Jo Murray
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
Mid-20th Century Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
Watercolor
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Antique Late 19th Century Victorian Game Tables
Brass
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings
Panel, Oil
Vintage 1960s American Paintings
Canvas, Wood, Paint
Vintage 1930s American Streamlined Moderne Dressers
Walnut
1960s Cubist Figurative Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Gouache, Board
1950s Cubist Abstract Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Charles Ragland BunnellComposition in Red and Blue - Abstract Expressionist 1950s Oil Painting, 1951
1940s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings
Paper, Encaustic
20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings
Oil
1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Gouache
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
Vintage 1940s American Expressionist Paintings
Board
1950s Modern Abstract Prints
Lithograph
Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
1910s Realist Interior Paintings
Linen, Oil
1950s Modern Landscape Prints
Lithograph
Recent Sales
Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Paintings
Oil, Illustration Board
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
Acrylic
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
1970s Prints and Multiples
Late 20th Century American Vases
Stoneware
1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
Canvas, Oil
A Close Look at abstract Art
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.