Forever Jewelry Houston

Although for the most part self-taught, Houston Artist John Ross Palmer first studied art professionally at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy in 2001. In 2003, he studied under Robert Venosa in Cadaques, Spain (the former home of Salvador Dali). Palmer spent the summer of 2004 working with Master Painter Philip Rubinov-Jacobson in the Austrian Alps. In 2005, Palmer studied mono-printmaking on Skopelos Island, Greece under the direction of California artist Linda Goodman. Other travels which inspired unique travel bodies of an artwork include his journeys to Cape Town, South Africa, Tokyo, Japan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Berlin, Germany, Dublin, Ireland, Jerusalem, Israel, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nice, France, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago and Havana, Cuba. In January of 2017, Palmer announced to his First Class Club that he will travel to Auckland, New Zealand in May of 2017. Even though Palmer is still considered to be a relatively young artist, he is already being featured at the museum level. From 2009–10, Palmer was honored to have the longest-running display in the history of the art museum at the Children’s Museum of Acadiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. The exhibit, “The Heads and Tales of Ten Presidents,” not only featured Palmer’s fine artwork but also incorporated an educational experience for the young men and women of Louisiana. Palmer took the time to go and paint with the kids to inspire confidence in their artistic ability from a young age. In the summer of 2010, Palmer was honored along with Houston Artist Chris Silkwood with a solo and collaborative exhibit at the historic Nave Museum in Victoria, Texas. The Nave has exhibited talented artists from around the globe, and, based on the statistics, experienced the highest volume of attendance in the history of the museum during the Palmer & Silkwood exhibit. The Museum of Coastal Carolina unveiled Palmer’s Ocean Isle Memories in April of 2016 followed by a run through Labor Day Weekend. The solo show highlighting the Texan artist garnered regional print and television media.

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

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.