprint on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 50 Size: 22 x 30 in. (55.88 x 76.2 cm)
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

A young girl's dream
Located in Paris, FR
Lithograph, 1972 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 187/300 Publisher : Galerie Putman Printer : Clot, Bramsen & Georges (Paris) Catalog : Chenivesse n°9 Arches Paper W...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Joan Miro, The Acid Melody, from La Melodie acide, 1980
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Joan Miro (1893–1983), titled La Melodie acide (The Acid Melody), from the folio 14 original lithographs by Joan Miro "La Melodie acide" (The Acid Melody...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Tableau, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, number
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Tableau, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, number Shinoda's works have been collected by public galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum and Metropolitan Museum (all in New York City), the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the British Museum in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Singapore Art Museum, the National Museum of Singapore, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. New York Times Obituary, March 3, 2021 by Margalit Fox, Alex Traub contributed reporting. Toko Shinoda, one of the foremost Japanese artists of the 20th century, whose work married the ancient serenity of calligraphy with the modernist urgency of Abstract Expressionism, died on Monday at a hospital in Tokyo. She was 107. Her death was announced by her gallerist in the United States. A painter and printmaker, Ms. Shinoda attained international renown at midcentury and remained sought after by major museums and galleries worldwide for more than five decades. Her work has been exhibited at, among other places, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the British Museum; and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Private collectors include the Japanese imperial family. Writing about a 1998 exhibition of Ms. Shinoda’s work at a London gallery, the British newspaper The Independent called it “elegant, minimal and very, very composed,” adding, “Her roots as a calligrapher are clear, as are her connections with American art of the 1950s, but she is quite obviously a major artist in her own right.” As a painter, Ms. Shinoda worked primarily in sumi ink, a solid form of ink, made from soot pressed into sticks, that has been used in Asia for centuries. Rubbed on a wet stone to release their pigment, the sticks yield a subtle ink that, because it is quickly imbibed by paper, is strikingly ephemeral. The sumi artist must make each brush stroke with all due deliberation, as the nature of the medium precludes the possibility of reworking even a single line. “The color of the ink which is produced by this method is a very delicate one,” Ms. Shinoda told The Business Times of Singapore in 2014. “It is thus necessary to finish one’s work very quickly. So the composition must be determined in my mind before I pick up the brush. Then, as they say, the painting just falls off the brush.” Ms. Shinoda painted almost entirely in gradations of black, with occasional sepias and filmy blues. The ink sticks she used had been made for the great sumi artists of the past, some as long as 500 years ago. Her line — fluid, elegant, impeccably placed — owed much to calligraphy. She had been rigorously trained in that discipline from the time she was a child, but she had begun to push against its confines when she was still very young. Deeply influenced by American Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell, whose work she encountered when she lived in New York in the late 1950s, Ms. Shinoda shunned representation. “If I have a definite idea, why paint it?,” she asked in an interview with United Press International in 1980. “It’s already understood and accepted. A stand of bamboo is more beautiful than a painting could be. Mount Fuji is more striking than any possible imitation.” Spare and quietly powerful, making abundant use of white space, Ms. Shinoda’s paintings are done on traditional Chinese and Japanese papers, or on backgrounds of gold, silver or platinum leaf. Often asymmetrical, they can overlay a stark geometric shape with the barest calligraphic strokes. The combined effect appears to catch and hold something evanescent — “as elusive as the memory of a pleasant scent or the movement of wind,” as she said in a 1996 interview. Ms. Shinoda’s work also included lithographs; three-dimensional pieces of wood and other materials; and murals in public spaces, including a series made for the Zojoji Temple in Tokyo. The fifth of seven children of a prosperous family, Ms. Shinoda was born on March 28, 1913, in Dalian, in Manchuria, where her father, Raijiro, managed a tobacco plant. Her mother, Joko, was a homemaker. The family returned to Japan when she was a baby, settling in Gifu, midway between Kyoto and Tokyo. One of her father’s uncles, a sculptor and calligrapher, had been an official seal carver to the Meiji emperor. He conveyed his love of art and poetry to Toko’s father, who in turn passed it to Toko. “My upbringing was a very traditional one, with relatives living with my parents,” she said in the U.P.I. interview. “In a scholarly atmosphere, I grew up knowing I wanted to make these things, to be an artist.” She began studying calligraphy at 6, learning, hour by hour, impeccable mastery over line. But by the time she was a teenager, she had begun to seek an artistic outlet that she felt calligraphy, with its centuries-old conventions, could not afford. “I got tired of it and decided to try my own style,” Ms. Shinoda told Time magazine in 1983. “My father always scolded me for being naughty and departing from the traditional way, but I had to do it.” Moving to Tokyo as a young adult, Ms. Shinoda became celebrated throughout Japan as one of the country’s finest living calligraphers, at the time a signal honor for a woman. She had her first solo show in 1940, at a Tokyo gallery. During World War II, when she forsook the city for the countryside near Mount Fuji, she earned her living as a calligrapher, but by the mid-1940s she had started experimenting with abstraction. In 1954 she began to achieve renown outside Japan with her inclusion in an exhibition of Japanese calligraphy at MoMA. In 1956, she traveled to New York. At the time, unmarried Japanese women could obtain only three-month visas for travel abroad, but through zealous renewals, Ms. Shinoda managed to remain for two years. She met many of the titans of Abstract Expressionism there, and she became captivated by their work. “When I was in New York in the ’50s, I was often included in activities with those artists, people like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Motherwell and so forth,” she said in a 1998 interview with The Business Times. “They were very generous people, and I was often invited to visit their studios, where we would share ideas and opinions on our work. It was a great experience being together with people who shared common feelings.” During this period, Ms. Shinoda’s work was sold in the United States by Betty Parsons, the New York dealer who represented Pollock, Rothko and many of their contemporaries. Returning to Japan, Ms. Shinoda began to fuse calligraphy and the Expressionist aesthetic in earnest. The result was, in the words of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 1997, “an art of elegant simplicity and high drama.” Among Ms. Shinoda’s many honors, she was depicted, in 2016, on a Japanese postage stamp. She is the only Japanese artist to be so honored during her lifetime. No immediate family members survive. When she was quite young and determined to pursue a life making art, Ms. Shinoda made the decision to forgo the path that seemed foreordained for women of her generation. “I never married and have no children,” she told The Japan Times in 2017. “And I suppose that it sounds strange to think that my paintings are in place of them — of course they are not the same thing at all. But I do say, when paintings that I have made years ago are brought back into my consciousness, it seems like an old friend, or even a part of me, has come back to see me.” Works of a Woman's Hand Toko Shinoda bases new abstractions on ancient calligraphy Down a winding side street in the Aoyama district, western Tokyo. into a chunky white apartment building, then up in an elevator small enough to make a handful of Western passengers friends or enemies for life. At the end of a hall on the fourth floor, to the right, stands a plain brown door. To be admitted is to go through the looking glass. Sayonara today. Hello (Konichiwa) yesterday and tomorrow. Toko Shinoda, 70, lives and works here. She can be, when she chooses, on e of Japans foremost calligraphers, master of an intricate manner of writing that traces its lines back some 3,000 years to ancient China. She is also an avant-garde artist of international renown, whose abstract paintings and lithographs rest in museums around the world. These diverse talents do not seem to belong in the same epoch. Yet they have somehow converged in this diminutive woman who appears in her tiny foyer, offering slippers and ritual bows of greeting. She looks like someone too proper to chip a teacup, never mind revolutionize an old and hallowed art form She wears a blue and white kimono of her own design. Its patterns, she explains, are from Edo, meaning the period of the Tokugawa shoguns, before her city was renamed Tokyo in 1868. Her black hair is pulled back from her face, which is virtually free of lines and wrinkles. except for the gold-rimmed spectacles perched low on her nose (this visionary is apparently nearsighted). Shinoda could have stepped directly from a 19th century Meji print. Her surroundings convey a similar sense of old aesthetics, a retreat in the midst of a modern, frenetic city. The noise of the heavy traffic on a nearby elevated highway sounds at this height like distant surf. delicate bamboo shades filter the daylight. The color arrangement is restful: low ceilings of exposed wood, off-white walls, pastel rugs of blue, green and gray. It all feels so quintessentially Japanese that Shinoda’s opening remarks come as a surprise. She points out (through a translator) that she was not born in Japan at all but in Darien, Manchuria. Her father had been posted there to manage a tobacco company under the aegis of the occupying Japanese forces, which seized the region from Russia in 1905. She says,”People born in foreign places are very free in their thinking, not restricted” But since her family went back to Japan in 1915, when she was two, she could hardly remember much about a liberated childhood? She answers,”I think that if my mother had remained in Japan, she would have been an ordinary Japanese housewife. Going to Manchuria, she was able to assert her own personality, and that left its mark on me.” Evidently so. She wears her obi low on the hips, masculine style. The Porcelain aloofness she displays in photographs shatters in person. Her speech is forceful, her expression animated and her laugh both throaty and infectious. The hand she brings to her mouth to cover her amusement (a traditional female gesture of modesty) does not stand a chance. Her father also made a strong impression on the fifth of his seven children:”He came from a very old family, and he was quite strict in some ways and quite liberal in others.” He owned one of the first three bicycles ever imported to Japan and tinkered with it constantly He also decided that his little daughter would undergo rigorous training in a procrustean antiquity. “I was forced to study from age six on to learn calligraphy,” Shinoda says, The young girl dutifully memorized and copied the accepted models. In one sense, her father had pushed her in a promising direction, one of the few professional fields in Japan open to females. Included among the ancient terms that had evolved around calligraphy was onnade, or woman's writing. Heresy lay ahead. By the time she was 15, she had already been through nine years of intensive discipline, “I got tired of it and decided to try my own style. My father always scolded me for being naughty and departing from the traditional way, but I had to do it.” She produces a brush and a piece of paper to demonstrate the nature of her rebellion. “This is kawa, the accepted calligraphic character for river,” she says, deftly sketching three short vertical strokes. “But I wanted to use more than three lines to show the force of the river.” Her brush flows across the white page, leaving a recognizable river behind, also flowing.” The simple kawa in the traditional language was not enough for me. I wanted to find a new symbol to express the word river.” Her conviction grew that ink could convey the ineffable, the feeling, "as she says, of wind blowing softly.” Another demonstration. She goes to the sliding wooden door of an anteroom and disappears in back of it; the only trace of her is a triangular swatch of the right sleeve of her kimono, which she has arranged for that purpose. A realization dawns. The task of this artist is to paint that three sided pattern so that the invisible woman attached to it will be manifest to all viewers. Gen, painted especially for TIME, shows Shinoda’s theory in practice. She calls the work “my conception of Japan in visual terms.” A dark swath at the left, punctuated by red, stands for history. In the center sits a Chinese character gen, which means in the present or actuality. A blank pattern at the right suggests an unknown future. Once out of school, Shinoda struck off on a path significantly at odds with her culture. She recognized marriage for what it could mean to her career (“a restriction”) and decided against it. There was a living to be earned by doing traditional calligraphy:she used her free time to paint her variations. In 1940 a Tokyo gallery exhibited her work. (Fourteen years would pass before she got a second show.)War came, and bad times for nearly everyone, including the aspiring artist , who retreated to a rural area near Mount Fuji and traded her kimonos for eggs. In 1954 Shinoda’s work was included in a group exhibit at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Two years later, she overcame bureaucratic obstacles to visit the U.S.. Unmarried Japanese women are allowed visas for only three months, patiently applying for two-month extensions, one at a time, Shinoda managed to travel the country for two years. She pulls out a scrapbook from this period. Leafing through it, she suddenly raises a hand and touches her cheek:”How young I looked!” An inspection is called for. The woman in the grainy, yellowing newspaper photograph could easily be the on e sitting in this room. Told this, she nods and smiles. No translation necessary. Her sojourn in the U.S. proved to be crucial in the recognition and development of Shinoda’s art. Celebrities such as actor Charles Laughton and John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet bought her paintings and spread the good word. She also saw the works of the abstract expressionists, then the rage of the New York City art world, and realized that these Western artists, coming out of an utterly different tradition, were struggling toward the same goal that had obsessed her. Once she was back home, her work slowly made her famous. Although Shinoda has used many materials (fabric, stainless steel, ceramics, cement), brush and ink remain her principal means of expression. She had said, “As long as I am devoted to the creation of new forms, I can draw even with muddy water.” Fortunately, she does not have to. She points with evident pride to her ink stone, a velvety black slab of rock, with an indented basin, that is roughly a foot across and two feet long. It is more than 300 years old. Every working morning, Shinoda pours about a third of a pint of water into it, then selects an ink stick from her extensive collection, some dating back to China’s Ming dynasty. Pressing stick against stone, she begins rubbing. Slowly, the dried ink dissolves in the water and becomes ready for the brush. So two batches of sumi (India ink) are exactly alike; something old, something new. She uses color sparingly. Her clear preference is black and all its gradations. “In some paintings, sumi expresses blue better than blue.” It is time to go downstairs to the living quarters. A niece, divorced and her daughter,10,stay here with Shinoda; the artist who felt forced to renounce family and domesticity at the outset of her career seems welcome to it now. Sake is offered, poured into small cedar boxes and happily accepted. Hold carefully. Drink from a corner. Ambrosial. And just right for the surroundings and the hostess. A conservative renegade; a liberal traditionalist; a woman steeped in the male-dominated conventions that she consistently opposed. Her trail blazing accomplishments are analogous to Picasso’s. When she says goodbye, she bows. --by Paul Gray...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

'White Iris', California Post-Impressionist Landscape, SJSU, Mount Madonna
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, "Maxon" for John Maxon (American, 20th century) and created circa 1995. Additionally titled, verso, 'White Flower'. Monotype with additional hand-painted detail. ...
Category

1990s Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Monotype

Chair, Tree, Compass and Female Nude
Located in Middletown, NY
Etching with aquatint in colors on white wove paper with a deckle edge, 17 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (317 x 598 mm); sheet 22 1/2 x 30 inches (571 x 762 mm), full margins. Signed and numbe...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching, Handmade Paper, Aquatint

Ellsworth Kelly, Orange Shape, from Derriere le Miroir, 1958
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), titled Forme Orange (Orange Shape), originates from the historic 1958 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 110. Published by Maeght...
Category

1950s Hard-Edge Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled (Concetto Spaziale)
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Tipped in color plate produced in 1962 for a rare official Lucio Fontana artist monograph published by famed art book publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (not included), during the artis...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper

The Golden Road, Los Angeles Music Center Opera print (Hand Signed & inscribed)
Located in New York, NY
David Hockney Richard Strauss: Los Angeles Music Center Opera (Hand Signed and Inscribed), 1993 Offset Lithograph (hand signed and inscribed by David Hockney) 30 × 20 inches Signed a...
Category

1990s Pop Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Nicolas de Stael, Sky at Honfleur, from Painters of Today, 1960 (after)
By Nicolas de Staël
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite heliogravure after Nicolas de Stael (1914–1955), titled Ciel a Honfleur (Sky at Honfleur), from the folio Nicolas de Stael, Peintres d'aujourd'hui (Nicolas de Stael, P...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Sun Tree Limited Edition Lithograph after Dali
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
'Sun tree lithograph' After Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) signed print on thick paper , unframed print: 16 x 12.5 inches provenance: private collection condition: very good and sound c...
Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Color

Werner Bronkhorst - Tiebreak
Located in London, GB
Werner Bronkhorst TieBreak, 2025 Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photorag paper with ready-to-hang heavyweight solid oak frame. From the artist's acclaimed Wimbledon series. Accompanied b...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

Pablo Picasso - Le Ballet (The Ballet Dancer) - lithograph, Framed
Located in London, GB
Pablo Picasso The Ballet Dancer, 1954 Lithograph on paper 32 x 24 cm - sheet 55.5 x 49.5 cm - Framed unknown edition size Printed signature Reference: Bloch #767 and Mourlot #259 Fr...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

H2O lll - large format photograph of sun reflections on pool water surface
Located in San Francisco, CA
mesmerizing light reflections of glistening sunlight on turquoise aquamarine water surface, an homage to the iconic pool reflections paintings by artist David Hockney H2O lll by Eri...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Giclée, Archival Pigment

Moonlight Ripples over Lake Como, Nautical Cyanotype Triptych of Moving Water
Located in Barcelona, ES
This series of cyanotype triptychs showcases the beauty of nature scenes, including stunning beaches and oceans, as well as the intricate textures of water, forests, and skies. These...
Category

2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints

Materials

Photographic Film, Watercolor, Photographic Paper, Lithograph, Monotype,...

Homage to the Square - P1, F5, I2 - Geometric Screenprint by Josef Albers
Located in Long Island City, NY
"Homage to the Square - Portfolio 2, Folder 5, Image 2" from the portfolio “Formulation: Articulation” created by Josef Albers in 1972. This monumental series consists of 127 origina...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Form, from Revue Cahiers d'Art, 2012
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), titled Formulaire rouge (Red Form), originates from the 2012 publication Revue Cahiers d'Art, 2012, no. 1, Ellsworth Kelly. ...
Category

2010s Hard-Edge Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Pierre Soulages, Plate No. 2, from Painters of Today, 1962 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite heliogravure after Pierre Soulages (1919–2022), titled Planche No. 2 (Plate No. 2), from the folio Pierre Soulages, Peintres d'aujourd'hui (Pierre Soulages, Painters o...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Shanidar, Abstract Expressionist Screenprint by Dan Christensen
Located in Long Island City, NY
Dan Christensen, American (1942 - 2007) - Shanidar, Year: circa 1980, Medium: Screenprint, Signed and numbered in Pencil, Edition: 175, Size: 29.5 x 43 in. (74.93 x 109.22 cm)
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Bring Abstract Prints into Your Home Today

Explore a vast range of abstract prints on 1stDibs to find a piece to enhance your existing collection or transform a space.

Unlike figurative paintings and other figurative art, which focuses on realism and representational perspectives, abstract art concentrates on visual interpretation. An artist may use a single color or simple geometric forms to create a world of depth. Printmaking has a rich history of abstraction. Through materials like stone, metal, wood and wax, an image can be transferred from one surface to another.

During the 19th century, iconic artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton and others, began exploring works based on shapes and colors. This was a departure from the academic conventions of European painting and would influence the rise of 20th-century abstraction and its pioneers, like Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

Some leaders of European abstraction, including Franz Kline, were influenced by the gestural shapes of East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy interprets poetry, songs, symbols or other means of storytelling into art, from works on paper in Japan to elements of Islamic architecture.

Bold, daring and expressive, abstract art is constantly evolving and dazzling viewers. And entire genres have blossomed from it, such as Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The collection of abstract art prints on 1stDibs includes etchings, lithographs, screen-prints and other works, and you can find prints by artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and more.

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