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A pivotal talent and pioneer of the Abstract Expressionist movement while he was still in his 20s, postwar American artist Jack Roth created an immense body of work over the course of several decades. Today original Jack Roth paintings are widely collected all over the world.

After serving in both the U.S. Army and the Air Force, the Pennsylvania-born Roth studied art at the California School of Fine Arts, now known as the San Francisco Art Institute, under American painters Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff. Despite his studies on the West Coast, Roth returned to PA and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Penn State University in 1951. He subsequently completed his MFA work at the State University of Iowa and earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at Duke University.

Staged in 1954, the “Younger American Painters” exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was a seminal show for Abstract Expressionism in the United States. A young Roth exhibited there as a 27-year-old alongside Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell. The well-established art dealership Knoedler & Co. in New York City added Roth to their star-studded roster, where his work appeared alongside paintings and sculptures by Alexander Calder, Nancy Graves, Adolf Gottlieb, Michael Goldberg and Frank Stella.

Over the course of his career, Roth taught math at several universities. While working on his doctoral thesis, in around 1963, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased several of his artworks for their permanent collection, and he earned accolades in Art in America magazine. In 1979, Roth was awarded Guggenheim Fellowship in painting. Today, Roth’s work is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Find authentic Jack Roth paintings, mixed media works, drawings and watercolor paintings.

Bring audacious experiments with color and textures to your living room, dining room or home office. Abstract paintings, large or small, will stand out in your space, encouraging conversation and introducing a museum-like atmosphere that’s welcoming and conducive to creating memorable gatherings.

Abstract art has origins in 19th-century Europe, but it came into its own as a significant movement during the 20th century. Early practitioners of abstraction included Wassily Kandinsky, although painters were exploring nonfigurative art prior to the influential Russian artist’s efforts, which were inspired by music and religion. Abstract painters endeavored to create works that didn’t focus on the outside world’s conventional subjects, and even when artists depicted realistic subjects, they worked in an abstract mode to do so.

In 1940s-era New York City, a group of painters working in the abstract mode created radical work that looked to European avant-garde artists as well as to the art of ancient cultures, prioritizing improvisation, immediacy and direct personal expression. While they were never formally affiliated with one another, we know them today as Abstract Expressionists.

The male contingent of the Abstract Expressionists, which includes Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, is frequently cited in discussing leading figures of this internationally influential postwar art movement. However, the women of Abstract Expressionism, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell and others, were equally involved in the art world of the time. Sexism, family obligations and societal pressures contributed to a long history of their being overlooked, but the female Abstract Expressionists experimented vigorously, developed their own style and produced significant bodies of work.

Draw your guests into abstract oil paintings across different eras and countries of origin. On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive range of abstract paintings along with a guide on how to arrange your wonderful new wall art.

If you’re working with a small living space, a colorful, oversize work can create depth in a given room, but there isn’t any need to overwhelm your interior with a sprawling pièce de résistance. Colorful abstractions of any size can pop against a white wall in your living room, but if you’re working with a colored backdrop, you may wish to stick to colors that complement the decor that is already in the space. Alternatively, let your painting make a statement on its own, regardless of its surroundings, or group it, gallery-style, with other works.