Skip to main content

Nathan Oliveira Art

American, 1928-2010
Born 1928, Oakland, California; Died 2010, Stanford, California. Nathan Oliveira was a leading member of the second generation of the Bay Area figurative painters. He is best known for his brilliantly colored figurative and landscape paintings as well as intricate bronze sculptures with colorful patinas. Oliveira achieved national prominence fusing Abstract Expressionism and figuration in psychologically charged canvases that explored human isolation and alienation. In 1959, he was the youngest painter included in the important exhibition New Images of Man at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which also featured works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Richard Diebenkorn, and Jackson Pollack. Overnight, Oliveira found wide acclaim for his nervous human images, built up with thick layers of scuffed and scratched paint. Nathan Oliveira employed a bravura, brushy style of paint application. His abstracted figures and landscapes, however, reflected an affinity with the darker vision of European artists like Oskar Kokoschka and Edvard Munch or more nearly contemporary artists like Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon, who shared his sense of human conflict and existential angst. Particularly influential was the German painter Max Beckmann, with whom he studied briefly. Nathan Oliveira had solo exhibitions in major museums all over the world. His paintings are held in the collections of many distinguished institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Tate Modern, London, among others.
to
1
1
2
4
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
7
1
2
1
2
1
1
7
1
5
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
6
4
4
4
2
9
8,200
2,807
2,504
1,663
3
1
8
Artist: Nathan Oliveira
Sleeping Female Nude
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in New York, NY
Nathan Oliveira's "Female Sleeping Nude" is a captivating artwork that elegantly combines style, technique, and layered interpretation, offering a rich and multifaceted experience to...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite

Nude Stepping from the Carpet
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Nathan Oliveira. "Nude Stepping from the Carpet" is a contemporary painting, oil on canvas in a palette of reds, greens, and beiges by Bay Area figurative artist Nathan Oliveira. The artwork is signed in the lower right, "N Oliveira 62". During the early years, Oliveira’s lone figures often suggest an existential angst similar to that of Giacometti, but there is also a weightlessness and a transcendent aura that envelopes these figures; they appear as elemental, universal and eternal projections of selfless consciousness better understood within the bodiless realm of metaphysics. These qualities would remain in his work throughout his long career, yet he would find other themes to explore — the natural world where the essential nature of birds and animals exist in equal profundity with their human counterparts, the transient world of evanescent perception when memory must reconstruct momentary experience, and later, the ‘site’ paintings and monoprints that suggest the abandoned remnants of a long-lost civilization or tribe uncovered at an archeological dig. Nathan Oliveira has left us with a legacy of art that will surely remain untarnished by time or changing trends. His work exists within a realm rarely achieved by artists striving in a similar mode of expression. Unclouded by ego or wayward sentiment, it is also in the warmth and humble nature...
Category

Mid-20th Century Contemporary Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Miramar I
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Artwork title: Miramar IArtist name: Nathan Oliveira Date created: 1969 Classification: print Medium: lithograph Edition: 75 Dimensions: 29 3/8 × 22 1/8 in. (74.6 × 56.2 cm) Signed...
Category

1960s Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Lithograph

Figure with Blue Eyes
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Nathan Oliveira. "Figure with Blue Eyes" is a figurative painting, oil on canvas in a palette of browns and creams with a pop of blue by Bay Area Figurative artist Nath...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Nathan Oliveira. "Untitled" is a Bay Area Figurative Painting, oil on canvas in a brown and tan palette by American artist Nathan Oliveira. The artwork is signed in the lower right, "Oliveira 64". A Californian whose work is of preeminent importance during the post war period, Oliveira is most often associated with Park, Diebenkorn and the other artists with whom he sketched early in his career. Yet it was not an oversight when Oakland Museum director Paul Mills chose not to include Oliveira in the 1957 exhibition “Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting.” All came to figuration by initiating a sophisticated dialogue with abstraction, yet it is Oliveira, the often characterized ambivalent loner among Bay Area artists whose work is most often compared to Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, or Willem de Kooning with whom he shared walls and space at The Images of Man exhibition held in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in 1959. During the early years, Oliveira’s lone figures often suggested an existential angst similar to that of Giacometti, but there was also a weightlessness and a transcendent aura that envelopes these figures; they appear as elemental, universal and eternal projections of selfless consciousness better understood within the bodiless realm of metaphysics. These qualities would remain in his work throughout his long career, yet he would find other themes to explore — the natural world where the essential nature of birds and animals exist in equal profundity with their human counterparts, the transient world of evanescent perception when memory must reconstruct momentary experience, and later, the ‘site’ paintings and monoprints that suggest the abandoned remnants of a long-lost civilization or tribe uncovered at an archeological dig. Through and through, flesh to bones, and bones to dust Nathan Oliveira has left us with a legacy of art that will surely remain untarnished by time or changing trends. His work exists within a realm rarely achieved by artists striving in a similar mode of expression. Unclouded by ego or wayward sentiment, it is also in the warmth and humble nature...
Category

Late 20th Century Post-War Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Stelae No. 5
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Stelae No. 5" is a painting by Bay Area Figurative artist Nathan Oliveira. The painting is signed and dated lower right, "Oliveira 98". The framed piece measures 67 1/2 x 55 3/4 x 2 in. A Californian whose work is of preeminent importance during the post war period, Oliveira is most often associated with Park, Diebenkorn and the other artists with whom he sketched early in his career. Yet it was not an oversight when Oakland Museum director Paul Mills chose not to include Oliveira in the 1957 exhibition “Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting.” All came to figuration by initiating a sophisticated dialogue with abstraction, yet it is Oliveira, the often characterized ambivalent loner among Bay Area artists whose work is most often compared to Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, or Willem de Kooning with whom he shared walls and space at The Images of Man exhibition held in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in 1959. During the early years, Oliveira’s lone figures often suggested an existential angst similar to that of Giacometti, but there was also a weightlessness and a transcendent aura that envelopes these figures; they appear as elemental, universal and eternal projections of selfless consciousness better understood within the bodiless realm of metaphysics. These qualities would remain in his work throughout his long career, yet he would find other themes to explore — the natural world where the essential nature of birds and animals exist in equal profundity with their human counterparts, the transient world of evanescent perception when memory must reconstruct momentary experience, and later, the ‘site’ paintings and monoprints that suggest the abandoned remnants of a long-lost civilization or tribe uncovered at an archeological dig. Through and through, flesh to bones, and bones to dust Nathan Oliveira has left us with a legacy of art that will surely remain untarnished by time or changing trends. His work exists within a realm rarely achieved by artists striving in a similar mode of expression. Unclouded by ego or wayward sentiment, it is also in the warmth and humble nature...
Category

1990s Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Head
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Watercolor, gouache, ink wash, crayon, and pencil on paper
Category

1950s Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Crayon, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Pencil

Pessoa's Sleigh II
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Monotype

Related Items
The Fall of Icarus
Located in London, GB
Gouache on paper, signed (lower left) and titled (lower right), 68cm x 88cm, (88cm x 108cm framed). The work is framed behind museum quality non-reflective UV glass. A realist pain...
Category

1960s Post-War Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

The Fall of Icarus
The Fall of Icarus
H 34.65 in W 42.52 in D 1.19 in
Italian 18th Century Oval Religious Oil on Canvas Painting with Saint Dominic
By Francesco de Mura
Located in Firenze, IT
This beautiful Italian 18th Century old masters oil painting on oval canvas with giltwood frame is attributed to Solimena and features a religious scene. In this splendid oval-shaped painting are depicted Saint Dominic...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Boy Oil on Canvas
By Arthur Bowen Davies
Located in Rio Vista, CA
Exquisite oil on canvas painting by artist Arthur Bowen Davies (American 1862-1928). The work depicts a young nude man walking through a lush green, ethereal landscape. Thick earth-t...
Category

19th Century American Impressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

First Floor Biogram
By Kory Twaddle
Located in Kansas City, MO
Title : First Floor Biogram Materials : Acrylic, gouache, oil pastel, marker, charcoal, graphite, and conté crayon on paper Date : 2018 Dimensions : 24 x 18 x .1 in. Description : ...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Paint, Paper, Acrylic, Tempera, Watercolor, Graphite, Conté, Oil Pastel,...

Original-Drawing Time Series-Gladiolus-PleinAir-Brit Awarded Artist-Ink on paper
Located in London, GB
The Summer Bloom Series is an ongoing project that Shizico Yi returns to each summer, painting en plein air in her garden. She began gardening in 2015 to create a healing space for h...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Graphite, Gouache

New York School Abstract Expressionist Drawing Watercolor Painting Carmen Cicero
By Carmen Cicero
Located in Surfside, FL
This is a stylized figurative abstract expressionist nude. This one is hand signed and dated. From the style we are estimating it to the 1970's They have abstract stylized erotic mal...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Narcissus paradigm shift Timothy Archer 21st Century Contemporary painting blue
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on cvanvas Signed lower left
Category

2010s Contemporary Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Gestures 8 - Contemporary Minimalistic Figurative Oil Painting, Realism, Nude
By Julita Malinowska
Located in Salzburg, AT
Artodyssey "Julita Malinowska's paintings belong to those, which once seen - are never forgotten. The open spaces, sometimes cool and bright, at other times heavily saturated with co...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil on Canvas “Cabo Azul 3”
By Frank Arnold
Located in Fresno, CA
“Cabo Azul 3” is 43” x 36”. Frank Arnold’s paintings exhibit the highest quality materials for a truly archival piece, created to last generations. Much of Frank Arnold’s work is so...
Category

2010s Abstract Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

French Abstract Figure Mid 20th Century Signed Graphite and Watercolour
By Louis Bellon
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Abstract Nude Female Figure by Louis Bellon (French 1908-1998) Signed right left Watercolour and graphite on paper, unframed measurements: 11 x 7.5 inches (overall sheet measures 19...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite

Summer 2 - Contemporary Expressive, Figurative Oil Painting, Male Nude Series
By Bartosz Kolata
Located in Salzburg, AT
Bartosz Kolata was born in Torun, Poland in 1979. In 2006 he graduated in Art Conservation and Restoration from Nicolas Copernicus University UMK, secur...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Her - Contemporary Figurative Oil on Canvas Nude Realistic Painting
Located in Warsaw, PL
ABOUT THE ARTIST: AGNIESZKA STAAK-JANCZARSKA (born in 1994) A graduate of the State Secondary School of Art of Józef Kluza in Krakow. In 2020, she graduated from the Academy of Fine...
Category

2010s Naturalistic Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Previously Available Items
Nathan Oliveira 'Nude' Limited Edition Signed Lithograph Print
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Rafael, CA
Nathan Oliveira (American, 1928-2010) Nude, 2004 Lithograph in colors on wove paper Edition 9/10 Signed, numbered, and dated in pencil along lower edge (Unframed) Sheet: 22-1/2 x 18-...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Lithograph

Copper Plate Nude II (2) 2001. Aquatint - signed, dated front - Nathan Oliveira
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in Burlingame, CA
Vivid and beautiful female figurative nude with lifted arms by Nathan Oliveira - color sugar lift and spit bite aquatints, aquatint and texture from the back of a discarded plate 23 ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Aquatint

Skating Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled Standing Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Standing Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

At The ADAA Art Show - Figure with Arm Up
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Revisited Standing Figure
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled Nude
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Head #1
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Figure with Shoe
By Nathan Oliveira
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Nathan Oliveira Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Nathan Oliveira art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Nathan Oliveira art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Nathan Oliveira in paint, canvas, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the post-war style. Not every interior allows for large Nathan Oliveira art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Arne Hiersoux, Paul Wonner, and William Theophilus Brown. Nathan Oliveira art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $55,000 and tops out at $135,000, while the average work can sell for $115,000.

Artists Similar to Nathan Oliveira

Recently Viewed

View All