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Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

EXPRESSIONIST STYLE

While “expressionist” is used to describe any art that avoids naturalism and instead employs a bold use of flattened forms and intense brushwork, Expressionist art formally describes early-20th-century work from Europe that drew on Symbolism and confronted issues such as urbanization and capitalism. Expressionist artists experimented in paintings and prints with skewed perspectives, abstraction and unconventional, bright colors to portray how isolating and anxious the world felt rather than how it appeared. 

Between 1905 and 1920, Austrian and German artists, in particular, were inspired by Postimpressionists such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh in their efforts to strive for a new authenticity in their work. In its geometric patterns and decorative details, Expressionist art was also marked by eclectic sources like German and Russian folk art as well as tribal art from Africa and Oceania, which the movement’s practitioners witnessed at museums and world’s fairs.

Groups of artists came together to share and promote the themes now associated with Expressionism, such as Die Brücke (The Bridge) in Dresden, which included Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and investigated alienation and the dissolution of society in vivid color. In Munich, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, instilled Expressionism with a search for spiritual truths. In his iconic painting The Scream, prolific Norwegian painter Edvard Munch conveyed emotional turmoil through his depiction of environmental elements, such as the threatening sky.

Expressionism shifted around the outbreak of World War I, with artists using more elements of the grotesque in reaction to the escalation of unrest and violence. Printmaking was especially popular, as it allowed artists to widely disseminate works that grappled with social and political issues amid this time of upheaval. Although the art movement ended with the rise of Nazi Germany, where Expressionist creators were labeled “degenerate,” the radical ideas of these artists would influence Neo-Expressionism that emerged in the late 1970s with painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente.

​​Find a collection of authentic Expressionist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Expressionist
Expressionist Heavy Bronze Sculpture in Lost Wax Casting Containing the Rage
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Expressionist bronze sculpture in lost wax casting exploring contained emotion and inner tension. Containing the Rage is a unique figurative work by Galician sculptor Óscar Aldonza, ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Large Ceramic Head Sculpture – Expressive Textured Surface, Testa Series No. 15
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Large ceramic head sculpture with an expressive and textured surface, part of Óscar Aldonza’s Testa series. This monumental head (70 × 36 × 34 cm) is crafted from refractory clay wit...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Expressive Stoneware Ceramic Head Sculpture with Oxidized Iron Base. Testa n 13
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Expressive ceramic head sculpture in stoneware with vanadium glaze and oxidized iron base. Testa No. 13 belongs to Óscar Aldonza’s “Testas” series, a body of work in which each ceram...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Large Bronze Sculpture "Virtuoso" Figure American Boston Figural Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigrated to America at the age of five. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts under Karl Zerbe, a German painter well known in the early 1900s. Aronson later taught at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts for fourteen years and founded the School of Fine Art at Boston University where he is today a professor emeritus. An internationally renowned sculptor & painter, Aronson has won acclaim for his interpretation of themes from the Hebrew Talmud and Kabala. His best known works include bronze castings, encaustic paintings, and pastels. His work is included in many important public and private collections, and has been shown in several museum retrospectives around the country. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th century American artists. At twenty-two David Aronson had his first one-man show at New York's Niveau Gallery. The next year, six of his Christological paintings were included in the Fourteen Americans exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art where Aronson’s work was included alongside abstract expressionists Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi. In the 1950s, Aronson turned more toward his Jewish heritage for the inspiration for his art. Folklore as well as Kabalistic and other transcendental writings influenced his work greatly. The Golem (a legendary figure, brought to life by the Maharal of Prague out of clay to protect the Jewish community during times of persecution) and the Dybbuk (an evil spirit that lodges itself in the soul of a living person until exorcised) frequently appear in his work. In the sixties, Aronson turned to sculpture. His work during this period is best exemplified by a magnificent 8’ x 4’ bronze door which now stands at the entrance to Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Foundation Conference Center for the Arts in Racine, Wisconsin. In the seventies and eighties, Aronson continued his work in pastel drawings, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring religion and the frailties of man's nature. During this time, in addition to a traveling retrospective exhibition and many one-man shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston at the Pucker-Safrai Gallery on Newbury Street, Aronson won many awards and became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. Two years ago he retired from teaching to work full-time in his studio in Sudbury, Massachusetts. included in the catalog Contemporary Religious Imagery in American Art Catalog for an exhibition held at the Ringling Museum of Art, March 1-31, 1974. Artists represented: David Aronson, Leonard Baskin, Max Beckmann, Hyman Bloom, Fernando Botero, Paul Cadmus, Marvin Cherney, Arthur G. Dove, Philip Evergood, Adolph Gottlieb, Jonah Kinigstein, Rico Lebrun, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Mark Tobey, Max Weber, William Zorach and others. Selected Awards 1990, Certificate of Merit, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Design 1976, Joseph Isidore Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize in Drawing, Albrecht Art Museum 1975, Isaac N. Maynard Prize for Painting, National Academy of Design 1973, Samuel F. B. Morse Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1967, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Fine Arts 1967, Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy of Design 1963, Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of Philadelphia 1961, 62, 63, Purchase Prize, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1960, John Siimon Guggenheim Fellowship 1958, Grant in Art, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1954, First Prize, Tupperware Annual Art Fund Award 1954, Grand Prize, Third Annual Boston Arts Festival 1953, Second Prize, Second Annual Boston Arts Festival 1952, Grand Prize, First Annual Boston Arts Festival 1946, Traveling Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts 1946, Purchase Prize, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1944, First Popular Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art 1944, First Judge's Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art Selected Public Collections Art Institute of Chicago Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Bryn Mawr College Brandeis University Tupperware Museum, Orlando, Florida DeCordova Museum Museum of Modern Art Print Collection, New York Atlanta University Atlanta Art...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Large Modernist Bronze Abstract Figural Sculpture "Family" Wolfgang Behl
Located in Surfside, FL
This is a mid 20th century mod abstract large bronze sculpture by Wolfgang Behl (German/American, 1918-1994). The sculptural group titled "The Family" features a mother and father with two children. Numbered 20/20. Signed. 21" H x 10 1/4" x 10 1/4 Wolfgang (Johann Wolfgang) Behl (1918 - 1994) was active/lived in Connecticut, Illinois / Germany. Known for Sculpture and as an architectural carver. A carver,designer, and teacher, Wolfgang Behl was born in Berlin, Germany where he studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. His teacher was otto Hitzberger, sculptor and architecture carver. I have seen some his work, particularly in carved wood compared to Constantin Brancusi although this one seems way more reminiscent of Alberto Giacometti. In 1939, Behl came to the United States and taught briefly in Pennsylvania at the Perkiomen School and in Rhode Island at the Rhode Island School of Design. There in 1943, he won the Joseph N. Eisendrath prize for sculpture. He also became a friend of Louis Mayer, sculptor from Milwaukee. In 1944, Behl took a job as Art Director at the Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois, and he also began a one-year teaching assignment at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee. The last years of his life until his death were in Hartford, Connecticut. Source: Peter C. Merrill, "German-Immigrant Artists in Early Milwaukee" Originally from Berlin, Germany, Mr. Behl immigrated to the United States in 1939 and became a citizen in 1947. He studied with Waldemar Raemisch at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and later at the Rhode Island School of Design. He began teaching at the Hartford Art School in 1955, retiring in 1983 to devote his time to sculpting. Mr. Behl had exhibitions throughout the United States and Germany. Some of his solo exhibitions include the Arts Exclusive in Simsbury from 1976 to 1981, and the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York City from 1950 to 1973. He showed at the New Britain Museum of American Art, in New Britain, Connecticut in 1969. He also had several retrospectives, including one at the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center in West Hartford until the end of this month. His works in bronze have a German Expressionist quality to them a pathos found in the works of Kathe Kollwitz and the Expressionist movement. He was known for his classically inspired, but often surrealist sculpture. Among his most-well known pieces are a series of sculptures done for the University of Connecticut Health Center. Several examples of Behl’s work are found on the campus of the University of Hartford. He was included in the show Monumentality in Modern Sculpture at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas, 1957. Artists featured in the exhibition: Kenneth Armitage, Hans Arp, Ernst Barlach, Wolfgang Behl, Dorothy Dehner, Edgar Degas, José de Rivera, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Joseph Glasco, Julio González, Paul Granlund...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

Bust of Yitzhak Rabin, Expressionist Bronze Sculpture by Chaim Gross
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Chaim Gross, Austrian/American (1904 - 1991) Title: Bust of Yitzhak Rabin Year: 1967 Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature inscribed Size: 12.5 x 6.5 x 8.5 in. (31.75 x 16.51 x...
Category

1960s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Contemporary Expressionist Ceramic Head in Refractory Stoneware with Kintsugi
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Testa 6 is a contemporary expressionist ceramic head from the ongoing Testas series of sculptural heads. Created in refractory stoneware, the piece is fired in reduction and subseque...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Expresionist Nephiline-Manganese Glazed Ceramic Head. High-Temperature Clay Bust
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Nephiline and manganese glazed Buño clay head sculpture channels organic textures and existential introspection in Aldonza’s evocative “Testas” series. Nephiline-Manganese Glazed Cer...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Ceramic Expressionist Head in Refractory Stoneware with Copper Glaze Testa nº 11
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Ceramic expressionist head sculpture created in refractory stoneware with a semi-transparent copper glaze. This ceramic head belongs to the Testas series, a body of work composed of ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Bronze Plaque Sculpture Judaica Rabbi Figure Portrait American Boston Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
Small Jewish Portrait Relief Plaque Signed and numbered in Roman numerals from limited edition Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigrated to America at the age of five. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts under Karl Zerbe, a German painter well known in the early 1900s. Aronson later taught at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts for fourteen years and founded the School of Fine Art at Boston University where he is today a professor emeritus. An internationally renowned sculptor & painter, Aronson has won acclaim for his interpretation of themes from the Hebrew Talmud and Kabala. His best known works include bronze castings, encaustic paintings, and pastels. His work is included in many important public and private collections, and has been shown in several museum retrospectives around the country. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th century American artists. At twenty-two David Aronson had his first one-man show at New York's Niveau Gallery. The next year, six of his Christological paintings were included in the Fourteen Americans exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art where Aronson’s work was included alongside abstract expressionists Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi. In the 1950s, Aronson turned more toward his Jewish heritage for the inspiration for his art. Folklore as well as Kabalistic and other transcendental writings influenced his work greatly. The Golem (a legendary figure, brought to life by the Maharal of Prague out of clay to protect the Jewish community during times of persecution) and the Dybbuk...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Bronze Sculpture Charles Dickens Figure American Boston Figural Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
I have seen this piece identified as Wizard and as Micawber from Charles Dickens David Copperfield ("something will turn up") Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigrated to America at the age of five. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts under Karl Zerbe, a German painter well known in the early 1900s. Aronson later taught at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts for fourteen years and founded the School of Fine Art at Boston University where he is today a professor emeritus. An internationally renowned sculptor & painter, Aronson has won acclaim for his interpretation of themes from the Hebrew Talmud and Kabala. His best known works include bronze castings, encaustic paintings, and pastels. His work is included in many important public and private collections, and has been shown in several museum retrospectives around the country. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th century American artists. At twenty-two David Aronson had his first one-man show at New York's Niveau Gallery. The next year, six of his Christological paintings were included in the Fourteen Americans exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art where Aronson’s work was included alongside abstract expressionists Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi. In the 1950s, Aronson turned more toward his Jewish heritage for the inspiration for his art. Folklore as well as Kabalistic and other transcendental writings influenced his work greatly. The Golem (a legendary figure, brought to life by the Maharal of Prague out of clay to protect the Jewish community during times of persecution) and the Dybbuk (an evil spirit that lodges itself in the soul of a living person until exorcised) frequently appear in his work. In the sixties, Aronson turned to sculpture. His work during this period is best exemplified by a magnificent 8’ x 4’ bronze door which now stands at the entrance to Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Foundation Conference Center for the Arts in Racine, Wisconsin. In the seventies and eighties, Aronson continued his work in pastel drawings, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring religion and the frailties of man's nature. During this time, in addition to a traveling retrospective exhibition and many one-man shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston at the Pucker-Safrai Gallery on Newbury Street, Aronson won many awards and became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. Two years ago he retired from teaching to work full-time in his studio in Sudbury, Massachusetts. included in the catalog Contemporary Religious Imagery in American Art Catalog for an exhibition held at the Ringling Museum of Art, March 1-31, 1974. Artists represented: David Aronson, Leonard Baskin, Max Beckmann, Hyman Bloom, Fernando Botero, Paul Cadmus, Marvin Cherney, Arthur G. Dove, Philip Evergood, Adolph Gottlieb, Jonah Kinigstein, Rico Lebrun, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Mark Tobey, Max Weber, William Zorach and others. Selected Awards 1990, Certificate of Merit, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Design 1976, Joseph Isidore Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize in Drawing, Albrecht Art Museum 1975, Isaac N. Maynard Prize for Painting, National Academy of Design 1973, Samuel F. B. Morse Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1967, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Fine Arts 1967, Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy of Design 1963, Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of Philadelphia 1961, 62, 63, Purchase Prize, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1960, John Siimon Guggenheim Fellowship 1958, Grant in Art, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1954, First Prize, Tupperware Annual Art Fund Award 1954, Grand Prize, Third Annual Boston Arts Festival 1953, Second Prize, Second Annual Boston Arts Festival 1952, Grand Prize, First Annual Boston Arts Festival 1946, Traveling Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts 1946, Purchase Prize, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1944, First Popular Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art 1944, First Judge's Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art Selected Public Collections Art Institute of Chicago Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Bryn Mawr College Brandeis University Tupperware Museum, Orlando, Florida DeCordova Museum Museum of Modern Art Print Collection, New York Atlanta University Atlanta Art...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Brutalist Expressionist Ceramic Head Sculpture Testa Nº12 – Refractory Stoneware
Located in FISTERRA, ES
This ceramic head sculpture from the Testas series, titled Testa Nº12, is an expressionist exploration of the human face in refractory stoneware fired in reduction. The sculpture pre...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Expressionist Ceramic Head Sculpture in Refractory Stoneware – Testa #10
Located in FISTERRA, ES
This large ceramic head sculpture, Testa nº 10, is part of the Testas series, a body of expressionist ceramic heads created in refractory stoneware and fired in reduction. The series...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

"In Freiheit (In Freedom)", White Porcelain Horses
Located in Detroit, MI
This gorgeous porcelain sculpture from Hutschenreuther porcelain is of two galloping horses, sculpted in exquisite detail and signed by the sculptor, Max Hermann Fritz...
Category

1940s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Porcelain

German Expressionist Bronze Relief Plaque Mans Best Friend, a Man and His Dog
Located in Surfside, FL
Mans Best Friend C.M. Junghans 1985 This is done in a German Expressionist style. It is bronze over some sort of fill. It depicts a man gentleman and his dog. a Cocker Spaniel or Co...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Rare Chaim Goldberg Kaszmirez Polish Modernist Memorial Sculpture Spertus Museum
Located in Surfside, FL
Deaccessioned from the Spertus Museum in Chicago Hand signed by artist in wood carving Chaim Goldberg -- born in the Polish shtetl of Kazimierz Dolny Chaim Goldberg has worked in ne...
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Wood

El Doctor, Painted Bronze Sculpture by Bruno Luna
Located in Long Island City, NY
Title: El Doctor Year: circa 1990 Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number inscribed Edition: V/XXX Size: 12.5 in. x 6 in. x 6 in. (31.75 cm x 15.24 cm x 15.24 cm)
Category

1990s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Large Bronze Bas Relief Danse Macabre Expressionist Sculpture Totentantz
Located in Surfside, FL
We have not located any markings on the piece and it does not appear to be signed. it bears similarities with works by Wilfredo Lam and other Cuban and Latin American masters and it ...
Category

Early 20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Translucent Alabaster Head Sculpture with Expressive Natural Veins. Light
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Translucent alabaster head sculpture with expressive natural veins, carved in direct carving for a unique interplay of light, stone and human form. This unique alabaster head sculpt...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Alabaster

Vintage Murano Colored Glass Sculpture by Alessandro Barbaro, Italy, 1970
Located in Madrid, MD
This exceptional Murano glass piece was created in 1970 by Alessandro Barbaro (Dorsoduro, 1936), a renowned artist and master glassmaker celebrated ...
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Glass

Mujer Agachada (Crouching Woman), 1972, (III/VI)
Located in San Francisco, CA
Felipe Castañeda Mujer Agachada (Crouching Woman), 1972 Bronze, wood base 12 x 9.5 x 11.5 inches Edition III/VI Most recent owners acquired this limited-edition bronze sculpture fro...
Category

Late 20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Bronze Sculpture Relief Troubadour Figurative American Modernist David Aronson
Located in Surfside, FL
Guitar or Mandolin playing musician. Music themed bronze sculpture Signed and numbered Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigra...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Clown Holding Teddy Bear, Unique Bronze Expressionist Sculpture
Located in Surfside, FL
Agnes Yarnall LePage, began studying sculpture at the age of 6 at the Liberty Tadd School of Modeling. She went on to study with Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fin...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Family, Modern Bronze Sculpture by Nili Carasso
By Nili Carasso
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Nili Carasso Title: Family Year: circa 2001 Medium: Pair of Bronze Sculptures on Base, signature and numbering inscribed Edition: 2/25 Size: Man: 11 x 7 x 4 inches ; Woman: 1...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Carved Wood German Expressionist Sculpture Jewish Woman Refugee Artist Judaica
By Miriam Sommerburg
Located in Surfside, FL
Miriam Sommerburg (American female artist, born Germany, Hamburg, 1900–1980 New York) Modernist Wood Carved Sculpture, Carving depictin...
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Wood

Judaica Bronze Sculpture "Rabbi" Figure Jewish American Boston Figural Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigrated to America at the age of five. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts under Karl Zerbe, a German painter well known in the early 1900s. Aronson later taught at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts for fourteen years and founded the School of Fine Art at Boston University where he is today a professor emeritus. An internationally renowned sculptor & painter, Aronson has won acclaim for his interpretation of themes from the Hebrew Talmud and Kabala. His best known works include bronze castings, encaustic paintings, and pastels. His work is included in many important public and private collections, and has been shown in several museum retrospectives around the country. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th century American artists. At twenty-two David Aronson had his first one-man show at New York's Niveau Gallery. The next year, six of his Christological paintings were included in the Fourteen Americans exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art where Aronson’s work was included alongside abstract expressionists Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi. In the 1950s, Aronson turned more toward his Jewish heritage for the inspiration for his art. Folklore as well as Kabalistic and other transcendental writings influenced his work greatly. The Golem (a legendary figure, brought to life by the Maharal of Prague out of clay to protect the Jewish community during times of persecution) and the Dybbuk (an evil spirit that lodges itself in the soul of a living person until exorcised) frequently appear in his work. In the sixties, Aronson turned to sculpture. His work during this period is best exemplified by a magnificent 8’ x 4’ bronze door which now stands at the entrance to Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Foundation Conference Center for the Arts in Racine, Wisconsin. In the seventies and eighties, Aronson continued his work in pastel drawings, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring religion and the frailties of man's nature. During this time, in addition to a traveling retrospective exhibition and many one-man shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston at the Pucker-Safrai Gallery on Newbury Street, Aronson won many awards and became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. Two years ago he retired from teaching to work full-time in his studio in Sudbury, Massachusetts. included in the catalog Contemporary Religious Imagery in American Art Catalog for an exhibition held at the Ringling Museum of Art, March 1-31, 1974. Artists represented: David Aronson, Leonard Baskin, Max Beckmann, Hyman Bloom, Fernando Botero, Paul Cadmus, Marvin Cherney, Arthur G. Dove, Philip Evergood, Adolph Gottlieb, Jonah Kinigstein, Rico Lebrun, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Mark Tobey, Max Weber, William Zorach and others. Selected Awards 1990, Certificate of Merit, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Design 1976, Joseph Isidore Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize in Drawing, Albrecht Art Museum 1975, Isaac N. Maynard Prize for Painting, National Academy of Design 1973, Samuel F. B. Morse Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1967, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Fine Arts 1967, Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy of Design 1963, Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of Philadelphia 1961, 62, 63, Purchase Prize, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1960, John Siimon Guggenheim Fellowship 1958, Grant in Art, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1954, First Prize, Tupperware Annual Art Fund Award 1954, Grand Prize, Third Annual Boston Arts Festival 1953, Second Prize, Second Annual Boston Arts Festival 1952, Grand Prize, First Annual Boston Arts Festival 1946, Traveling Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts 1946, Purchase Prize, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1944, First Popular Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art 1944, First Judge's Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art Selected Public Collections Art Institute of Chicago Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Bryn Mawr College Brandeis University Tupperware Museum, Orlando, Florida DeCordova Museum Museum of Modern Art Print Collection, New York Atlanta University Atlanta Art...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Expresionist Ceramic and Bronze Bust Sculpture with Fragmented Surface
Located in FISTERRA, ES
This figurative ceramic and bronze bust sculpture highlights a fragmented surface that evokes repair, continuity and embodied memory. Part of the Xentes series by Spanish sculptor Óscar Aldonza...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Figurative Ceramic Bust Sculpture with Textured Coat and Expressive Glaze
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Figurative ceramic bust sculpture with textured coat and expressive glaze, created in high-temperature reduction firing with oil-based polychromy. This sculptural work forms part of ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Oil

Praying Woman, Modern Bronze and Marble Sculpture by Ruth Gutman
By Ruth Gutman
Located in Long Island City, NY
This bronze patina sculpture is set on a warm toned marble base. The sculptor, Ruth Gutman, has created an expressionist rendering of a woman praying. ...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

Bust portrait of a man with his mouth open, hand-carved in sycamore wood
Located in Carballo, ES
Hand-carved sycamore wood sculpture by the artist Álvaro de la Vega (1954, Lugo, Spain) in 2008. It is part of a series of sculptures of facial expressions. The sculpture measures 40...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Wood

Carved banana wood sculpture, expressionist bust, astonished face
Located in Carballo, ES
Hand-carved sycamore wood sculpture by the artist Álvaro de la Vega (1954, Lugo, Spain) in 2008. It is part of a series of sculptures of facial expressions. The sculpture measures 41...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Wood

bronze horse statue by Patrick Villas
By Patrick Villas
Located in Gent, VOV
Standing horse sculpture in bronze 2001. The first cast of a proud standing horse, looking to the side. A fine bronze statue by Patrick Villas (°1961), in his typical expressionist ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Stoneware Fired in Reduction with Embedded Barbed Wire, Sculpture "Testa N.14"
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Testa 14 is a large-format work from the Testas series, a sculptural project dedicated to the exploration of the human head as a universal and timeless form. Crafted in refractory st...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Iron

Bronze Sculpture Rabbi w Torah Judaica Figure American Boston Figural Modernist
Located in Surfside, FL
Aronson, David 1923- David Aronson, son of a rabbi, was born in Lithuania in 1923 and immigrated to America at the age of five. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts under Karl Zerbe, a German painter well known in the early 1900s. Aronson later taught at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts for fourteen years and founded the School of Fine Art at Boston University where he is today a professor emeritus. An internationally renowned sculptor & painter, Aronson has won acclaim for his interpretation of themes from the Hebrew Talmud and Kabala. His best known works include bronze castings, encaustic paintings, and pastels. His work is included in many important public and private collections, and has been shown in several museum retrospectives around the country. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th century American artists. At twenty-two David Aronson had his first one-man show at New York's Niveau Gallery. The next year, six of his Christological paintings were included in the Fourteen Americans exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art where Aronson’s work was included alongside abstract expressionists Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi. In the 1950s, Aronson turned more toward his Jewish heritage for the inspiration for his art. Folklore as well as Kabalistic and other transcendental writings influenced his work greatly. The Golem (a legendary figure, brought to life by the Maharal of Prague out of clay to protect the Jewish community during times of persecution) and the Dybbuk (an evil spirit that lodges itself in the soul of a living person until exorcised) frequently appear in his work. In the sixties, Aronson turned to sculpture. His work during this period is best exemplified by a magnificent 8’ x 4’ bronze door which now stands at the entrance to Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Foundation Conference Center for the Arts in Racine, Wisconsin. In the seventies and eighties, Aronson continued his work in pastel drawings, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring religion and the frailties of man's nature. During this time, in addition to a traveling retrospective exhibition and many one-man shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston at the Pucker-Safrai Gallery on Newbury Street, Aronson won many awards and became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. Two years ago he retired from teaching to work full-time in his studio in Sudbury, Massachusetts. included in the catalog Contemporary Religious Imagery in American Art Catalog for an exhibition held at the Ringling Museum of Art, March 1-31, 1974. Artists represented: David Aronson, Leonard Baskin, Max Beckmann, Hyman Bloom, Fernando Botero, Paul Cadmus, Marvin Cherney, Arthur G. Dove, Philip Evergood, Adolph Gottlieb, Jonah Kinigstein, Rico Lebrun, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Mark Tobey, Max Weber, William Zorach and others. Selected Awards 1990, Certificate of Merit, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Design 1976, Joseph Isidore Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1976, Purchase Prize in Drawing, Albrecht Art Museum 1975, Isaac N. Maynard Prize for Painting, National Academy of Design 1973, Samuel F. B. Morse Gold Medal, National Academy of Design 1967, Purchase Prize, National Academy of Fine Arts 1967, Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, National Academy of Design 1963, Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of Philadelphia 1961, 62, 63, Purchase Prize, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1960, John Siimon Guggenheim Fellowship 1958, Grant in Art, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1954, First Prize, Tupperware Annual Art Fund Award 1954, Grand Prize, Third Annual Boston Arts Festival 1953, Second Prize, Second Annual Boston Arts Festival 1952, Grand Prize, First Annual Boston Arts Festival 1946, Traveling Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts 1946, Purchase Prize, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1944, First Popular Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art 1944, First Judge's Prize, Institute of Contemporary Art Selected Public Collections Art Institute of Chicago Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Bryn Mawr College Brandeis University Tupperware Museum, Orlando, Florida DeCordova Museum Museum of Modern Art Print Collection, New York Atlanta University Atlanta Art...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

"Stallion" - Bronze horse sculpture.
Located in Miami, FL
Filcer made very few sculptures in his artistic career and this is one of his most special pieces. Limited Edition: 1/10.
Category

Early 2000s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Large-Scale Ceramic Head Sculpture with Forged Iron Collar – Testa No. 17
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Large-scale ceramic head sculpture in refractory clay with manganese patina and forged iron collar. Testa No. 17 is one of the most monumental works in Óscar Aldonza’s “Testas” serie...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Iron

Cobalt Carbonate-Glazed Buño Clay Head – Hand-Built Ceramic Bust, Expressionist
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Cobalt carbonate-glazed Buño clay head sculpture evokes organic textures and introspective narratives in Aldonza’s “Testas” series. This hand-built ceramic bust (33 × 20 × 25 cm) is ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Caged Woman 2, Contemporary Verdigris Bronze Figure Suspended in Rusted Iron Orb
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Verdigris bronze figure suspended within a sculptural rusted iron orb offers a poetic meditation on confinement and transcendence. Caged Woman 2 (Ø 32 cm) by Aldonza features a slend...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze, Iron

Caged Woman 3 – Verdigris Bronze Torso in Rusted Iron Globe, Lost-Wax and Forged
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Patinated bronze torso suspended within a rusted iron globe evokes ancient Venus iconography and contemporary themes of constraint and resilience. Caged Woman 3 (Ø 32 cm) by Aldonza ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze, Iron

Bronze Judaica Expressionist Sculpture Russian Jewish Shtetl Goose Peddler
Located in Surfside, FL
A cast bronze sculpture depicting an elderly jewish peddler carrying a basket of geese going to the shtetl market. Signed on base. This is not editioned...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Black Refractory Clay with White Smoked Glaze and Forged Iron, "Testa 16"
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Testa 16 is one of the largest works within the Testas series, a sculptural project exploring the human head as a space of identity and collective resonance. This contemporary sculpt...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Iron

Ceramic Expressionist Head in White Stoneware with Bismuth Rakú Glaze. Testa 9
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Testa 9 is an expressionist ceramic head sculpture created in white stoneware with a bismuth Rakú glaze. This ceramic head belongs to the artist’s Testas series, a body of work compo...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Leda and the Swan, Bronze Sculpture by Reuben Nakian
Located in Long Island City, NY
A bronze sculpture by Reuben Nakian from 1978. An abstract-figurative sculpture representing the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan- in which the Greek god Z...
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Testa Head Sculpture No 7, Expressionist Bust in Red Stoneware with Shino Glaze
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Expressionist ceramic head sculpture in red stoneware with Shino glaze. This Testa head sculpture No 7 belongs to Óscar Aldonza’s ongoing “Testas” series, where each ceramic bust is ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

Testa Nº 8 Expresionist Ceramic Head in White Stoneware with Bismuth Raku Glaze
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Testa nº 8 is an expressionist ceramic head sculpture from the Testas series, modeled in white stoneware and finished with a distinctive bismuth raku glaze. This ceramic head, measur...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glaze

PAIR OF JANUS SCULPTURES
Located in Paris, FR
Janus. Pair of bronze sculptures. Edition by Artcurial. Numbered 27/250 and 28/250. He was born Henri Étienne-Martin 4 February 1913 in Loriol, Drôme, France. He attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Lyon from 1929 to 1933, where he met Marcel Michaud. Martin moved to Paris in 1934, working at the studio of Charles Malfray at the Académie Ranson where he came into contact with such painters as Roger Bissière, Jean Le Moal, Jean Bertholle, Alfred Manessier, Zelman, Véra Pagava...
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Graspar Riera 7 Terracotta Cylinder Mallorca original ceramic sculpture
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
Mallorca landscape original ceramic sculpture. piece unic born in the town of Estellencs on the island of Mallorca, from his youth he dedicates himself to drawing and watercolor, g...
Category

1990s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic

Acrobats, Modern Bronze Sculpture by Peter Rockwell
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Peter Rockwell (1936 - 2020) Title: Acrobats Year: 1968 Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature engraved Size: 18 in. x 14 in. x 10 in. (45.72 cm x 35.56 cm x 25.4 cm)
Category

1960s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Constelación Del Caballo Menor, Bronze Tabletop Sculpture by Binkele
Located in Long Island City, NY
Bronze sculpture by Lina Binkele is a modern expressionist rendering of a horse. In the classic tradition, her horse sculptures capture the wonder of the animal's anatomy and the ma...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Invocation
Located in Los Angeles, CA
JOAN STRAUSS CARL 1927-2021 "INVOCATION" CALIFORNIA HARD WOOD, SIGNED DATED 2005 38 INCHES OVERAL -2021 Joan Strauss Carl was a Los Angeles artist, teacher, and humanitarian ac...
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Wood

Invocation
Invocation
$1,917 Sale Price
35% Off
Bucranium - Surreal Sculpture, Animal Sculpture, Green Metal and Resin Sculpture
Located in New York, NY
Angelo Canevari’s Bucranium is a 34 x 19 inch mix media surrealist sculpture. It is made of metal, resin, green automotive paint, and cardboard. It is a surrealist interpretation of the carved decoration, representing ox-skulls, commonly used in Classical architecture for the friezes of Doric temples. The same motif was also later used on Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical buildings. Canevari's contemporary interpretation is evident in the medium he chose to shape this artwork and yet it maintains the same commanding and monumental presence of the classical monuments that have inspired it.. The use of metal and wires to develop a tridimensional sculptural quality, as well as the expressionistic outcome of the imagery, has echoes in some contemporary African sculpture...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Woman's Hands
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Cast paper, edition 16/50.
Category

1970s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Paper

Woman's Hands
$2,208 Sale Price
20% Off
Carnavale, Avant Garde Carricature Plaque, Paris
Located in Surfside, FL
Arieh Merzer was a prominent Israeli artist and metal worker. Arie Merzer, an artist who worked in hand-hammered copper, was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1905, the scion of a large Has...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Liberty vs Slavery Van Loen Bronze Abstract Chess Set Modernist Museum Sculpture
Located in Surfside, FL
Alfred Van Loen signed 32 piece chess set. In heavy solid bronze. Rare Chess Game: Liberty versus Slavery Dimensions: a) Joy-Tenderness H. 6 3/16 in. a...
Category

1960s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Mother and Child, Modern Bronze Sculpture by Chaim Gross
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Chaim Gross, Austrian (1904 - 1991) Title: Mother and Child Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature inscribed Size: 10 x 5 x 5 in. (25.4 x 12.7 x ...
Category

1950s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Figurative Expressionist Sculpture, "Armor: Protection Series Small 5"
Located in San Diego, CA
This is a one of a kind original figurative expressionist sculpture by southern California artist, Linda Literal. Its dimensions are 11"x14"x6". A certificate of authenticity will fo...
Category

2010s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Porcelain

Glazed Ceramic Sculpture Plaque WPA Artist NYC Frank Kleinholz Couple of Lovers
Located in Surfside, FL
Frank Kleinholz (Brooklyn, 1901 - 1987) Lovers Ceramic unique glazed miniature sculptural plaque with gold leaf or foil under the glaze. Initialled recto and hand signed verso with a self portrait drawing. Framed measures 8.75 X 8.75 inches, Plaque is 6 X 6 inches. c.1950's-1960's Born in Brooklyn, New York, Frank Kleinholz was a painter based in New York City whose work spanned several art movements including Expressionism and Social Realism. His work was strongly influenced by Max Beckmann, is a late survival of the social com­mentary expressionism of the WPA era; His early lithograph works were intensely personal and reflected the influence of the Depression and the World Wars, but his palette lightened as he increasingly focused on families and the bonds between adults and children. He was contemporary of William Gropper and Ben Shahn. As the son of a blind father and hard-working mother who supported the family with a delicatessen. From early childhood, he had to earn a living and sold newspapers and ran errands for local businesses. He graduated from Fordham Law School, and at age 23 was admitted to the bar. In the mid-1930s, while practicing insurance as well as law, he began oil painting and printmaking with teachers including Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Sol Wilson. He gained quick recognition and between 1941 and 1980 participated in numerous exhibitions including the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Museum and the Worcester Art Institute. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kleinholz graduated Fordham Law School in 1923. In the 1930s, he began studying painting under Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Sol Wilson. He quickly rose to prominence with the inclusion of Abstract art in the Carnegie Institute exhibition of 1941. His painting Backstreet won a purchase prize by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chronology His strongest influences were American Social Realists Reginald Marsh and Philip Evergood, the German Expressionists George Grosz and Kathe Kollwitz, the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jorge Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and the early 20th century Paris Modernists. Described by Newsweek as a "Brooklyn-born Gauguin," Kleinholz focused on urban life in New York, Brooklyn and Coney Island, as well as intimate, social realist scenes of parents and children, watercolor paintings of flowers and birds, and sunbathers. His political works include anti war paintings...
Category

20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Paint, Glaze

Mother and Newborn Child, Nude Bronze Sculpture by Kuno Lange
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kuno Lange, German (1950 - ) Title: Mother and Newborn Year: 1997 Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number on base Edition: 2/9 Size: 28 in. x 7 in. x 3.5 in. (71.12 cm...
Category

1990s Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Seated Woman (1958) by Chana Orloff (1888–1968)
Located in Edinburgh, GB
Chana Orloff (1888–1968) Seated Woman, 1958 Bronze, Height: 55 cm Signed, dated, and numbered 3/8 Stamped with foundry mark Susse Fondeur, Paris A masterful example of Chana Orloff’...
Category

Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Man on the Rock - Original Bronze Sculpture by G. Migneco - Late 1900
Located in Roma, IT
Man on the Rock - Sculpture is a superb artwork realized by the Italian artist Giuseppe Migneco (Messina, 1903 - Milan, 1997). Bonded bronze sculptur...
Category

Late 20th Century Expressionist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Expressionist figurative sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Expressionist figurative sculptures 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 figurative sculptures created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of green and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including David Aronson, Doris Caesar, Chris Riccardo, and Jackie Shatz. Frequently made by artists working with Metal, and Bronze and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Expressionist figurative sculptures, so small editions measuring 3.54 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative sculptures 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 $650 and tops out at $264,248, while the average work sells for $3,367.

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