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Expressionist Art

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
Color:  Green
Bloom on the Water-original abstract floral landscape painting-contemporary Art
Located in London, Chelsea
"Bloom on the Water" by Valery Khattin is a mesmerizing original abstract landscape painting that captures the essence of nature in a vibrant and expressive form. Executed with skill...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wildflowers-original abstract floral landscape painting- modern contemporary Art
Located in London, Chelsea
Artist Biography: Born 1964, Russian Khattin is a formally-trained painter from Saint Petersburg, Russia. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, Khattin has exhibited wi...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Shallow Waters-original abstract floral landscape oil painting-contemporary Art
Located in London, Chelsea
"Shallow Waters" by Valery Khattin is an exquisite original abstract landscape painting that captures the essence of a serene and shallow stream surrounded by blossoms. Crafted with ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Boy Waiting, Portrait of a Young Man by Philadelphia Artist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Boy Waiting" is an oil on board portrait painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon of a young man with somber expression, sitting on a chair. This work features a second environmental portrait on verso. The painting is 41.75" x 35.75" in size and is signed "Harmon" on verso. Figurative expressionism in the style of Alice Neel. Provenance: Estate of the Artist; Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Bernard Harmon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935. Harmon was primarily a portrait painter and a well loved teacher in the Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School and Temples Tyler School of Art, Harmon traveled extensively in Europe and South America. Beloved by many, Harmon taught in the Philadelphia School District for 32 of his 54 years of life. Beginning his career as an art teacher at West Philadelphia High School, in the early 1960s he became one of the district's artists in residence, traveling from school to school to demonstrate for students how an artist works. Returning to the classroom, Harmon joined the art department at Central High School where he taught for 14 years and became an innovator in art curriculum, developing a program offering advanced placement art classes to gifted students. In his final years Harmon became a supervisor, mentoring teachers and overseeing programs in the Philadelphia school systems District #1. During his short life Harmon taught collage preparatory art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, summer classes at the University of the Arts, and a Saturday program for gifted children at Drexel University. Among Harmon's portraits were commissioned by Philadelphia Jazz organist Jimmy Smith and Mayor Richardson Dilworth. Bernard Harmon was active in promoting African American Artist throughout his life time. He organized many early shows such as the "Afro American Artists 1800 - 1969" at the Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center in 1969. He was considered a Renaissance man by friends and colleagues for his interests not only in art but music and theater as well. He was familiar and friends with many other African American artists such as Doc Thrash, Selma Burke...
Category

1960s Expressionist Art

Materials

Oil, Board

In Line
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "In Line" 1974 in a oil painting on canvas by Irish artist Rita Lipton, b.1916. It is signed and dated at the lower left corner by the artist. The canvas size is 24 x 12...
Category

Late 20th Century Expressionist Art

Materials

Oil

Sade
Located in Nashville, TN
"Sade" is an acrylic-on-canvas painting of the Nigerian-born British singer/songwriter Sade Adu by Nashville artist James Threalkill. People being his prima...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Bike Racks, Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
This painting is a re-creation of an interesting landscape scene I frequent often. It is located in Eagle Lake Park near my home. The lavender building is the bathroom, a nice convenience for my long walks haha. The bike racks...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Art

Materials

Acrylic

"L’Oiseau Vert (The Green Bird)" Expressionist Marc Chagall Exhibition Poster
Located in Houston, TX
A 1962 lithograph poster on paper after a work by renowned Russian-French Expressionist Marc Chagall titled "L’Oiseau Vert (The Green Bird)." The piece was printed by France’s Mourlo...
Category

1960s Expressionist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Easy, godlike figure, water, reflection, mystical images, blues, greens
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Watercolor, mixed media, using resists. Janet Morgan’s explosive art captures the exuberance and deep wisdom we humans yearn to experience. Her sense of...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Watercolor, Mixed Media, Archival Paper

Bison 4
Located in Denver, CO
Lisa Bostwick has had pieces exhibited at the Legion of Honor, Napa Valley Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and the de Young Museum. Her North Am...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Wood Panel, Acrylic

Bison 3
Located in Denver, CO
Lisa Bostwick has had pieces exhibited at the Legion of Honor, Napa Valley Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and the de Young Museum. Her North Am...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Wood Panel, Acrylic

Bison 1
Located in Denver, CO
Lisa Bostwick has had pieces exhibited at the Legion of Honor, Napa Valley Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and the de Young Museum. Her North Am...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Wood Panel, Acrylic

Il Selvaggio no.3 - 1935 - Original Vintage Art Magazine
Located in Roma, IT
Flipping through a few pages of colored"Il Selvaggio, no.3- 1935", "Annual supporter subscription - Una copia 40 Cent - Weekly Newspaper letters arts and sciences", we find, in the d...
Category

1930s Expressionist Art

Materials

Woodcut

Stringer, colorful green figurative abstraction
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Watercolor, mixed media, using resists. Janet Morgan’s explosive art captures the exuberance and deep wisdom we humans yearn to experience. Her sense of...
Category

2010s Expressionist Art

Materials

Watercolor, Mixed Media, Archival Paper

Dancer in Red - Large Colorful Expressive Figurative Oil Painting on Canvas
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bettina Mauel expresses vitality and sensuality in her abstract and figurative paintings. “I paint what I experience,” she articulates. “This includes landscapes, dancers, and peop...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

LES DEUX AMIES Signed Lithograph, Two Friends Portrait, Dark Mauve, Periwinkle
Located in Union City, NJ
Les Deux Amies is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph printed in 13 colors on archival Somerset paper 100% acid, free, by the Dutch artist known as CORNEILLE(Guillaume van Beverloo) an abstract expressionist who co-founded the 20th Century experimental art movement CoBrA recognized for their spontaneous, rebellious style of painting that was heavily inspired by the art of children and the mentally ill. Corneille devises his colorful fantastic imagery with exotic plant forms, sensuous female bodies, animals and lively pattern design. Les Deux Amies is a fantastical red outlined portrait of two people; one a frontally posed female depicted with a bright blue, wavy wedge hairdo and dark mauve face. Her colorful mask...
Category

1980s Expressionist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Bucranium - Resin and Metal Surrealist Sculpture of a Skull of an Ox
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 Art

Materials

Metal

Nude Christ Like Figure on Infinite Road
Located in Miami, FL
Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 3/15 Printed later, other size available, unframed . Exhibited, Images Gallery, New York
Category

1970s Expressionist Art

Materials

Inkjet

A Tough Citizen
Located in New York, NY
As art historian and writer Suzanne Ramljak wrote "the ambivalent relationship between humanity and machinery has informed Aptekar's art from the start and remains a central theme in...
Category

1980s Expressionist Art

Materials

Screen, Paper

The Rats
Located in New York, NY
As art historian and writer Suzanne Ramljak wrote "the ambivalent relationship between humanity and machinery has informed Aptekar's art from the start and remains a central theme in...
Category

1980s Expressionist Art

Materials

Screen, Paper

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Tangled, Painting, Acrylic on Watercolor Paper
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This is a small floral painting on water colour paper framed with a white mat. Acrylic colours as well as charcoal was used. The work is se...
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Colourful Mid Century Expressionist Work on Paper, La Mer à Cassis 1
Located in Cotignac, FR
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H 44.49 in W 42.52 in D 1.19 in
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Early Light
Located in Baltimore, MD
This piece is unframed. Marshall Noice passionately admires western landscapes, and conveys that love through vibrant colors that illuminate his compositions. Residents of New Mexic...
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Untitled 558, 2002
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The Green Tablecloth - 20th Century Oil, Still Life of Fruit & Jugs by A E Rice
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Expressionist art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Expressionist 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 orange, blue, purple, green and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Iryna Kastsova, George Grosz, Stephen Basso, and Marc Chagall. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint 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 art, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available.

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