Juan Manuel Blanes

Alceu Ribeiro was born in Artigas in 1919.  A scholarship allowed him to settle with his brother, also an artist, in Montevideo and start his studies with the Master Joaquín Torres García. He studied with the master for 10 years until his death in 1949. While he was a student, his work was already recognized with several awards from the National Hall of Montevideo, in 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1945. In 1946, he participated in the “Uruguayan Modern Paint Exhibition” in Paris. He found El Molino School in 1949 and that same year he made his first commissioned mural for the Light Palace of Montevideo. Shortly thereafter, in 1953, he held his first solo exhibition at the Faculty of Architecture of Montevideo. He had great success around this time and started making major mural projects, both pictorial and sculptural. In 1962, he entered as a professor at the Universidad de Montevideo. The very next year, Ribeiro went on a long trip through Europe and held tours in South America, exhibiting between other places and at the Zea Museum in Medellín. In 1964, he returned to Montevideo and three years later, he held his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Mayfair Gallery in Washington, D.C. He later exhibited his works in museums and galleries across South America, the United States and Europe and eventually settled in 1979 in Palma de Mallorca. His works are in the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blane, the Contemporary Art Museum of Madrid and other public and private collections across Europe and America. Ribeiro died in Palma de Mallorca on November 22, 2013.

Painting is an art form that has spanned innumerable cultures, with artists using the medium to tell stories, explore and communicate ideas and express themselves. To bring abstract, landscape and still-life paintings into your home is to celebrate and share in the long tradition of this discipline.

When we look at paintings, particularly those that originated in the past, we learn about history, other cultures and countries of the world. Like every other work of art, paintings — whether they are contemporary creations or works that were made during the 19th century — can often help us clearly see and understand the world around us in a meaningful and interesting way.

Cave walls were the canvases for what were arguably the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict natural scenery through art. Portrait paintings and drawings, which, along with sculpture, were how someone’s appearance was recorded prior to the advent of photography, are at least as old as Ancient Egypt. In the Netherlands, landscapes were a major theme for painters as early as the 1500s. Later, artists in Greece, Rome and elsewhere created vast wall paintings to decorate stately homes, churches and tombs. Today, creating a wall of art is a wonderful way to enhance your space, showcase beautiful pieces and tie an interior design together.

No matter your preference, whether you favor Post-Impressionist paintings, animal paintings, Surrealism, Pop art or another movement or specific period, arranging art on a blank wall allows you to evoke emotions in a room while also showing off your tastes and interests. A symmetrical wall arrangement may comprise a grid of four to six pieces or, for an odd number of works, a horizontal row. Asymmetrical arrangements, which may be small clusters of art or large, salon-style gallery walls, have a more collected and eclectic feel. Download the 1stDibs app, which includes a handy “View on Wall” feature that allows you to see how a particular artwork will look on a particular wall, and read about how to arrange wall art. And if you’re searching for the perfect palette for your interior design project, what better place to turn than to the art world’s masters of color?

On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive collection of paintings and other fine art for your home or office. Browse abstract paintings, portrait paintings, paintings by popular artists and more today.