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Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

American, 1913-2001

Born in Philadelphia, Ben Wilson was a New York Abstract Expressionist painter. His work was exhibited frequently from the mid-1930s through the 1960s, and less frequently but consistently through the rest of the century. Decade by decade beginning in the 1930s his painting comprises a micro history of the period’s art, while depicting what was foremost in the American consciousness of the time.

Wilson’s earliest work shows an intense awareness of social and economic turmoil of the 1930s. Dominating the content was the flow of world events beginning with the Spanish Civil War and followed by the rise of fascism, the Second World War and the plight of the persecuted, displaced and slaughtered minorities. Wilson was concerned with representing humanity and suffering in a changed world.

By the late 1950s Wilson began using abstraction in his paintings, merging himself with the “New York School” of art. He shared many of the values of Abstract Expressionists like Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns.

Through the 1960s, Wilson completed his transition to abstraction, exhibited in New York and Paris and received a Ford Foundation artist-in-residence grant. As the decade progressed he became increasingly experimental with his mediums, using house paint, sand and other unorthodox materials.

Ever one to pursue a personal aesthetic path regardless of popular movements and critical reactions, Wilson increasingly withdrew from the New York art scene from the 1970s on.

Throughout his life Wilson painted and drew every day. He left behind a large body of work and an extensive archive, including exhibition catalogues, reviews, and correspondence that are now part of the permanent collection of the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University. A portion of his archives is in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Wilson is listed in Who’s Who in Art; Who’s Who in the East; Dictionary of International Biography; American Artists of Renown and International Encyclopedia of Artists. His work is in numerous public collections, including the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, New York, NY; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; Rutgers University Art Library and Classics Department, New Brunswick, NJ; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Norfolk Museum, Norfolk, VA; and Fairleigh Dickinson University Collection of Self-Portraits, NJ.

Find original Ben Wilson paintings and other art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Quogue Gallery)

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Artist: Ben Wilson
Byzantium, original signed painting by renowned Abstract Expressionist, Framed
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben Wilson Byzantium, 1975 Oil on Masonite painting Hand signed reverse, Titled, "Byzantium", dated 1975 by the artist and also with estate stamp - in addition to Ben Wilson's hand s...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Rock Candy Mountain (unique, signed Abstract Expressionist painting)
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben Wilson Rock Candy Mountain, ca. 1970 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed, titled and dated) Hand signed, titled and dated by Ben Wilson on the back Frame Included: held in artist's original vintage 1970 wood frame This stunning painting with candy colors is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. In 2017, he was the subject of a career retrospective at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University from September 6 to November 4 and it was accompanied by a catalogue. Measurements: Frame: 23.5 x 47.5 x 1 inch Artwork: 25 x 49 inches About Ben Wilson: Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Permanent Marker

Ozymandias (unique, signed Abstract Expressionist painting by renowned painter)
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben Wilson Ozymandias, 1989 Oil on masonite board Boldly signed by Ben Wilson on the back 36 × 48 inches Unframed Provenance: acquired from the Estate of Ben Wilson This work is titled "Ozymandias" after the famous sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Shelley's poem is one of the most poignant meditations on the fleeting nature of human power and the inevitability of decline. The poem serves as a reminder that time erodes even the most imposing empires and leaders and that the pursuit of lasting fame and control is ultimately futile. Depending on how one views Ben Wilson's Abstract Expressionist painting of "Ozymandias" -- some of the imagery might reveal the head of an angry king and a sickle. Shelley's poem Ozymandias reads: I met a traveler from an antique land...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Lightness (Abstract Expressionist painting), Hand signed and Estate stamped
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben WIlson Lightness, ca. 1980 Oil on masonite board 21 × 25 × 3/10 inches Stamped by artist's estate, Hand signed by the artist on the front AND stamped by the artist's estate on the back Unframed Hand signed by the artist on the front and stamped by the artist's estate on the back. Acquired from the Estate of Ben Wilson. This poignant painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Concert (unique, signed Abstract Expressionist painting by celebrated artist)
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben Wilson Concert, ca. 1989 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed by the artist; also bears the Estate Stamp) Boldly signed front and back, titled and dated on the back by Ben Wilson and also stamped on the back by the estate of Ben Wilson 42 × 48 inches Unframed This stunning painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. This work "Concert" - depicting instruments, in a light, lyrically abstract painting. Exquisite colors and subtle imagery. In 2017, he was the subject of a retrospective at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University from September 6 to November 4 and it was accompanied by a catalogue. About Ben Wilson: Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Words and Deeds
By Ben Wilson
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Words and Deeds Oil and collage on wood panel, c. 1990 Signed recto lower right (see photo) Verso: See photo Signed, verso: Ben Wilson Dated: c. 1990 Titled: Words and Deeds Condition: Excellent Image/panel size: 23 1/4 x 19 inches Frame size: 26 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his rst one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, lled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identied strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specic imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Inuenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early gurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, inuenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson lled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplied in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...
Category

1990s Abstract Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

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This development was consistent with concurrent explorations into the grid by artist Agnes Martin and others. By the mid-50’s Karoly’s style began another transition into a more surface concerned “Color Field” style of painting. There are elements still reminding one of Abstract Expressionist concerns as such painters as Clifford Still. But the works that began to emerge from Karoly’s studio in 1958 presaged the Morris Lewis fan motifs and Friedl Dzubas’s epic and romantic color spewing expanses of canvas. In 1959 Karoly began experiments using washes of turpentine diluted oil paint directly onto raw linen, and all of these subsequently suffered the consequences of oil oxidation and acidity upon the surfaces. However, many of Karoly’s washes in color field happily occurred on lightly prepared primed canvas surfaces as well. By 1960 Karoly began reintroducing imagistic references to his visual content. There were also various references to Japanese and Zen influences. He experimented with a variety of processes that included mixed media and marbleized surfaces achieved by the intermixture of oil and water mediums. A calligraphic element also enter Karoly’s work in the early 60’s. Then in 1961 glued and assembled objects begin to show up in Karoly’s work in earnest. The influence of early POP artists, particularly Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, become apparent. From 1961-63, a series of the assemblage works transition from canvas to the sculptural to pieces obviously intended for full scale installation. Many of these pieces were among the most fragile of his works primarily due to their reliance upon the of gluing of objects such as plastic or paper cups on flexible surfaces of stretched linen or canvas. In the mid-60’s Karoly apparently produced a number of photo-silk screened series of Picasso, De Kooning and other significant artists of his generation. These were executed in a style somewhere between Rauschenberg’s and Roy Lichtenstein’s, primarily because of their reliance upon half tones and Ben-Day dot effects. Then Karoly began a series of paintings conflating his drip and grid styles with super imposed and painted over string. In the late 60’s Karoly embarked upon a series of multi-paneled stretched linen constructions often with slits and fiber optic back-lit elements that were prescient of the work of Dan Flavin and others. It was this body of work that was shown at Hofstra University’s Emily Lowe Gallery, and it was these works that suffered perhaps the most irreparable damage from a steam/water infiltration in a space where they were being stored. The late professional start that Karoly had into the art world was balanced by his long life span and early immersion into the design issues of modernism as it emerged in turn of the century Europe and later evolved in America. He was clearly an artist who subscribed to the ethos of the new in abstraction and was obviously impressionable and in some instances prescient with regard to various trends in abstraction. Several noteworthy and influential collectors and institutions during his 40 years of professional engagement acquired his work. The Whitney Museum of American Art had and may still own a large Karoly canvas from 1960, but this is doubtful as the artist failed to list it on the vitae he filed with MoMA in 1965. His work was recognized and honored by the Whitney with its inclusion in four of their annual survey shows (1951,1953, 1963 and 1964). The artist’s surrealist influenced paintings from 1948-1950 were the focus of a solo exhibition held of his work by the Museo de Art in Sao Paulo and eight years later a ten year survey of his work was the focus of a solo show at the Miami Museum of Modern art. The Sao Paulo Museum in Brazil, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina each acquired Karoly paintings for their collections in the 1950’s. One of Karoly’s surrealist pieces was apparently purchased by Christian Zervos, Picasso’s designated chronicler, who apparently also wrote a piece on Karoly in Cahiers D’Art in 1949. A 60’s piece of Karoly art that is in the New York University’s permanent collection is included in the MoMA Library’s catalog...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

ABSTRACT WOMAN WITH FLOWERS
Located in Three Oaks, MI
Bookatz's artistic practice embodies a dynamic and multifaceted approach to creation. His canvases resonate with an improvisational interplay, a reflection reminiscent of the nuance...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

ABSTRACT WOMAN WITH FLOWERS
ABSTRACT WOMAN WITH FLOWERS
H 31.5 in W 31.5 in D 1.5 in
Previously Available Items
The Guide
By Ben Wilson
Located in New York, NY
Ben Wilson The Guide, ca. 1990 Oil on Plywood Signed, dated and titled by the artist with official Estate stamp on the back 48 × 43 3/4 inches Unframed This stunning painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Plywood, Oil, Board

Abstract Figures
By Ben Wilson
Located in Buffalo, NY
An oil on canvas by listed American modernist Ben Wilson (1913-2001). Finely painted composition with rich colors and thick impasto. Signed verso Ben Wilson. Image size, 22"L x 30"H
Category

1930s Abstract Expressionist Ben Wilson Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Figures
Abstract Figures
H 30 in W 22 in D 1 in

Ben Wilson abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Ben Wilson abstract paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of abstract paintings to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Ben Wilson in oil paint, paint, wood and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Ben Wilson abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 17 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Erle Loran, Harry Bertschmann, and KOKO HOVAGUIMIAN. Ben Wilson abstract paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $5,000 and tops out at $16,500, while the average work can sell for $12,000.

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