Lewandowski Blast Furnace

Regarded as a leading American precisionist and exemplary arts educator, Edmund D. Lewandowski once explained that his “overwhelming desire . . . through the years has been to record the beauty of man-made objects and energy of American industry,” a goal he successfully achieved in a career that spanned five decades and numerous locations, including the American Midwest, South, and New England. Born to Polish parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lewandowski attended the Layton School of Art, studying under regionalist artist Gerrit Sinclair. Inspired by Sinclair’s modern style and urban subjects, Lewandowski’s early paintings reflect a similar approach that would later evolve to industrial themes executed in a hard-edged precisionist manner. His most well-known subjects include chemical plants, shipyards, factories, farms, and oil rigs. Following graduation, Lewandowski worked as a public school teacher and commercial artist while pursuing his painting. His career took a significant step forward when, in 1936, his work caught the eye of the progressive art dealer Edith Halpert, who offered him representation at her celebrated Downtown Gallery in New York City. A key figure in modern art, Halpert encouraged Lewandowski to experiment with Precisionism and to remain in Milwaukee. In 1937, Lewandowski met Charles Sheeler, considered a leader in the American Precisionist movement, whose style would most significantly influence the younger artist’s career. Through his association with the Downtown Gallery and the work he executed for the Federal Art Project between 1936 and 1939, Lewandowski attracted important critical notice and was included in exhibitions at such notable institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (Magic Realism exhibition), and Art Institute of Chicago during the 1940s alone. At the Downtown Gallery, he exhibited alongside other artists such as Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ralston Crawford, George Ault, and Niles Spencer. Following military service as an Air Force mapmaker and camouflage artist from 1942–1946, Lewandowski joined the faculty of his alma mater, the Layton School of Art, in 1947. From that time on, he divided his time between creating art and teaching another generation of aspiring artists. His teaching career took him to institutions throughout the United States, including Florida State University. Following his tenure at Florida State, Lewandowski returned to Layton as its director, remaining until 1972. Throughout these years, the artist would create and exhibit works on paper and canvas, as well as execute commissioned large-scale mosaic murals. In 1973, Lewandowski joined the faculty at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he would serve as the art department chair until his retirement in 1984. Edmund Lewandowski’s art showcases an exacting technical skill honed in his early training and advanced by his relationship with Sheeler. His ultrarealistic works painted in watercolor, gouache, or oil range from early farmscapes to industrial scenes and marine subjects, a variety that reflects the artist’s constant quest for aesthetic evolution. Today, Lewandowski’s work can be seen at prestigious national museums.

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.