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Contemporary Art

CONTEMPORARY STYLE

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Contemporary
Otherside (Bombay Beach) - Contemporary, Polaroid, Women
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Otherside (Bombay Beach) - 2023 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2023-08. Not mounted. Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde is a self-taught freelance photographer, based in Brussels. Early on in her career, she discovered a fascination with art nude photography and since then the human body in its purest form has played a major role throughout her work. In 2016, after becoming increasingly frustrated with digital perfection, an impulse buy of The Impossible Project’s I-1 camera changed her life. Never having heard of TIP before, she describes making that first Polaroid image as an instant love affair. Within weeks she had acquired several old Polaroid cameras...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Ephemeral - Original Abstract Yellow Figurative Artwork on Paper
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Melissa Chalhoub, a 2014 graduate of Saint Joseph University in Beirut, seamlessly navigates the realms of cinema and visual art. With a background in directing and sound design for ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Kate Moss 1993, Paradise Island Bahamas, Original Print Custom Framed
Located in London, GB
For the 1994 Pirelli Calendar shot on the Paradise Island in the Bahamas, photographer Herb Ritts set out to capture in a series of nudes what he called “the gentle innocence” of Kat...
Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Glass, Wood, Photographic Film, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print

Bells Ringing (Sidewinder) - Contemporary, 21st Century, Polaroid, Figurative
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Bells Ringing (Sidewinder), 2005 - Edition 2/5, 104x424cm (installed), each piece 48x46cm, 16 analog C-Prints, based on 16 expired Polaroids, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Polaroid, Color, C Print, Archival Paper

December 2020 A
Located in Bristol, GB
Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminium composite panel Edition of 25 42 x 60 cm (16.5 x 23.6 in) Signed and numbered 20/25 on a label affixed to the back After original ink drawing...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Polymer, Giclée

“Diving into a pool of hot piss” Colorful Contemporary Dark Humor Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Colorful dark humor painting by Memphis-based contemporary artist Alex Paulus. The work features a swimmer dressed in a blue and pink suit and goggles g...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Spring Blossoms, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A variety of glass vases hold vibrant spring flower arrangements. The mix of colors creates a lively scene and contrasts against the soft, neutral background....

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Oil

"Still Life with Fabric" 2025 Oil on Panel 8 x 8 in.
Located in New York, NY
Remnants of our consumer culture keep finding their way into my work. Our visual lives are cluttered with packages, clothing and furnishings that come at us in a swirl of color and p...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Linen, Oil

Neon Valley - Abstract Colorful Original Landscape Painting on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Elisabeth Grace, a visionary artist based in Denver, CO (USA), is renowned for her immersive large-scale paintings, collages, murals, and installation art. With a BA in oil painting ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Color Pencil, Canvas

Other Side of the Eye - Contemporary, Polaroid, Photograph, Figurative, Portrait
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Other Side of the Eye (Shot 2019 on 600 film) Edition of 10 - 20 x 20 cm - Digital C-Print based, not mounted. Signed on back and certificate. Artist: The image was in part influ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Pas Seul 3/9 - figurative, female, bronze, outdoor sculpture
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Using simplified shapes, artist Frances Semple reveals the emotive essence of movement in this bronze sculpture of a walking woman. At 60 inches high, the figure is life-size. The sculpture is inscribed by the artist with initials and edition number, 3/9. The concrete base measures 12h x 24w x 42d inches. Together, the sculpture and base...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Bronze

Apples and Zinnias, Modern Still Life Lithograph by Janet Fish
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Janet Fish, American (1938 - ) Title: Apples and Zinnias Year: 1995 Medium: Lithograph on Japon paper, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 65 Imag...
Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph

Plymouth Street ( a twilight scene is set in the Brooklyn section of DUMBO)
Located in New Orleans, LA
This view of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges is looking down "Plymouth Street" to the intersection of Jay Street. It is #35 in the catalogue raisonne by Retif & Salzer and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of City of New York...
Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Mezzotint, Aquatint

Green Garden Spirit, Floral Figurative Contemporary Original painting
Located in Deddington, GB
Original painting on paper by Agnese Negriba- The artwork depicts a female garden spirit in a moment of rest. Artwork invites to enter a space that is full of fragrance, humming soun...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Gouache

Hunt Slonem "El Dorado Hutch" Gold Bunnies
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Slonem, Hunt Title: El Dorado Hutch Date: 2024 Medium: Oil on Canvas Unframed Dimensions: 40" x 40" Framed Dimensions: 42" x 42" Signature: Signed Verso Edition: Unique
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Oil

I am elegant
Located in Manchester, GB
David Shrigley, I am Elegant, 2021 Screenprint in colours on wove paper 76 x 56 cm (30 x 22 in) Edition of 125 Hand-signed and numbered on the reverse David Shrigley British ar...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Screen

[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Nude Man with Horse
Located in New York, NY
This work is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

N.C.B #1 Architectural Rendering of Industrial Scene
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Abstract Medium: Mixed Media Surface: Paper Country: United States Dimensions: 18" x 45" Dimensions w/Frame: 24 3/4" x 51 1/2" Working primarily with structural, architectural and still life subject matter, Kepets goes far beyond the simple depiction of his material. Complex and engaging, his work transforms familiar objects into highly evocative abstractions. Kepets renders precise and patterned close-ups by utilizing meticulous highlighting and shadow effects. This creates a feeling of three dimensional space in his carefully observed architectural and still life details. Focusing attention on the intricacies of each object, Kepets uses his sharply cropped compositions to express the sheer beauty of shapes and forms. He constantly plays with formal notions of surface flatness...
Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Ochre Composition - creen Print by Luigi Montanarini - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Ochre Composition is an original artwork realized by Luigi Montanarini in the 1970s. Original colored serigraph on paper. Hand signed by the artist on the lower left. Numbered on lo...
Category

1970s Contemporary Art

Materials

Screen

Red Jet - iconic vintage private jet plane on desert airport tarmac (48 x 74")
Located in San Francisco, CA
large format photograph of glossy cherry red vintage private airplane on airport runway tarmac Red Jet by Frank Schott 48 x 74 inches (122 x 188cm...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

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

GOING TO CHURCH Signed Lithograph, Southern Landscape, African American Heritage
Located in Union City, NJ
GOING TO CHURCH was the very first limited edition print created by the self-taught African American artist William Tolliver (b.1951-2000) in 1987. GOING TO CHURCH is an original han...
Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph

Liber Mystia XLIII
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Liber Mystia XLIII" is an original artwork by Henry Hablak made of gouache, ink, and colored pencil on paper measuring 16.25"h x 12.25"w framed and 14"h x 11"w unframed. Henry Habl...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache, Color Pencil

The Starfall - underwater nude photograph - archival pigment print 17.5" x 23.5"
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
Underwater nude photograph of a young beautiful golden hair woman on black background. Her body is partially covered with a golden scarf leaving uncovered beautiful buttocks. Origi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Ballad (Bombay Beach) - Contemporary, Polaroid, Women
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Ballad (Bombay Beach) - 2023 40x50cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2023-08. N...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Polaroid, Color, C Print, Archival Paper

Parchment Series XXXV - abstract, embossed, monoprint on parchment paper
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This contemporary embossed white mono print was inspired by nature. Canadian artist Susan Collett is a masterful printmaker and an award-winning ceramic artist whose work is collect...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Parchment Paper, Monoprint

Aqua, Terra, Aero Trio - geometric abstract, mild steel, outdoor sculptures
Located in Bloomfield, ON
A collaborative project, artist Javid Jah and fabricator Alex Akbari of Qube Inc. re-designed this series from a recent public art exhibition in downtown Toronto, which was exhibited in collaboration with Roger Mooking and Wyandot artist Catherine Tammaro. The dynamic geometric form of the three pieces—Terra, Aqua and Aero (the elements of earth, water and air) is inspired by the ideas of cosmology (the study of the universe) and sacred ancestral principles. Forged from steel, light shines through the intricately detailed pattern of perforations on the surface. Each individual sculpture can also be used as a wood burning or gas fire pit...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Metal, Steel

David Gilhooly 'How To Make Jackson Pollack’s Dog' Signed Limited Edition Print
Located in San Rafael, CA
David Gilhooly (1943-2013) How To Make Jackson Pollock's Dog, 1988 Lithograph on BFK Rives Paper Edition 47/60 Signed and dated in pencil lower right Published by Magnolia Edition (M...
Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph

A House Becomes a Home With you - Contemporary Architecture Pool House Painting
Located in DE
Lilly Muth's architectural paintings transport viewers on a visual journey to a different world, where imagination knows no bounds and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tulip Fields 05 by Bernhard Lang - small size
Located in Paris, FR
Aerial Views, Tulip Fields 05 is a limited-edition photograph by German contemporary artist Bernhard Lang. Available dimensions and editions: - 60 x 75 cm: edition of 10 - 96 x 120 ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

C Print

Praying for World Peace in the Sunlight
Located in Manchester, GB
Yayoi Kusama, Praying for World Peace in the Sunlight, 2016 Vivid inkjet colours on synthetic paper. Stamped by Yayoi Kusama Foundation 59.4 x 74.1 cm Unknown edition size The ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Giclée

Shrouded in expectations- 21st Century Contemporary portrait Painting
Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
Tania Rivilis Shrouded in expectations 40 x 40 cm framed (included in price) 43,5 x 43,5 cm Oilpaint on wood panel Tania Rivilis (b. 1986) 2022 winner of the 'William Locke Price...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Alex Katz from 'A Tremor in the Morning' signed, limited edition woodcut print
Located in San Rafael, CA
Alex Katz (b. 1927) Untitled, from the portfolio 'A Tremor in the Morning', 1986 Woodcut on wove paper Edition 32/45 Signed and numbered in pencil lower left Sheet: 20 x 19.75 inches...
Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph, Woodcut

Peony no.5 - analogue black and white floral photography, Limited edition of 20
Located in London, GB
'Peony No.5’ photographed in London, United Kingdom 2024. It is a still life black and white film photograph, made with a large format 4x5 Linhof camera. Limited edition of 20. Pr...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée

Each Step Woven Into the Other - B.Schaumann - Contemporary Dancers Painting
Located in DE
Barber Schaumann is a contemporary artist known for her vibrant, abstract interpretations of the female form. Her work combines bold colors with modern, geometric shapes, blending el...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Brigitte Bardot b/w silver gelatin photograph on paper
Located in Norwich, GB
Terry O’Neill CBE is one of the world’s most collected photographers, with work hanging in national art galleries and private collections worldwide. From presidents to pop stars, he ...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Flowers Flowers Flowers
Located in Bristol, GB
Offset print Edition of 300 68 x 68 cm (26.8 x 26.8 in) Signed and numbered on the front Mint. Minor imperfections may appear due to the production process.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Offset

"Aquarius" Photography 39" x 31" in Edition of 7 by Kseniya Vashchenko
Located in Culver City, CA
"Aquarius" Photography 39" x 31" in Edition of 7 by Kseniya Vashchenko Not framed. Ships rolled in tube. Available sizes: Edition of 15: 29.5" x 24" in Edition of 7: 39" x 31" i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Texaco Marine, North Shore Marina, Salton Sea, California - American Landscape
Located in Cambridge, GB
Part of Richard Heeps 'Salton Sea' Collection, this large advertising sign on the bank of California's largest marina, once a popular celebrity ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin

Combahee II - Original Three-Dimensional Wall Art
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Atticus Adams' organically composed modern metal sculptures embody the transformative power of contemporary art, illustrating the creation of beauty, meaning, and emotional impact fr...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Metal, Wire

David Michalek, Contemporary, Nude, Photography
Located in München, BY
Edition 25 Portrait of a male model from the back. From personality portraits and advertising campaigns to magazine layouts and fine art work, Greg Gorman has developed a unique style in his profession. His distinctive use of light in his black and white portraits is one of the identifying aspects of a Gorman photograph. Gorman’s strength has been photographing motion picture and music personalities. His work has been used in film advertising and publicity campaigns as well as album and CD covers. Some of the motion picture celebrities that he has photographed include Ben Affleck, Lauren Bacall, Alec Baldwin, Antonio Banderas, Kim Basinger, Marlon Brando, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Bette Davis, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, Sophia Loren, Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand, Kiera Knightley, Clive Owen, Jennifer Lopez and John Travolta. In the music field, Mr. Gorman has worked with Elton John, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Morrissey, John Mayer...
Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

New Rome #1- Floral landscape soft pastel color contemporary photograph
Located in New York, NY
This floral landscape photo has a dramatic sense of composition which recalls the careful arrangements of Dutch and Flemish still life paintings from the 17-18 century. Belgian ph...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Rose glow - still life analogue photography, limited edition of 5
Located in London, GB
'Rose glow' Printed on Hahnemühle photo rag Baryta 308 Gsm fine art paper, these limited edition photographs are designed to withstand the test of time, preserving the beauty and em...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Giclée

No. I, from Natural History, Part I, Mushroom (Bastian 42), 1974, Lithograph
Located in Bristol, GB
Collotype in colours with collage and hand-colouring Edition 24 of 98 75.8 x 55.8 cm (29.8 x 22 in) Signed with initials and numbered on the front Condition upon request Published by...
Category

1970s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph

Abalone shell- shell embroidered with yellow thread
Located in New York, NY
Esther Traugot obscures natural objects within hand-crocheted coverings, in a curious and aesthetically intriguing attempt to preserve nature and preven...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Thread

Kiki Smith, Tattoo Print, silkscreen and ink transfer on wove paper, S/N, Framed
Located in New York, NY
Kiki Smith Tattoo Print, 1995 Silkscreen and ink transfer on wove paper Signed, dated 1995 and numbered 96/100 in graphite pencil on the front Another example of this edition is in t...
Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Ink, Screen

[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Man in Towel Looking to the Side
Located in New York, NY
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Man in Towel Looking to the Side n.d. Signed in red, u.l. Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm) $3,000 + $125...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pop Flower 49 - Green Blue Geometric Flower Contemporary Botanical Mandala, 2024
Located in Kent, CT
This contemporary geometric abstract drawing has a beautiful, soft mottled texture created with Judge's unique powered pigment technique. Poptic 49 is a predominately light green man...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Rag Paper, Pigment

Fantasy, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, titled
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Fantasy, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, titled 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 Art

Materials

Lithograph

Sunset to Kyo by Lumi Mizutani - Japanese style painting, landscape, tree, sky
Located in Paris, FR
Sunset to Kyo is a unique painting by Japanese contemporary artist Lumi Mizutani. This painting is made with India ink, Japanese pigments and gold leaves on cardboard, dimensions are...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Gold Leaf

Bedtime story I - 21st Century, Polaroid, Nude Photography, Contemporary, Color
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Bedtime story I , 2017, 20x20cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-print, based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Nazareno #4. From The series Buscando Papá. Photo Collage
Located in Miami Beach, FL
The root of these unique photographic works by the artist Celso Castro occurred when the artist returned from Italy to live back in Colombia in 1987. Castro wanted to produce from t...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper

Naomi. Nude Color Photograph
Located in Miami Beach, FL
David Jay's work gives a unique and intimate perspective on how we define beauty. A confrontation between the perception of beauty and the transitory nature of existence, Jay’s subje...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Color

Elegant Black and White Nude Woman Photography - Wall Art for Sale
Located in Winterswijk, NL
Explore our collection of elegant black and white nude woman photography, capturing the beauty of the human form. Perfect as wall art for modern...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Foam, Paper, Photographic Paper

Three Wait on Dock, Cherry Grove, Fire Island, NY
Located in New York, NY
Three Wait on Dock, Cherry Grove, Fire Island, NY 1978 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, verso Gelatin silver print (Edition of 5 + 2 APs) 20 x 16 inches (Edition of 5 + 2 APs)...
Category

1970s Contemporary Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

"Nearly Camouflaged Cow III" Contemporary Animal Portrait Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Baltimore, MD
"Nearly Camouflaged Cow III" is a framed acrylic painting on canvas by Joshua Brown, depicting a closeup of a cow with a prominently pink nose. This playful work features careful bru...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Paint, Acrylic

Joan Miró Vinyl Record Art
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Joan Miró vinyl album art, 1979: Raimon and Joan Miró were close friends that first collaborated on the 1966 album Cançons de la roda del temps. In 1979, Miró designed a cover for th...
Category

1970s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Banana Express #2, Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
New work since April 2024, ready to hang, certificate of authenticity included :: Painting :: Contemporary :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Acrylic

Warhol Basquiat Boxing Poster (Basquiat Warhol boxing The Palladium)
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Andy Warhol/Jean Michel Basquiat: Original Paintings Exhibition Poster, 1985: 'Palladium Presents Warhol and Basquiat'. The rare original, highly sought-after companion piece to the...
Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

FRENCH INTERIOR with STATUES original large painting FRAMED Paula Craioveanu oil
Located in Forest Hills, NY
"French Interior with Statues" Oil on canvas Large original, one-of-a-kind, painting 80x60cm / 31.5x23.5in. Framed! Part of Interior series. Free shipping with 1stDibs code. This painting, "French Interior with Statues", radiates elegance and a strong sense of place. The artist has masterfully conveyed the sophistication of a French interior, blending architectural depth, light, and intricate details with expressive, painterly techniques. The composition draws the viewer’s eye through a series of framed spaces: an open door, a corridor, and a distant room. This layering technique creates a sense of depth and invites the viewer to explore the scene step by step. The checkerboard...
Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Another Space by Osama Esber - Contemporary Figurative Photography
Located in Chicago, IL
Another Space Archival Pigment Print Available Sizes: 16” x 20” Edition of 25 with 3 Artist Proofs 20” x 24” Edition of 10 with 3 Artist Proofs 30” x 40” Edition of 7 with 3 Artis...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Contemporary art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary art 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 art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Stefanie Schneider, Tyler Shields, Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde, and Richard Heeps. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary art, so small editions measuring 0.02 inches across are also available.

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