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Modern Art

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Contemporary American Modernist Nocturnal New York Cityscape Framed Oil Painting
Contemporary American Modernist Nocturnal New York Cityscape Framed Oil Painting

Contemporary American Modernist Nocturnal New York Cityscape Framed Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Oil on canvas, 27 x 31 inches overall, 20 x 24 inches image size. A modern urban nocturne depicting the Manhattan Bridge at night, painted with gestural brushwork and a restrained, b...

Category

2010s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Striking Mid-Century Modern Studio Portrait of a Seated Young Woman
A Striking Mid-Century Modern Studio Portrait of a Seated Young Woman

A Striking Mid-Century Modern Studio Portrait of a Seated Young Woman

By Walter Burt Adams

Located in Chicago, IL

A Striking Mid-Century Modern Portrait of a Young Woman by Notable Chicago Artist, Walter Burt Adams (Am. 1903-1990). A well executed figurative work by the artist, depicting a young woman stylishly dressed in a black sleeveless top seated in a muted studio interior. The painting exemplifies the artist's adept and practiced skill at portraiture, and was likely completed at the artist's studio in Evanston, Illinois. Artwork size: 24 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, accompanied with the original painted Mid-Century frame (framed size: 27 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches). Provenance: Estate of the artist. Walter Burt Adams was a dedicated painter of the American Scene and a singular personality among his peers in the Chicago Modern Art community. His no-nonsense manner, devotion to his craft and sardonic sense of humor characterize a man whose paintings capture life in and around Chicago between the early 1920s and the late 1970s. Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin just after the turn of the last century, Walter Burt Adams spent his childhood in Fargo, North Dakota and began his artistic education there through a correspondence cartooning class as a boy. After finishing high school in Fargo, Adams moved to Chicago in 1922 in order to enroll at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Adams’ instruction at the school with artists such as George Oberteuffer, Frederick V. Poole, Charles Wilimovsky...

Category

1960s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Circus, Modern Giclee after Marc Chagall

The Circus, Modern Giclee after Marc Chagall

By Marc Chagall

Located in Long Island City, NY

Marc Chagall, After, Russian (1887 - 1985) - The Circus, Medium: Giclee, fascimille signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 375, Image Size: 18 x 14 inches, Size: 24 x 16 in. (60...

Category

1950s Modern Art

Materials

Giclée

Fauvist Israeli Landscape, Going to Synagogue Judaica Oil Painting
Fauvist Israeli Landscape, Going to Synagogue Judaica Oil Painting

Fauvist Israeli Landscape, Going to Synagogue Judaica Oil Painting

By Melitta Schiffer

Located in Surfside, FL

Melitta Schiffer, painter. b. Trieste, Italy. In her youth, moved to Weimar, Germany with her parents. Studied at Art Academy, Weimar, Germany; Advanced studies with artist Mildan; 1...

Category

20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Japanese Print, Herons - Signed Woodcut
Japanese Print, Herons - Signed Woodcut

Japanese Print, Herons - Signed Woodcut

By Mokuchu URUSHIBARA

Located in Paris, IDF

Mokuchu URUSHIBARA Herons, c. 1930 Woodcut after on an ink drawing Signed with the artist's stamp On paper 32.5 x 22 cm (c. 12.59 x 8.66 in) INFORMATION : Engraving published by Mo...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

BREAD LINE - Large Strong 30's Modernist Labor Print
BREAD LINE - Large Strong 30's Modernist Labor Print

BREAD LINE - Large Strong 30's Modernist Labor Print

By Iver Rose

Located in Santa Monica, CA

IVER ROSE (1899-1972) BREAD LINE ca. 1935 Lithograph, signed, titled and no. 22/85 in pencil. Image 15” x 17 3/8. Large margins, sheet 18 x 22”. Generally good condition. Some slig...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Studio Flowers, Yellow orchids on pink, original painting, flowers
Studio Flowers, Yellow orchids on pink, original painting, flowers

Studio Flowers, Yellow orchids on pink, original painting, flowers

Located in Deddington, GB

An original still life from my Studio Flower series. Yellow orchids in a Moroccan inspired bowl, created in Oxfordshire. Each flower is hand crafted from Japanese paper and the back ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Ancient Queens' Clothing - Lithograph - 1862

Ancient Queens' Clothing - Lithograph - 1862

Located in Roma, IT

Lithograph on paper realized in 1862. Hand colored. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of the laws, o...

Category

1860s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Classic Tall Sailing Ship in Choppy Waters off Coastline, signed oil painting
Classic Tall Sailing Ship in Choppy Waters off Coastline, signed oil painting

Classic Tall Sailing Ship in Choppy Waters off Coastline, signed oil painting

By James Hardy

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

James Hardy (British contemporary, 21st century) signed oil painting on board, framed board: 8 x 10 inches provenance: private collection condition: overall very good, a few markings...

Category

2010s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Brindisi - Woodcut - Mid-20th Century

Brindisi - Woodcut - Mid-20th Century

Located in Roma, IT

Brindisi is an artwork realized in Mid-20th Century  . Woodcut on paper.  Good conditions included a white cardboard passpartout (24.5x25.5 cm).

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Japanese Print, Rearing Horse - Signed Woodcut
Japanese Print, Rearing Horse - Signed Woodcut

Japanese Print, Rearing Horse - Signed Woodcut

By Mokuchu URUSHIBARA

Located in Paris, IDF

Mokuchu URUSHIBARA Rearing Horse, c. 1930 Woodcut after on an ink drawing Signed with the artist's stamp On paper 26 x 32 cm (c. 10,2 x 12.5 in) INFORMATION : Engraving published b...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Vance Kirkland "Tourists" 1942 Watercolor Colorado Landscape Painting
Vance Kirkland "Tourists" 1942 Watercolor Colorado Landscape Painting

Vance Kirkland "Tourists" 1942 Watercolor Colorado Landscape Painting

By Vance Kirkland

Located in Denver, CO

An exceptional original watercolor painting titled Tourists by renowned American modernist Vance Hall Kirkland (1904–1981), created in 1942 during his celebrated Designed Realism per...

Category

1940s Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor

New York Skyline, NY; East River
New York Skyline, NY; East River

New York Skyline, NY; East River

By Leon Dolice

Located in Middletown, NY

Etching on medium stock, cream wove paper, 5 15/16 x 10 3/16 inches (151 x 259 mm), full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A fine and detailed impression in dark bl...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Etching

India Bangladesh Indistinctly signed in Bengal 1979 Watercolour Fisherman Dacca
India Bangladesh Indistinctly signed in Bengal 1979 Watercolour Fisherman Dacca

India Bangladesh Indistinctly signed in Bengal 1979 Watercolour Fisherman Dacca

Located in Norfolk, GB

Indistinctly signed in Bengali, dated ‘79 Bangladesh/Indian Indistinctly signed in Bengali and dated ‘79 Untitled - Fishermen 1979 Watercolour on paper Paper size: 34 x 53 cm Frame Size: 46 x 62.5 cm Provenance: From a private UK family A fabulously evocative watercolour painting showing fisherman, struggling against the elements. This is Bangladesh, 1979, not long after Independence, when the focus was on the working classes, the everyday struggle to make a living and when the artists depicting these times were concurrently exploring and establishing a new aesthetic. The painting combines naturalism with the wash method of watercolour painting and a reduced palette which allows for a rich harmony of shadow and light. Although appearing to simply utilize monotone colours, closer inspection reveals splashes of quite vivid colours; the yellow on the horizon, a deep crimson on the trousers of one of the figures, blue in the nets etc. The colour is subtle but adds a richness to the overall composition implying that this artist has received an academic training; knowing how to get the most from the materials. Add to this the beautiful watery effect from the wash on the paper and we can immediately see references to Bengal school art techniques. It is not surprising that the artist employs this medium. Neuroarthistory points to the rich heritage of Bengal school painters and the fascination with wash technique emanating from their connection to the water which provides the backbone for the region. From supplying food; fish and seafood, to transportation, agriculture and festivities. Bengal and Bangladesh live and die with the water. Some of the leading protagonists of the mid 20th century Bengal school of painters were equally captivated by the same subject and ideology. D P Roy Choudhury was a leading figure in the academic art institutions in the first half of the 20th century. He was also a great experimenter of style. In the image shown,, we can see Choudhury’s treatment of the same subject and how he to chose the monotone palette. It is through observing the similarities and differences that we begin to learn more about the times these artists were painting in and in the case of the Bangladeshi artists how they were approaching the political traumas of the time. The label to the back of the frame tells its own story;. Saju Arts & Crafts, Dacca-12. “Saju was born in 1944 in Ramu, Cox's Bazar. At one point, he became friends with Shamsul Islam Nizami, one of the veteran painters of Bangladesh. At that time, Nizami was a teacher of the Institute of Fine Arts (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). Nizami introduced Saju to all the notable painters in the contemporary art scenario -- from master painters like Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan...

Category

1970s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Les Petit Rats, Ballerinas
Les Petit Rats, Ballerinas

Les Petit Rats, Ballerinas

By Graciela Rodo Boulanger

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Les Petit Rats, Ballerinas" c.1980 is an original color lithograph on Japan paper by noted Bolivian artist Graciela Rodo Boulanger, b.1935. It is hand signed and numbered XLII/C in pencil by the artist. The image size is 22.5 x 18 inches, framed size is 36 x 30.75 inches. Custom framed in a wooden gold leaf frame, with off white matting and gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist:   Born in La Paz, Bolivia in 1935, Graciela Rodo Boulanger was raised in an artistic environment. Her mother, a concert pianist, and her father, a businessman and art connoisseur, nurtured her talents. She studied the piano and at age 11 enrolled in the School of Fine Arts. At 17 she went to Vienna to study both art and music, and at 22 shetravelled to Argentina for the stimulating artistic environment of Buenos Aires. Continuing to study both piano and painting...

Category

Late 20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Baden Baden, Casino
Baden Baden, Casino

Baden Baden, Casino

By LeRoy Neiman

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Baden Baden, Casino" 1988 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and numbered 261/375 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 36 x 42 inches, sheet size is 42 x 48 inches. With the blind stamp of the printer Styria Studio at the lower left corner margin. It is in excellent condition, three small pieces of hanging tape remain on the back. About the artist: Mr. Neiman's kinetic, quickly executed paintings and drawings, many of them published in Playboy, offered his fans gaudily colored visual reports on heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic contests, as well as social panoramas like the horse races at Deauville, France, and the Cannes Film Festival. Quite consciously, he cast himself in the mold of French Impressionists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas, chroniclers of public life who found rich social material at racetracks, dance halls and cafes. Mr. Neiman often painted or sketched on live television. With the camera recording his progress at the sketchpad or easel, he interpreted the drama of Olympic Games and Super Bowls for an audience of millions. When Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced off in Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide the world chess championship, Mr. Neiman was there, sketching. He was on hand to capture Federico Fellini directing "8 ½" and the Kirov Ballet performing in the Soviet Union. In popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth. A prolific one-man industry, he generated hundreds of paintings, drawings, watercolors, limited-edition serigraph prints and coffee-table books yearly, earning gross annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. Although he exhibited constantly and his work was included in the collections of dozens of museums around the world, critical respect eluded him. Mainstream art critics either ignored him completely or, if forced to consider his work, dismissed it with contempt as garish and superficial — magazine illustration with pretensions. Mr. Neiman professed not to care. Maybe the critics are right," he told American Artist magazine in 1995. "But what am I supposed to do about it — stop painting, change my work completely? I go back into the studio, and there I am at the easel again. I enjoy what I'm doing and feel good working. Other thoughts are just crowded out." His image suggested an artist well beyond the reach of criticism. A dandy and bon vivant, he cut an arresting figure with his luxuriant ear-to-ear mustache, white suits, flashy hats and Cuban cigars. "He quite intentionally invented himself as a flamboyant artist not unlike Salvador Dalí, in much the same way that I became Mr. Playboy in the late '50s," Hugh Hefner told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1995. LeRoy Runquist was born on June 8, 1921, in St. Paul. His father, a railroad worker, deserted the family when LeRoy was quite young, and the boy took the surname of his stepfather. He showed a flair for art at an early age. While attending a local Roman Catholic school, he impressed schoolmates by drawing ink tattoos on their arms during recess. As a teenager, he earned money doing illustrations for local grocery stores. "I'd sketch a turkey, a cow, a fish, with the prices," he told Cigar Aficionado. "And then I had the good sense to draw the guy who owned the store. This gave me tremendous power as a kid." After being drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a cook in the European theater but in his spare time painted risqué murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls. The Army's Special Services Division, recognizing his talent, put him to work painting stage sets for Red Cross shows when he was stationed in Germany after the war. On leaving the military, he studied briefly at the St. Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, after four years of study, he taught figure drawing and fashion illustration throughout the 1950s. When the janitor of the apartment building next door to his threw out half-empty cans of enamel house paint, Mr. Neiman found his métier. Experimenting with the new medium, he embraced a rapid style of applying paint to canvas imposed by the free-flowing quality of the house paint. While doing freelance fashion illustration for the Carson Pirie Scott department store in Chicago in the early 1950s, he became friendly with Mr. Hefner, a copywriter there who was on the verge of publishing the first issue of a men's magazine. In 1954, after five issues of Playboy had appeared, Mr. Neiman ran into Mr. Hefner and invited him to his apartment to see his paintings of boxers, strip clubs and restaurants. Mr. Hefner, impressed, showed the work to Playboy's art director, Art Paul, who commissioned an illustration for "Black Country," a story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician. Thus began a relationship that endured for more than half a century and established Mr. Neiman's reputation. In 1955, when Mr. Hefner decided that the party-jokes page needed visual interest, Mr. Neiman came up with the Femlin, a curvaceous brunette who cavorted across the page in thigh-high stockings, high-heeled shoes, opera gloves and nothing else. She appeared in every issue of the magazine thereafter. Three years later, Mr. Neiman devised a running feature, "Man at His Leisure." For the next 15 years, he went on assignment to glamour spots around the world, sending back visual reports on subjects as varied as the races at Royal Ascot, the dining room of the Tour d'Argent in Paris, the nude beaches of the Dalmatian coast, the running of the bulls at Pamplona and Carnaby Street in swinging London. He later produced more than 100 paintings and 2 murals for 18 of the Playboy clubs that opened around the world. "Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings — not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself," Mr. Neiman told V.I.P. magazine in 1962. Working in the same copywriting department at Carson Pirie Scott as Mr. Hefner was Janet Byrne, a student at the Art Institute. She and Mr. Neiman married in 1957. She survives him. A prolific artist, he generated dozens of paintings each year that routinely commanded five-figure prices. When Christie's auctioned off the Playboy archives in 2003, his 1969 painting Man at His Leisure: Le Mans sold for $107,550. Sales of the signed, limited-edition print versions of his paintings, published in editions of 250 to 500, became a lucrative business in itself after Knoedler Publishing, a wholesale operation, was created in 1975 to publish and distribute his serigraphs, etchings, books and posters. Mr. Neiman's most famous images came from the world of sports. His long association with the Olympics began with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, and he went on to cover the games, on live television, in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, and Sarajevo and Los Angeles in 1984, using watercolor, ink or felt-tip marker to produce images with the dispatch of a courtroom sketch artist. At the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowls, he used a computerized electronic pen to portray the action for CBS. Although he was best known for scenes filled with people and incident, he also painted many portraits. Athletes predominated, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath among his more famous subjects, but he also painted Leonard Bernstein, the ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Art

Materials

Screen

Japanese Print, Horse Bowing - Signed Woodcut
Japanese Print, Horse Bowing - Signed Woodcut

Japanese Print, Horse Bowing - Signed Woodcut

By Mokuchu URUSHIBARA

Located in Paris, IDF

Mokuchu URUSHIBARA Horse bowing, c. 1930 Woodcut after on an ink drawing Signed with the artist's stamp On paper 26 x 35 cm (c. 10.2 x 13.7 in) INFORMATION : Engraving published by...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

'Fashion Able II', Parsons School of Design, Haute Couture, Costume
'Fashion Able II', Parsons School of Design, Haute Couture, Costume

'Fashion Able II', Parsons School of Design, Haute Couture, Costume

By Isaac Mizrahi

Located in Santa Cruz, CA

Signed verso lower left, 'Isaac Mizrahi'. A fashion designer and creator of costume, Isaac Mizrahi attended the Parsons School of Design before becoming immersed in haute couture in...

Category

1990s Modern Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Acrylic, Synthetic Paper, Graphite

Simó Busom, Catalan Mediterranean Landscape with River, Signed Mid-Century oil
Simó Busom, Catalan Mediterranean Landscape with River, Signed Mid-Century oil

Simó Busom, Catalan Mediterranean Landscape with River, Signed Mid-Century oil

By Simó Busom Grau

Located in Sitges, Barcelona

This mid-century oil on canvas by Catalan painter Simó Busom i Grau presents a vibrant Mediterranean landscape with river and house, painted in an expressive postwar Spanish style associated with the Barcelona school. Artist: Simó Busom i Grau (Barcelona, 1927–2020) Title: Mediterranean Landscape with River and House Date: Mid-20th Century (circa 1950s–1960s) Medium: Oil on canvas Canvas size: 46 x 55 cm (18.1 x 21.6 in) Framed size: 59 x 68 cm (23.2 x 26.8 in) Signature: Signed lower right Condition: Good overall condition. Stable paint layer. Frame: Decorative frame included, ready to hang Location: Sitges, Spain Style: Spanish Postwar Landscape / Mediterranean Modern A refined example of postwar Catalan landscape painting, this original oil by Simó Busom i Grau captures the Mediterranean atmosphere through confident brushwork and luminous color transitions. The composition centers around a warm yellow house set against rolling terrain and flowing water. Gestural trees structure the foreground, creating depth and movement while framing the landscape. The artist’s handling of paint is energetic yet controlled, with visible impasto and layered color planes that enhance texture and spatial presence. The palette moves between cool river blues and sunlit earth tones, reflecting the light and tonal vibration characteristic of mid-20th century Spanish painting. The result is a work that balances decorative appeal with painterly authenticity. Compact in size yet visually dynamic, it functions beautifully in residential interiors or curated collections of European mid-century art. The painting is signed and offered with decorative frame, ready to hang. Simó Busom i Grau (Barcelona, 1927–2020) was a Catalan painter trained at the Acadèmia Baixas in Barcelona. He developed a career closely linked to the city’s artistic circuit, exhibiting regularly in Barcelona and Madrid and maintaining connections with the historic Sala Parés. His work focused primarily on Mediterranean and urban landscapes, characterized by expressive brushwork, structural clarity and a luminous color palette rooted in modern Catalan tradition. Catalan landscape painting Spanish mid century oil Mediterranean river landscape Barcelona school painting Simó Busom signed oil Postwar Spanish art European mid century painting...

Category

1960s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Le Grand Verre
Le Grand Verre

Pablo PicassoLe Grand Verre, 1957

$1,069Sale Price|20% Off

Le Grand Verre

By Pablo Picasso

Located in OPOLE, PL

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - Le Grand Verre Lithograph from 1957. The edition 211/275. With Arches watermark. Dimensions of work: 44.5 x 33.5 cm. Publisher: Fernand Mourlot Édite...

Category

1950s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Modern art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Modern 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, red, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Kevin Westenberg, Stuart Möller, Destro, and Christel Haag. 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 Modern art, so small editions measuring 0.4 inches across are also available. Prices for art 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 $33 and tops out at $390,000, while the average work sells for $1,912.