Tomie Depaola
1950s Abstract Expressionist Animal Drawings and Watercolors
India Ink, Handmade Paper
Mid-20th Century Abstract Figurative Sculptures
Metal
Recent Sales
1950s Abstract Expressionist Animal Drawings and Watercolors
India Ink, Handmade Paper
1960s Abstract Expressionist Animal Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Watercolor
People Also Browsed
1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Fabric
1940s Art Deco Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Art Glass
Late 20th Century Mexican Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Ceramic, Paint
Early 19th Century Old Masters Figurative Sculptures
Marble, Bronze
20th Century Art Deco Side Tables
Macassar
Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Tables
Mahogany, Rosewood
1860s Figurative Sculptures
Marble, Bronze
Late 19th Century Figurative Sculptures
Marble
21st Century and Contemporary Indonesian Post-Modern Credenzas
Mahogany, Oak, Teak, Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Wood
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Planters, Cachepots and Jardinières
Ceramic
Antique 18th Century Peruvian Spanish Colonial Cabinets
Mother-of-Pearl, Teak
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
Porcelain
Vintage 1970s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Stone, Chrome
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.