Mid-20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Floral Glass Window by Josine Vignon (French 1922-2022) signed pastel/watercolor on paper, unframed painting: 13 x 19.5 inches good condition provenance: from the artists estate, Fr...

Perle Fine (American, 1905–1988) Perle Fine’s work is distinguished by a refined sense of balance, gestural energy, and a deep engagement with the language of abstraction. A key figu...

This vintage 1941 gouache painting on paper, titled Birth of Mind, signed and dated lower right, is a striking example of retrofuturism by Charles Ragland Bunnell, a prominent artist from the Broadmoor Academy...

Title: Architectural Rhythm French Modernist Gouache by Guy Nicod Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Signed, lower right Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 15.75 x 19.5 inches (hei...

Pointillist Abstract Design by Louis Bellon (French 1908-1998) initialled lower right in the image and again in the margin gouache painting on paper, unframed unfinished sketch on th...

Signed "MDS" in lower right. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed verso. Playful, thoughtful shapes integrated with more rigid lines and dots, making for a lovingly abstract piece th...

American artist Ron Blumberg was classically trained at La Grande Academie Chaumiere in Paris, 1932, before moving to New York where he became a National Academy artist and a member of the Art Students League. "Maestro", is a rare pen...

This colorful lithograph is part of my private collection. It is a limited edition , 1 print available, signed and numbered 25/150. It is in very good condition. Vibrant and colorful.

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on thick board unframed: 8 x 8 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have fo...

Gorgeous mid century fauvist watercolor landscape with lush, vivid trees and distant houses by Emily Shotwell Goeller-Wood (American, 1887-1965). Presented in a rustic giltwood frame...

Drawing on paper without frame Size A4

Signed lower right, 'G. Kosmiadi' for Georg Kosmiadi (Ukranian-German, 1886-1967) and dated, '66'; additionally signed verso, 'Georg Kosmiadi', inscribed with serial number and dated...

Bold lines abstract pencil drawing by Spanish artist Hugo Esteban, circa 1960. Signed lower left. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ...

Toni LaSelle (1901–2002) was a pioneering American modernist and a key figure in shaping modern art education in the United States. Strongly influenced by European movements such as ...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 8.5 x 5.75inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we hav...

"Second Theme" 1949 Abstract Mid 20th Century Geometric Non-Objective Hard Edge Burgoyne A. Diller (American, 1906-1965) "Second Theme" 1949. Pencil and crayon on paper. Signed and dated 'D. 49' (lower right). Image: 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York. Martha Jackson Gallery, New York. Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, New York. David K. Anderson Grandchildren's Trust. BURGOYNE DILLER (1906-1965) Recognized as the first American painter to embrace the tenets of Neo-Plasticism, Burgoyne Diller made an important contribution to the development of non-objective art in the United States. Working in a hard-edged geometric style, he produced paintings, drawings, and collages that paved the way for the development of American Minimalism during the 1960s and 70s. Born in New York City in 1906, Diller began painting and drawing as a teenager growing up in Battle Creek, Michigan. Later, while attending Michigan State University in East Lansing on an athletic scholarship, he made weekend visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, where he familiarized himself with Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. He was especially drawn to the landscapes and still lives of Paul Cézanne, who modeled color to create structure and volume. In 1929, Diller moved to Manhattan and enrolled at the Art Students League, where his teachers included such progressive-minded painters as Jan Matulka, Hans Hofmann, and George Grosz. Hofmann's concept of the "push-pull" effect of form and color exerted a strong influence on his early work, as did his growing familiarity with Analytical and Synthetic Cubism, German Expressionism, and other vanguard European styles. Diller had the opportunity to see some of this work firsthand, but he also kept abreast of developments abroad by reading journals such as Cahiers d'Art. Diller completed his studies at the League in 1933, the year he had his first solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York. It was around this time that his paintings began to show the influence of the reductive, pared-down geometric compositions of the Dutch Constructivist Piet Mondrian and the equally restrained compositions of Kasimir Malevich and El Lissitsky...

Original watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil lower right margin. Dated in pencil lower left m...

A colorful 1950s textile design (Black, yellow, blue, pink, red tones) by noted set and costume designer Andre Delfau. Born in Paris, France in 1914, Andre Delfau became an internationally acclaimed stage, set and costume designer who worked world-wide from the 1930s to the 1980s. Delfau was a life long artist and painted independently of his noted design career. His artwork is recognized for it’s vibrant color and form, and a particularly keen use of line. He was highly influenced by the French Modern trends of Cubism and Surrealism, and his artwork is often infused with a dramatic sense of architecture and perspective. Delfau created fashion designs for such major Paris couture houses as Balmain, Jean Patou and Balenciaga. He completed noteworthy set designs and costumes for numerous international operatic and ballet productions, including those at the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Great Britain, the Paris Opera, the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Ruth Page International Ballet, the Civic Ballet of Chicago, the Chicago Opera Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. Most notably, Delfau designed the elaborate stage sets and costumes for the 1986 PBS television production of the Viennese operetta, "Die Fledermaus...

The 16 in x 23 in watercolor displays striking and colorful qualities that influenced abstract expressionism for decades to come. In 2016 the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Michigan, in homage to the very first exhibition in the Zimmerman Sculpture Court, installed the first two paintings by the former Michigan State University painting professor, Clif McChesney (1929-2011) on the Court walls, and the glass artistry of Dale Chihuly, featuring works from the Dennos Collection. In 1991, an exhibition of Dale Chihuly glass...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 10.75 x 8.5 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we h...

A Dynamic, Avant-Garde, Mid-Century Modern Abstract Female Figure Study by Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A striking, black white figural studio ink drawing on paper depictin...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 10 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we ha...

Title: Cubist French Abstract Figure With Geometric Shapes Red And Blue Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 26.25 x 19.25 inches (height x width) ...

Donald Stacy "Red Sun" c.1950s Gouache and oil pastel on paper 13.75" x 17" unframed Unsigned Came from artist's estate *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. Donald Stacy (1925-2008) New Jersey Studied: Newark School of Fine Art The Art Students League...

Opera su carta olio, di DORA Maar Colore Turchese blu Timbro MD atelier Siglato sul retro

Dorothy Dehner Untitled Mid Century Modern abstract sculptural drawing, 1955 Marker and graphite on paper Signed and dated by Dorothy Dehner in black felt tip pen on the front Frame ...

Storm at Sea 1960s Gouache and Oil Pastel on paper 35.75"x33.25 float mount black wood frame measures 38.5"x1.5"x36" Gloria (Fischer) Dudfield July 12, 1922 – May 27, 2015 Came from...

Surrealist proto-Afropunk drawing by African-American artist, Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Hesitation Blues, 1968. Ink on paper, sheet measures 13 x 23 inches; 14 x 18 inches in archival pH-neutral matting. Signed and dated lower right. Excellent condition with no damage or restoration. Provenance: Sheila Ayers-Whitelaw Exhibition History: Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams, Woodmere Art Museum, 07/10/2021 - 10/24/2021 Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...

Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...

Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images. He lived in SoHo, New York, and was a frequent Gallery visitor. Born in Idaho and raised on a working ranch, ...

Abstract Composition is an Original Ink and Watercolor realized by an Unknown artist of mid-20th century. The artwork is in good condition on a cream colored cardboard. No Signature.

André Masson (1896-1987) Surrealistic flower Original colour pencil drawing Signed with the artist's stamp on the back (see photo) On 30.5 x 29 cm tracing paper (11.8 x 11.4 inche...

A striking 1940s Modern cubist still life drawing by Notable Chicago and Michigan artist Stanley Bielecky. Image size: 4 x 5 inches. Archivally matted to 13 1/4 x 16 inches. Estate stamped and numbered 58, lower left. Stanley Bielecky was an Indiana artist who painted the American Scene, from the industrial factories and workers around East Chicago to the pastoral settings of Mackinac Island...

German School, "Pfauvogel" [Peacock], Oil and Watercolor on Paper, 1962, illegibly signed "R. Arzt (?)" and dated lower right, titled lower left, giltwood frame. Image: 20.75" H x 16...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 14.75 x 21 inches condition: Fair, minor wear to the edges as is normal for an unframed wo...

Gloria Dudfield Red Landing 1960s Oil Pastel and Gouache on Paper 26.5"x36" Good Condition - Wear consistent with age and history. Small areas of foxing. Edges have tears, paper sho...

Abstract drawing on paper without frame

WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES Signed original brush and ink on wove paper, circa 1950. WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES is an original watercolor brush and ink on paper, hand signed in ink pen by African-American artist, teacher, and printmaker Ronald Joseph (1910--1992) Artwork depicts an abstract landscape, is in good condition, paper tape remaining on reverse side edges, mounted in an archival acid-free mat, unframed. Artwork paper size - 18 x 21.5 in. Year created - c. 1950 About the artist - Ronald Joseph (1910 -1992) was born on the island of St. Kitts, West Indies In 1910. When he was very young, his mother decided to move to the United States but she could not afford to take him with her. Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Joseph, a childless couple who were friends of Joseph’s mother, adopted him. Afterwards, the Joseph family moved to the Island of Dominica, where they stayed for ten years. In 1921, his foster parents also decided to come to the United States. In New York, Joseph met his mother but remained living with his foster parents. In 1926 Ronald Joseph received a scholarship for the Ethical Culture School, were he spent two and half years of his high school period. At this time he obtained an art scholarship through Dr. Henry Fritz, with whom he became acquainted through his art teacher in public school. Joseph was taken into the Saturday art class, where he was the only black participant. An artistic prodigy, Ronald Joseph had his student works shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ronald Joseph graduated from Ethical Culture Fieldston School in 1929. He was honored as “the most promising” young artist in New York City’s schools. He began his study at Pratt Institute in 1931 and graduated in 1934. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph participated in many exhibitions of African-American art, the Works Progress Administration mural project, and the Harlem Artists Guild. Ronald Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the declaration of World War II and was posted as a member of the ground crew in Tuskegee, Alabama, and in Michigan. At the end of the war in 1945, he received his G. I. Bill of Rights scholarship. In 1948, he was presented with the Rosenwald Fellowship. The funds allowed him to live and work abroad – first in Peru for two years, then in Paris. Joseph used the G.I. bill to study in Paris at the Grande Chaumière. He described this period of his life as being “independent of economy”. His work from these travels is largely undocumented; according to Rosenwald scholar, Daniel Schulman, many pieces of art are undated or simply dated “1948-1952”. After this period he came back to New York without money and work and indicated this as period of hardship. Ronald Joseph left the U.S. in 1956, disappointed in the unreceptiveness of the art world to his work with mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he felt guilty for having left the U.S. during a period when blacks were struggling for their civil rights; on the other, he felt “lucky” to have been able to live and work in place where he did not feel discrimination as intensely. He emigrated to Belgium and later settled permanently in Brussels. Ronald Joseph was married to Claire Joseph and they had a son, Robin Joseph. In 1989 Joseph returned to the United States after an absence of thirty-three years to attend the Lehman College exhibition and symposium and to renew his old friendships. Afterward, he returned to Brussels where he continued to work as a painter, living there for the remainder of his life. Ronald Joseph started his artistic career in Harlem, New York City at the Harlem Community Arts Center, where he was one of the youngest pupils. Joseph studied lithography and other printmaking techniques with Riva Helfond, who taught him many aspects of the process based on simple techniques, including how to operate the press, and how to prepare the stones. Helfond played a significant role as a teacher of lithography at the Harlem Art Center. Joseph produced his first lithographs under her supervision, and this was at a time when she was just beginning to learn the medium herself. At the Harlem Community Arts Center Joseph met Robert Blackburn, who was his classmate. In 1937 Ronald Joseph depicted Blackburn, in one of his most famous works, that is now located at The Metropolitan Museum collection. Experimenting with lithography and etching, as well as woodblock and silkscreen printing, Joseph explored the techniques of printmaking alongside his friend Robert Blackburn. Joseph described the Harlem Art Center as a “healthy and lively” place, where he had made wonderful friends. In the late thirties, he also served as a teacher at the Harlem Community Arts Center. There Joseph met younger artist Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. They formed a friendship, where they enjoyed conversations and visiting museums together. Both Joseph and Knight would hire Lawrence to pose for them. Jacob Lawrence considered Ronald Joseph to be a very intellectual artist. In the 1930s, Joseph became chairman of the Harlem Artists Guild and represented it in Washington with Stuart Davis and Hugo Gellert. Ronald Joseph was also a participant in the mural section of WPA and a representative of the Harlem Artists’ Guild to the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Joseph’s early oil paintings were influenced by Picasso, Braque and other European artists while most of his contemporaries focused on social realism. By 1943, he was hailed by art historian James Porter as New York’s “foremost Negro abstractionist painter”. His pastels and gouaches from the late forties and early fifties showed a highly structured abstraction combined with a studied spontaneity. Ronald Joseph’s finely tuned abstractions often incorporated representational elements along with apparently “purer” forms. He described this aspect of his work in these terms: “It’s not abstract and abstract at the same time. It’s pure creation.” His works from the 1950s employed both still life and landscape as pretexts for masterly exercises in nearly abstract pictorial construction related to cubism and fauvism. During World War II, Joseph was drafted. After the war he formed “a kind of a group” with Robert Blackburn, Charles White, Larry Potter, and Reginald Gammon...

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...

Abstract drawing on paper without frame

Provenance: Marlborough Gallery David McKee, Inc. Manny Silverman Gallery Private collection, Los Angeles

The artist Pinajian signed lower right with ink. it is ink on paper.

Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images. He lived in SoHo, New York, and was a frequent Gallery visitor. Born in Idaho and raised on a working ranch, ...

Michael Knigin Abstract 7 1967 Ink brush drawing on paper 10.5"x14" unframed $675 Signed and dated in ink lower left Came from artist's estate *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. Michael Knigin, painter, printmaker, muralist, photographer, and teacher, was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 9, 1942. He received his BFA in 1966 from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1964 he was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant, which enabled him to study printmaking at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop and collaborate with Rufino Tamayo. Knigin was a full professor at the Pratt Graphic Center in Manhattan between 1967 and 2003. From 1968 through 1972, he also co-owned and directed the Chiron Press where he worked with Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, and Tom Wesselman. In 1974, he served as Art and Technical Director of the Burston Graphics Art Centre in Jerusalem. In 1988, Knigin was appointed to the NASA Art Team and was sent to the Kennedy Space Center...

Sam Francis Untitled (SF64-121) 1964 Gouache and oil on paper 69.9 x 104.4 cms (27 1/2 x 41 1/8 ins) SF14605 Exhibited: New York, 'Chamberlain/Francis', Van Doren Waxter, July 11- ...

A 1959 black and white, Mid-Century, Surrealist watercolor on paper by artist Desmond McLean in a cerused black frame. Image size: 15 1/2" x 22 1/2". Framed size: 25" x 21". McL...

Charles Pfahl, American (1946 - 2013) - Decomposition, Medium: Pencil drawing, signed in pencil lower right, Image Size: 8 x 8 inches, Frame Size: 19.75 x 21.25 inches

Yvonne Thomas Untitled, 1962 Signed with initials and dated lower right Oil on paper 8 3/4 x 12 inches Yvonne Patricia Thomas, born in Nice, France, in 1913, immigrated to the Unit...

Perle Fine Untitled, circa 1945 Estate stamped and numbered "#632" on the reverse Gouache and pencil on Kraft paper 12 x 20 inches Provenance The artist Estate of the artist Thomas McCormick Gallery...

"NY Street Signs" Mid-20th Century WPA 1938 Modernist Abstract Realism Pop Art Stuart Davis (American, 1892-1964) "Street Signs" Modernist gouache and traces of pencil on paper in the proto-pop art style Davis is celebrated for, 1938, signed to lower right, framed. Image: 11 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches. Frame by Bark: 18 1/2 x 22 inches. LITERATURE: A, Boyajian, M. Rutkowski, Stuart Davis, A Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 2, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, vol. II, p. 632, no. 1232, illustrated. EXHIBITIONS: ACA Galleries, New York American Artists' Congress: Group Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Dec. 3-16, 1939 (SDAB I, 12/3/39, p. 129). Outlines Gallery, Pittsburgh, Stuart Davis, Mar. 3-16, 1946. Coleman Art Gallery, Philadelphia, 5 Prodigal Sons: Former Philadelphia Artists: Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Julian Levi, Charles Sheeler, Oct 4 - 30, 1947 (pamphlet), no. 12. PROVENANCE: The artist; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowles, New York, Apr. 3, 1956; thence by descent, Private Collection, New York. NOTES: According to the Catalogue Raissonne, "the title 'Street Signs' is recorded in the artist's account books...

Arman Boom Boom (unique variation from New York International Portfolio), 1965 Screenprint with pencil additions. Pencil signed and numbered 12/225 on the front Published by Chiron ...

Jane Freilicher Untitled I, 1958-59 Signed lower right Charcoal on paper 11 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches Provenance: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York Private Collection, New York Jane Freilic...

Charmion von Wiegand Intersecting Magic Square, ca. 1963 Gouache on paperboard Signed and titled on the back of the artwork. The signature shown on the frame back is a photo of the actual signature on the artwork itself. Frame Included: elegantly floated and framed in hand made white wood museum frame with UV plexiglass This work is signed and titled on the back of the artwork itself. The signature shown on the back of the frame is a photo of the actual signature, since the actual pencil signature and title is on the artwork itself, which can't be seen within the frame Measurements: Frame: 21 x 17 x 1.5 inches Artwork: 18 x 14.25 inches The Estate of the celebrated artist Charmion Von Wiegand has been represented exclusively by Michael Rosenfeld...

A colorful textile design in orange, blue, red and yellow tones depicting an abstract polychrome Wedge Star pattern by set and costume designer Andre ...

Untitled Abstraction Graphite on paper. c. 1946 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Inherited by his neighbor/caregiver Condition: Staining at corners ...

This abstract artwork is one of a group of over 100 pieces personally selected by the artist, and gifted to a close personal friend in 1969. Please note that this painting was never ...

Signed and dated "1962" by the artist lower right. Mixed media on heavy paper. Done for a show to fund a trip to Italy.

“If it brings to me a harmonious sensation…” Walkowitz once said, “…I then try to find the concrete elements that are likely to record the sensation in visual forms.” This philosoph...

Edith Isaac-Rose "Cubed Abstract" 1960s Pastel on paper 6.5"x7.25 unframed Signed in pencil lower right. Came from a portfolio of her work. *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. Born in Chicago in 1929, and neé Ganansky-Teitelbaum, she graduated from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1951 and moved to New York in 1959 where she lived ever since. Taking as her professional name her parents’ first names, Edith was a prolific artist working first as an abstract expressionist then turning in the 1980s to figurative, political work consisting of drawings, paintings, and embroideries which she called “Daily Rage”. She had been represented by the Phyllis Kind...