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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
Period: 1920s
Les Pas Perdus - Rare Book illustrated by André Breton - 1924
Located in Roma, IT
Edition not available. Partially uncut. Excellent conditions.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Flamenco musicians drawing colored pencils spanish modernism
By Ricard Canals Llambí
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Ricard Canals Llambí (1876-1931) - Flamenco musicians - Colored pencils Drawing measurements 23x32 cm. Frame measurements 41x50 cm. Frame in poor condition. Ricard Canals Llambí (Ba...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Color Pencil

Ex libris - Domingo Hospital - Woodcut by Emilio Marcel Bondurand - 1924
Located in Roma, IT
Ex libris -  Domingo Hospital  is an Artwork realized in 1924 by the artist Emilio Marcel Bondurand, from Spain. Woodcut print on ivory paper. The work is glued on ivory cardboard. ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1927. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1927. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Early American School Modernist Seaside Wine Still Life Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Step back in time to the roaring 1920s, a period of innovation, artistic rebellion, and cultural transformation. This painting invites you to own a piece of this vibrant era with a r...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1923
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1923. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1927. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

French Vintage Modern Art Deco Nitrolian Fast Drying Paint Promotional Poster
Located in Houston, TX
Modern art deco promotional poster by artist and illustrator Leonetto Cappiello. The work features a man using Nitrolian paint to paint a set of stairs as a woman walks down. The pa...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1923. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1927. Watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925). The manuscr...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1927. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Lerchenfeldner Gürtel (Vienna)
Located in Wien, 9
Ernst Huber war eine zeitlang am Kunstmarkt aufgrund einer Nachlassauktion so omnipräsent, dass mir etwas das Entdeckungsinteresse an diesem sehr guten Kü...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Pane e Vino con un ... - Rare Book illustrated by Giovanni Papini - 1926
Located in Roma, IT
Cover worn and damaged, inside good conditions.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Le Pèse-Nerfs - Rare Book illustrated by Antonin Artaud - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Antonin Artaud, Le Pèse-Nerfs, suivi des Fragments d'un Journal d'Enfer. Edition ornée d'un frontispice par Andé Masson, Les Cahiers du Sud, Marseille 1927. Uncut. Edition decorated ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Crepapelle - Risate - Rare Book by Luciano Folgore - 1919
Located in Roma, IT
First edition of the famous collection of short stories by L. Folgore (Roma, 1888 – Roma, 1966), one of the most relevant literature personalities in 1900 Italy. Folgore was an impor...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Ex libris - Dr. Gombos Laszlo - Woodcut by Zoltan Perei - 1974
Located in Roma, IT
 Ex libris - Dr. Gombos Laszlo is an Artwork realized in 1974 by the artist Zoltan Perei, from Hungary. Woodcut print on ivory paper. The work is glued on ivory cardboard. Total di...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

Female Nude - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Female Nude is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1923. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925)...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Le Gardien du Feu - Rare Book illustrated by Méheut - 1923
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 143 copies. One of 25 copies on pur fil. Near perfect conditions and partially uncut.  Louis Aragon was born in 1897 and died in 1982. He was a French poet and writer,long...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Toyen - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic scene is an artwork realized by Toyen in 1923. Mixed colored watercolored lithograph. The artwork is an illustration from the book Pybrac written by Pierre Louÿs  (1870-1925...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Escales - Rare Book illustrated by André Lhote - 1920
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 440 copies including 32 coloured illustrations by André Lhote. One of the illustrations is full-page. Original editorial softcover with spine lightly damaged. Inside near ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

'Soaring Steel' — 1920s Realism, Chicago Cityscape
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Samuel Chamberlain, 'Soaring Steel', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 79. Signed, titled, and numbered '64/100' in pencil. Annotated '48.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom right margin. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 3/8 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. The subject of the print is the construction of the Daily News Building in Chicago, Illinois. Image size 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches (311 x 241 mm); sheet size 15 1/2 x 12 3/8 inches (394 x 314 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Public Library, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York Public Library, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Western Australia Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Drypoint

Poeti allo Specchio - Rare Book by Luciano Folgore - 1926
Located in Roma, IT
Collection of parodic texts by Luciano Folgore (Roma, 1888- Roma, 1966), one of the most important futurist poets. The texts are the parodies of the characters and the texts of some ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Renoir et Ses Amis - Rare Book illustrated by Georges Rivière - 1921
Located in Roma, IT
One of 150 copies on Japon including 6 engravings not present in the edition on papier velin. Volume includes also 2 original engravings made with original plates of Renoir. Georges ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Rare Early Antique American School Fauvist Woman Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist portrait oil painting. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Framed. Very finely painted and a rare fauvist palette. No signature found.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Ex libris - Anny Rabl - Woodcut - 1950
Located in Roma, IT
Ex libris -  Anny Rabl is an Artwork realized in 1950. Etching on ivory paper. The work is glued on colored cardboard. Total dimensions: 20x16. Good conditions.  The artwork repr...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

Connaissance de l'Est - Rare Book by Paul Claudel - 1925
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 1960 copies. Copy on manifactures de rives. Very good conditions excepting cover. Includes original woodcuts by Foujita. 
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Les Malheurs des Immortels - Rare Book illustrated by Max Ernst - 1922
Located in Roma, IT
Les Malheurs des Immortels révélés par Paul Eluard et Max Ernst. Collection of poems and prints Woodcuts. Uncut. Copy number 822 of 1300. This copy is printed on paper Madagascar.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

La Revolte des Anges - Rare Book illustrated by Siméon - 1921
Located in Roma, IT
Beautiful edition of 1000 copies. Copy on Japon Imperial paper. Includes etchings by Siméon. Illustrated cover. Spine lightly damaged in both top and bottom. Uncut and in superb cond...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Paludes - Rare Book by R. De La Fresnaye - 1921
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 312 copies on Papier Velin Lafuma-Navarre including six original lithographes by R. De La Fresnaye. Perfect Conditions. Partially Uncut.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper

Landscape with Trees
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Landscape with Trees Watercolor on paper, 1929 Signed in pencil lower right corner Obviously influenced by the Cezanne works in the collection of his patron Alfred C. Barnes of Phila...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor

'Manhattan Old and New' —1920s Realism, Cityscape
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Samuel Chamberlain, 'Manhattan Old and New', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 81. Signed, titled, and numbered '81/100' in pencil. Titled and annotated '30.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition. The subject of the print is the lower Manhattan cityscape just before the Depression. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 13/16 inches (222 x 173 mm); sheet size 12 3/4 x 10 inches (324 x 254 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm Osborne...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Drypoint

Woman reading
Located in Genève, GE
Illegible signature Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 46.5 x 41.5 x 5.5 cm
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

"Hiddensee, Herbst (Autumn)" Hans Hofmann, Modern German Abstract Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Hans Hofmann Hiddensee, Herbst (Autumn), 1927 Signed with initials and dated lower left; titled on the reverse Oil on paper 18 x 22 inches Provenance: John Adams Fine Art, London Pr...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Oil

The Chair - Lithograph by Raoul Dufy - 1920
Located in Roma, IT
The Chairis a vintage lithograph realized after Raoul Dufy in 1920. Good conditions. Edition of 110. Not signed and not numbered, as issued. The artwork is depicted through confid...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Monogrammed 1925 Pointillist Landscape Modernist Framed Original Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist signed pointillist painting. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Signed. Framed. Rare early work!
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Broadway Costume Illustration by Designer Mabel E. Johnston
Located in Larchmont, NY
Mabel E. Johnston Untitled, c. 1920s Watercolor and pencil on paper Sight: 18 x 12 1/2 in. Framed: 39 x 21 1/4 x 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Mabel E. Johnston The first tidbit I fou...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Subway Construction
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition American Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Subway Construction, c. 1928, oil on board, 19 x 15 ¾ inches, signed upper left, artist and title verso; exhibited: 1) 12th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, The Waldorf Astoria, New York NY, from March 9 to April 1, 1928, no. 864 (original price $250) (see Death Prevailing Theme of Artists in Weird Exhibits, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), March 8, 1928); 2) Boston Tercentenary Exhibition Fine Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Horticultural Hall, Boston MA, July, 1930, no. 108 (honorable mention - noted verso); 3) 38th Annual Exhibition of American Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, June, 1931 (see Alexander, Mary, The Week in Art Circles, The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 7, 1931); and 4) National Art Week Exhibition [Group Show], Montross Gallery, New York, New York, December, 1940 (see Devree, Howard, Brief Comment on Some Recently Opened Exhibitions in the Galleries, The New York Times, December 1, 1940) About the Painting Ernest Stock’s Subway Construction depicts the excavation of New York’s 8th Avenue line, which was the first completed section of the city-operated Independent Subway System (IND). The groundbreaking ceremony was in 1925, but the line did not open until 1932, placing Stock’s painting in the middle of the construction effort. The 8th Avenue line was primarily constructed using the “cut and cover” method in which the streets above the line were dug up, infrastructure was built from the surface level down, the resulting holes were filled, and the streets reconstructed. While many artists of the 1920s were fascinated with the upward thrust of New York’s exploding skyline as architects and developers sought to erect ever higher buildings, Stock turned his attention to the engineering marvels which were taking place below ground. In Subway Construction, Stock depicts workers removing the earth beneath the street and building scaffolding and other support structures to allow concrete to be poured. Light and shadow fall across the x-shaped grid pattern formed by the wooden beams and planks. It is no surprise that critics reviewing the painting commented on Stock’s use of an “interesting pattern” to form a painting that is “clever and well designed.” About the Artist Ernest Richard Stock was an award-winning painter, print maker, muralist, and commercial artist. He was born in Bristol, England and was educated at the prestigious Bristol Grammar School. During World War I, Stock joined the British Royal Air Flying Corps in Canada and served in France as a pilot where he was wounded. After the war, he immigrated to the United States and joined the firm of Mack, Jenny, and Tyler, where he further honed his architectural and decorative painting skills. During the 1920s, Stock often traveled back and forth between the US and Europe. He was twice married, including to the American author, Katherine Anne Porter. Starting in the mid-1920s, Stock began to exhibit his artwork professionally, including at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery, the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Whitney Studio and various locations in the Northeast. Critics often praised the strong design sensibility in Stock’s paintings. Stock was a commercial illustrator for a handful of published books and during World War II, he worked in the Stratford Connecticut...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Art Deco Costume Illustration by Broadway Designer Mabel E. Johnston
Located in Larchmont, NY
Mabel E. Johnston Untitled, c. 1920s Watercolor and pencil on paper Sight: 12 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. Framed: 21 1/8 x 17 1/4 x 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Mabel E. Johnston The first tidb...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

'Tanks #1' — 1920s American Precisionism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Louis Lozowick, 'Tanks #1', lithograph, 1929, edition 50, Flint 39. Signed, titled, and numbered '11/50' in pencil. Signed with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower left. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (3/4 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards. Image size 13 15/16 x 8 1/16 inches (355 x 204 mm), sheet size 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches (400 x 286 mm). Exhibited: 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock', Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008. Literature: 'Prints and Their Creators, A World History', Carl Zigrosser, Crown Publishers Inc, 1974; 'American Lithographers...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled (Figures and City Buildings)
Located in Chicago, IL
A Modernist lithograph by Modernist Boris Israelevich Anisfeld, depicting figures and buildings. Boris Israelevich Anisfeld was born in Bieltsy, Russia in 1878. In 1911, Diaghilev,...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Jazz Age Dancer Illustration by Broadway Designer Mabel E. Johnston
Located in Larchmont, NY
Mabel E. Johnston Untitled, c. 1930s Watercolor and pencil on paper Sight: 12 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. Framed: 21 1/8 x 17 1/4 x 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Mabel E. Johnston The first tidb...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Maternité au Rideau Rouge
Located in Chatsworth, CA
A lithograph in colors from the Marina Picasso Estate Collection after the Pablo Picasso painting "Maternité au Rideau Rouge". The original paint...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

'Fruit Piece' — 1920's American Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Pamela Bianco, 'Fruit Piece', lithograph, c. 1925. Signed and titled in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left. Annotated 'No. 8' in pencil, upper right...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Street in Porto Maurizio
Located in Middletown, NY
Etching on antique cream laid paper with a partial watermark, 9 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches (246 x 109 mm); full margins. Signed and dated "1928" in pencil, lower margin. Inscribed "Street in Porto Maurizio...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Laid Paper, Etching

Original 'Balsam Aperitif au Quinquina' stone lithograph vintage poster 1923
Located in Spokane, WA
Original Balsam, Aperitif au Quinaquina vintage stone lithograph printed in 1923. The great artist Jean d’Ylen created this poster after assuming the head of Vercasson after Leone...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Brooklyn Waterfront
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Brooklyn Waterfront Lithograph, 1931 Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist Edition: Undetermined (very small), plus artist's proofs Printed by Meister Schulz, Berlin Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn, the artist's widow Dehn Quests Bibliography: Lumsdaine and O'Sullivan 152 Illustrated: Adams, The Sensuous Life of Adolf Dehn, Fig. 9.14, page 213 (This impression) Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer, the publisher of the most notable modernist art and poetry magazine...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Modernist French Harbor Scene by Woman Artist Helen Young
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Helen Young (American, 1888-1968[?]) French Harbor Scene Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches; Framed: 35 x 30 Signed at lower left: “Helen Young” H...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Orpheus and Eurydice - Drawing by Andre Leroux - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Orpheus and Eurydice is a Pencil Drawing realized by André Leroux in 1927. Good condition on a yellowed paper. Signed and dated on the lower ri...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Pencil, Paper

Portrait of Alfred Hardiman, Graphite Sketch, Signed and Dated 1925
Located in London, GB
Graphite on paper, signed and dated Image size: 18 x 12 1/2 inches (46 x 32 cm) Mounted and framed The sitter for this portrait, Alfred Hardiman, was an English sculptor. Hardiman and Lyon were friends and met when they both attended the British School at Rome in the early 1920s. Hardiman won a London County Council Scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1912, and three years later joined the Royal Academy School. After a period as an engineer's draughtsman in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, Hardiman resumed his studies and in 1920 was awarded the British Prix de Rome scholarship, spending two years at the British School at Rome. There he developed his style, a blend of naturalism and classicism influenced by Roman and Etruscan art and early fifth century Greek sculpture. Hardiman's best-known (but also most controversial) work is the Earl Haig Memorial on Whitehall in London. More universally admired are the heraldic lions flanking the main entrance to the City Hall, Norwich, a work which fully epitomises his style. He was appointed consultant sculptor to the building, having worked with one of the architects, Stephen Rowland Pierce, on the Haig Memorial. Hardiman also carved three large stone figures for the outside of the council chamber, and worked with other sculptors on the project including James Woodford and Eric Aumonier. Hardiman was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1936 and a full Academician in 1944. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1938 and the following year received their silver medal for his statue of Haig. In 1946 he won a gold medal for his bronze fountain figure for the New Council House, College Green, Bristol, which however was never erected. In 1918 he married Violet, daughter of Herbert Clifton White, of London, and had two daughters. He died at Stoke Poges on 17th April 1949. Robert Lyon...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Graphite

The Dance - Drawing - 1920
Located in Roma, IT
The Dance is a pencil drawing realized in 1920 and attributed to Augusto Monari. Good condition, no signature. Mounted on a grey cardboard passpartout ( 23.5x18.5).
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Pencil

Plate with Ram (Untitled)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Glazed and incised ceramic, 8 ½ inches diamet...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Ceramic

Erotic Scene - Lithograph by Albert Marquet - 1920s
Located in Roma, IT
Erotic Scene is a beautiful lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized in the 1920s by Albert Marquet (Bordeaux, 1875 - Paris,1947). Monogrammed on the plate on the lower margin. ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Portrait of Matisse - Lithograph by Raoul Dufy - 1920
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Matisse is a lithograph realized by Raoul Dufy in 1920. Good conditions. Edition of 110. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued.
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Nudes Women - Drawing by Mino Maccari - 1925
Located in Roma, IT
Nudes Women is a Pencil and Pastel Drawing realized by Mino Maccari (1924-1989) in 1925 ca. Hand-signed on the lower. Good condition with folding and aged margins. Mino Maccari ...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Pastel, Pencil

Street in Porto Maurizio
Located in Middletown, NY
Etching on antique handmade laid paper, 9 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches (246 x 109 mm), full margins. Signed and dated (1928) in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Frederick Reynolds. In very goo...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Etching

Swiss chalets (1927) - Oil on canvas 35x46 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work signed Jeannet, artist unknown from the gallery. Dated 1927 Sold with frame, total size with frame is 44x56 cm
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Oil

VILLAGE SCENE / TOWN FESTIVAL
By Herbert Gurschner
Located in Santa Monica, CA
HERBERT GURSCHNER (Austrian / English (1901-1975) VILLAGE SCENE / TOWN FESTIVAL ca.1924 Color woodcut 4 ¾ x 5 3/8” Signed in pencil. Good strong colors. On thin paper. Faint darkeni...
Category

1920s Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut, Linocut

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.

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