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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
A Rare 1930s Modern, American Scene, Midwestern Summer Country Landscape
A Rare 1930s Modern, American Scene, Midwestern Summer Country Landscape

A Rare 1930s Modern, American Scene, Midwestern Summer Country Landscape

Located in Chicago, IL

A rare and special 1936 Modern American Scene country landscape painting with figures by important Chicago artist (William) Davenport Griffen. Oil on canvas, signed and dated "Griffen ‘36", lower right. Image size: 18 x 20 inches. Framed size: 22 x 24 inches. (William) Davenport Griffen was born in 1894 in Millbrook, NY. He graduated from Iowa State College in Ames, IA in 1918 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering; however, Griffen’s true love was painting. In 1919, he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1923-1928. In 1926, he was awarded the American Travel Scholarship and began painting in Provincetown, MA. In 1928, he was awarded the John Quincy Adams Scholarship and spent six months painting in Paris, France. Griffen also painted in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 11 months between 1930-1931. Griffen had one-man exhibitions of his Virgin Islands paintings...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Intimité

Intimité

By Jacques Villon

Located in Middletown, NY

Paris: Mourlot Press, 1964. Lithograph in colors on Velin d’Arches paper, 6 3/4 x 10 inches (170 x 253 mm), full margins. Published by Fernand Mourlot and Jean Adhemar, 1964. In ver...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph, Handmade Paper

Marie Laurencin, Untitled, from Les Biches, 1924
Marie Laurencin, Untitled, from Les Biches, 1924

Marie Laurencin, Untitled, from Les Biches, 1924

By Marie Laurencin

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir by Marie Laurencin (1883–1956), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album Les Biches (The Does), originates from the 1924 edition published b...

Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

La Grande Corrida
La Grande Corrida

La Grande Corrida

By Pablo Picasso

Located in OPOLE, PL

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - La Grande Corrida Etching conceived in 1934, printed in 1939. The edition of 50 on Montval paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Dimensions of w...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Etching

A Hong Kong Canal Boat
A Hong Kong Canal Boat

A Hong Kong Canal Boat

By John Taylor Arms

Located in Middletown, NY

Aquatint with hand coloring in watercolor on watermarked, laid Arches paper, 8 1/16 x 5 9/16 inches (206 x 142 mm), full margins. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 22/40 in pencil,...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Laid Paper, Watercolor, Aquatint

The Moon Porcelain Jar Sculpture, Modern Figurative Art
The Moon Porcelain Jar Sculpture, Modern Figurative Art

The Moon Porcelain Jar Sculpture, Modern Figurative Art

By Alex Hodge 1

Located in Miami Beach, FL

This sculptural jar is the first to feature the figure in combination with a collaged and carved surface. The women dance around in an homage to Matisse, yet the title acknowledges t...

Category

2010s Modern Art

Materials

Ceramic, Clay, Porcelain, Paint, Underglaze

“Abstract 4”
“Abstract 4”

“Abstract 4”

By Martin Rosenthal

Located in Southampton, NY

Original oil paint on heavy archival paper abstract by the American artist, Martin Rosenthal. Bold, vibrant colors. Signed lower right by the artist and dated 1964. Condition is goo...

Category

1960s Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Ancient Civilization
Ancient Civilization

Ancient Civilization

By Ting Shao Kuang

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Ancient Civilization" 1996, is an original color serigraph on thin rice paper taped to a sheet of wove paper for stabilization by noted ...

Category

Late 20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Screen

SURREALIST LANDSCAPE
SURREALIST LANDSCAPE

Edward HagedornSURREALIST LANDSCAPE

$3,000Sale Price|33% Off

SURREALIST LANDSCAPE

By Edward Hagedorn

Located in Santa Monica, CA

EDWARD HAGEDORN (AMERICAN 1902 – 1982) SURREAL LANDSCAPE 1931 mixed media on paper, Graphite, ink and watercolor. Unsigned. Dtaed 2/26/31, in ink lower left margin. Image 13 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches. On a large sheet 20 x 25 inches. Provenance: Hagedorn estate, Around the mid 1980's The Hagedorn estate was dispersed in Berkeley by a local dealer. This drawing was part of a group of Hagedorn works on paper that I acquired from that dispersal. Much of the balance was later acquired the Struart Denenberg Fine Art. Denenberg published a very fine book on the artist's work. EDWARD HAGEDORN: CALIFORNIA MODERNIST, RESTLESSNESS AND RESTRAINT Hardcover – January 1, 2009 Subsequently Hagedorn's works on paper have been acquired by many museums and some accompanying exhibitions. ALL OF THE COMMENTS BELOW ARE FROM THE FOLLOWING EXHIBITION EDWARD HAGEDORN (1902-1982) American Modernist A New Traveling Exhibition “VOLCANOS, WRECKS, RIOTS, & NUDES”, EDWARD HAGEDORN (1902-1982) premiere at the Danforth Museum. Framingham, MA, in March 2016. The exhibition includes 75 works of art in various mediums and is accompanied by the first monograph devoted to the artist’s work with essays by leading curators, critics, and art historians. Edward Hagedorn was a true Modernist who created a trove of powerful works on paper--drawings, watercolors, oils, and original graphics that reveal the hand of a master draftsman and the mind of an astute political observer. He rejected the general trend in early 20th century California of local landscapes and coastal views, becoming virtually the single voice of Expressionism. He conveyed the darkness and upheaval that gripped the country in the depression years between the two World Wars, 1925- 1935, more forcefully than any of his contemporaries, influenced by German art of the time, engaging in modernist styles of Expressionism and Surrealism. Hagedorn’s skeletons are ferocious yet somehow endearing; printed in deep black ink on off-white paper, they march across Lilliputian landscapes of grim disorder and destruction. Comets and volcanoes explode in fauvist colors, their other-worldly fluorescent temperas framed in black, while nude female figures, executed in exquisitely refined pen and ink, or graphite line drawings, are as economical in their means as Matisse, and can be compared with the neo-classical drawings of Picasso. Among his most lyrical works of the 1920s is a series of rhythmically abstracted watercolor and ink views of Golden Gate Park, evoking the sensual demi-geometries of Balthus, Derain , and early Mondrian. American Modernist Edward Hagedorn (1902-1982) was born in San Francisco of German descent; his mother (née Kafka) died in childbirth, and he was legally adopted and raised by his grandmother and aunt. After attendance at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts in the early 1920s, by age 22 he had a studio in the famed "100" block of Montgomery Street ("the Monkey Block,") then a haven for bohemians. In 1926, a year of tremendous importance in California artists' embrace of modern art, the Oakland Art Gallery, with the guidance and inspiration of their European representative Emmy (Galka) Scheyer, was the first museum in the United States to show the art of the "Blue Four," among the leading artists of International Modernism--Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Alexei Jawlensky...

Category

1930s Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor

French Gouache Painting of Acoma Pueblo Corn Dance in New Mexico
French Gouache Painting of Acoma Pueblo Corn Dance in New Mexico

French Gouache Painting of Acoma Pueblo Corn Dance in New Mexico

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Title: French Gouache Painting of Acoma Pueblo Corn Dance in New Mexico by Emile GALLOIS (1882-1965, French) Signed: Yes Medium: Original gouache painting on thick unframed paper, Si...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Gouache

Original Levis's Olympic Games, Skiing North America 1980
Original Levis's Olympic Games, Skiing North America 1980

Original Levis's Olympic Games, Skiing North America 1980

By Michael Gibson

Located in Spokane, WA

Original Vintage Poster, Moscow 1980, Olympic Games. Levi's Skiing North America. Original first printing of this poster. Official sponsors of the US team for the 1980 Olympic Games. The campaign was titled “Levi’s Olympic Opportunity Sweepstakes," and each poster emphasized the sport associated with one of the six continents: Great artwork depicting a sliding red skier with the globe behind, highlighting the North American continent. This poster is linen-backed and in excellent condition, ready to frame. One of six posters produced by Levi-Strauss for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The posters were created with a sport that was associated with of the six continents. Levi's logo and stylized title text in the margin below the images. Levi's commissioned FCB Advertising in San Francisco to produce a set of six posters and designed by some of the top commercial artists of the 1970s and 1980s. The US pulled out of the Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. A small group of these posters was printed. Levi’s abandoned the promotions. The posters were withdrawn following the decision by US President Carter to boycott the Olympics in protest after the USSR invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. The U.S. boycott in 1980 applied to the Moscow SUMMER Olympic Games The artists who created the Levi 1980 Olympic posters...

Category

1970s Modern Art

Materials

Offset

De Piero a Picasso
De Piero a Picasso

De Piero a Picasso

By Alvar Sunol Munoz-Ramos

Located in Atlanta, GA

This graphite drawing on paper is in excellent condition and and has only been shown in a gallery setting. The size dimensions do not include the frame. Alvar pays homage to two of his favorite artists in De Piero a Picasso. Early Renaissance Italian painter Piero della Francesca and twentieth-century Modern artist Pablo Picasso frequently appear as sources of inspiration in Alvar’s homage works. Piero, nowadays celebrated as an artist, was regarded as a mathematician and geometer to his contemporaries in the fifteenth century. Alvar recognizes Piero’s advanced knowledge of perspective and color, his geometric orderliness, and skill in pictorial construction by including a reference to Piero’s History of the True Cross in the lower left corner. The sequence of frescoes painted by Piero circa 1451-1466 is considered an early Renaissance masterpiece. Creative muses in the center of the painting form a symbolic connection between Piero and Picasso, another artist from which Alvar receives continuing inspiration. A muse upholds a recreation of Picasso’s 1901...

Category

2010s Modern Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Graphite

Large French Contemporary Modernist Oil Painting Figures Playing on Sunny Beach
Large French Contemporary Modernist Oil Painting Figures Playing on Sunny Beach

Large French Contemporary Modernist Oil Painting Figures Playing on Sunny Beach

By Huguette Ginet-Lasnier

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Beach Games Huguette Ginet-Lasnier (French 1927-2020) oil painting on textured canvas 29 x 24 inches. All the paintings we have for sale by this artist have come from the artists estate in France. The painting is in very good and presentable condition. Color: Pink, green, black and white Ginet-Lasnier, the wife of the painter Jean Lasnier...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wheelbarrow Race
Wheelbarrow Race

Wheelbarrow Race

By Edmund Blampied

Located in Plano, TX

1925-26. Drypoint. Appleby 114. 8 9/16 x 12 (sheet 12 x 17). Edition 100, #10. An excellent impression with burr, printed with plate tone on the full sheet of 'VGI' laid paper with ...

Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

woman portrait "Garden of Her Heart"
woman portrait "Garden of Her Heart"

woman portrait "Garden of Her Heart"

By Julia Ruf

Located in Zofingen, AG

This painting embodies the harmony between nature and the inner world of a person. The woman seems to dissolve into a swirl of soft shades of green, pink, and blue. Her pose radiates...

Category

2010s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Jonah
Jonah

Sadao WatanabeJonah, 1959

$1,200Sale Price|20% Off

Jonah

By Sadao Watanabe

Located in Santa Monica, CA

SADAO WATANABE (Japanese 1913-1996) JONAH, 1959 Color stencil, signed, numbered and dated in white ink. Sheet, 25 5/8 x 22 5/8 inches. Edition: 44/50. Good color and generally good ...

Category

1950s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut, Stencil

Helmets and Shields - Lithograph - 1862

Helmets and Shields - Lithograph - 1862

Located in Roma, IT

Helmets and Shields is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of ...

Category

1860s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Gin Giving Doris a Haircut
Gin Giving Doris a Haircut

Gin Giving Doris a Haircut

Located in Middletown, NY

A life drawing by a well known book illustrator and long-term resident of the Chelsea Hotel in the 1930s. Caswell, Edward Gin giving Doris a hair cut Black crayon on lightweight, br...

Category

Early 20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Crayon

40x60 AC DC BACK IN BLACK Photography Photograph Cassette Tape Unsigned Print
40x60 AC DC BACK IN BLACK Photography Photograph Cassette Tape Unsigned Print

40x60 AC DC BACK IN BLACK Photography Photograph Cassette Tape Unsigned Print

By Destro

Located in Los Angeles, CA

A contemporary photograph of an AC/DC - Back In Black cassette tape. "They encapsulate an era instantly transporting the viewer to another time." - Destro Printed on Archival Paper...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Revelations de Nozdriov
Revelations de Nozdriov

Revelations de Nozdriov

By Marc Chagall

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Revelations de Nozdriov" from the suite "Nicholas Gogol, Les Ames Mortes" created 1923-1937, published 1948, is an etching on paper by renown Russian/French arti...

Category

Early 20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Etching

Paddock at Deauville Lithograph, Modern Style, 1960, Unframed
Paddock at Deauville Lithograph, Modern Style, 1960, Unframed

Paddock at Deauville Lithograph, Modern Style, 1960, Unframed

By Raoul Dufy

Located in Brooklyn, NY

This original lithograph titled Paddock at Deauville by renowned French artist Raoul Dufy captures the lively atmosphere of the famous horse racing scene at Deauville. Dufy, who init...

Category

1960s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Mazarrón, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
"Mazarrón, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting

"Mazarrón, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting

By Stanley Bate

Located in Westport, CT

In this Modern abstract painting by Stanley Bate, a bold palette is married with imperfect shapes and large brush strokes. Sandy beige rectangles blend with yellow and deep blue, on ...

Category

1960s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-Century Original Printed Menu, Transatlantic French Line, 'Ile de France'.
Mid-Century Original Printed Menu, Transatlantic French Line, 'Ile de France'.

Mid-Century Original Printed Menu, Transatlantic French Line, 'Ile de France'.

Located in Cotignac, FR

Mid-century French transatlantic liner menu with printed illustration by French artist Jean Adrien Mercier. Signed in the print, top left and dated 1956 inside centre. This highly c...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Printer's Ink

Set of 2 Bright Landscape Studies of 1960's British Modernist Drawings
Set of 2 Bright Landscape Studies of 1960's British Modernist Drawings

Set of 2 Bright Landscape Studies of 1960's British Modernist Drawings

By Irina Hale

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Set of Two Paired Studies 1960's British Modernist Drawing by Irina Hale (British 1932-2022) oil crayon drawings on light brown artist paper stuck on A4 artist paper, unframed overal...

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Oil Crayon

English Antique Woodcut Engraving, William Blakes's Milton
English Antique Woodcut Engraving, William Blakes's Milton

English Antique Woodcut Engraving, William Blakes's Milton

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Woodcut Engraving of an extract of William Blake's "Milton" "And did those feet in ancient time...." with two landscape woodcut images, one signed in the impression print, the other ...

Category

20th Century Modern Art

Materials

Acrylic

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.