Skip to main content

American Modern Abstract Paintings

to
36
33
52
59
52
64
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
224
36
1
13
21
18
40
31
16
12
37,986
11,152
1,704
1,690
749
563
527
361
325
292
143
63
22
5
122
119
18
9
8
5
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
245
123
82
82
81
35
11
7
5
4
142
21
255
Style: American Modern
City at Night (Cityscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Abram Tromka (1895-1964) City at Night, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches; 20 x 24 inches in antique oak frame. Signed lower right. Frame is of the period, but probably not ...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Untitled, 1946” New Hope Modernist Small Abstract Bucks County Lambertville NJ
Located in Yardley, PA
“Untitled, 1946” by Louis K. Stone (1902-1984). A strong and charming example of mid-century American modernism by one of the most important artists working in New Hope, PA. This wa...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Trafalgar, London
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Thelma Speed Houston – American (1914-2000) Title: Trafalgar Year: unknown Medium: Watercolor on heavy watercolor paper Sheet size: 18 x 24 inches Signature: Signed lower lef...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Transection No. 3, Ovoid Geometrical Figural Abstract Neon Acrylic Painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Transection No. 3, 1972 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated upper right 30 x 22 inches Provenance: Collection of William H. Milliken Cl...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Patch of Cyan, Vintage Electric Blue Geometric Abstract by Eleanor Perry
Located in Soquel, CA
Patch of Cyan, Vintage Electric Blue Geometric Abstract by Eleanor Perry A bold modernist abstract painting by San Francisco, California artist Eleanor Perry (American, 20th Centu...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Acrylic

A Colorful, Dynamic 1930s Modern Boxing Scene by Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A Colorful, Dynamic 1930s Modern Boxing Scene by Notable Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 2 3/4 x 4 inches, oil on Masonite on original mount, framed in striking perio...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Rainbow Curves, Painter s Palette Translucent Shapes, Large Diptych on Paper
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is a modernist-inspired painting, drawing influence from the bold creativity of 1950s, 60s, and 70s art. The composition features overlapping painter’s palette silhouettes, crea...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paper

Quadratic, Mid-Century Ovoid Figural Abstract Acrylic Collage with faces
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Quadratic, 1979 Acrylic and collage on textured paper Signed and dated lower right 30 x 22 inches 31.5 x 23.5 inches, framed A surreal...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

"Don t Cry Long" Abstracted and Distorted Self-Portrait, One Crying Eye
Located in Detroit, MI
"Don't Cry Long" is a self-portrait of the artist and an unusual one at that in which the artist portrays herself shedding tears. Perhaps it is an expression of some grief experienced by Ms. Woodlock, but it also admonishes her to not "Cry Long" while at the same time poking fun because of her elongated face and the one lone "long" tear tracing a pattern down her face. In addition to self-portraits, Ethelyn painted commissioned portraits. In this painting her head is cocked and her famous bangs hang down her forehead. Compare two self-portraits, “Up From Under”, and “M’Eyes" to "Don't Cry Long." The major differences are the close facial view and the brilliant blood red paint that fills the entire canvas. This painting is included in the book, "Dreams Have Wings: An Artist's Journey into Magic and Mystery" printed in the United States, 1985. She describes "Don't Cry Long" as showing how funny looking we are, if we cry too long. Ethelyn Woodlock...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

A Wonderful Mid-Century Boxing Scene of a Standing Prize Fighter by Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A Wonderful Mid-Century Boxing Scene of a Standing Prize Fighter by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. This energetic sporting scene, painted in the 1960s, exemplifies the abstra...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Charles Ragland Bunnell “Quitting Time” 1941 Black and Blue Abstract Painting
Located in Denver, CO
This original vintage painting by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968), titled Quitting Time from his Black and Blue Series (1941), exemplifies the artist’s signature Abstract Structu...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Ink, Watercolor

North on West Street (West Side Highway NYC Cityscape)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). North on West Street , 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 27 x 34 inched. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

A Colorful, 1950s Mid-Century Modern Pool Hall Scene by Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A Vibrant, Colorful, 1950s Mid-Century Modern Pool Hall Scene by Notable Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 6 3/4" x 8 1/2", Oil on Masonite, Framed size: 11" x 12 1/2"....
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Shimmering Pond in the Woods - Surrealist Abstract 1960s
By Rose Herzog
Located in Soquel, CA
Shimmering Pond in the Woods - Surrealist Abstract 1960s Highly textured abstract composition by Rose Herzog (American, mid-20th Century). A multicolored pond is shown in the middle...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Cotton, Masonite, Mixed Media, Oil, Tissue Paper

Carl Holty Abstract Oil Painting "Riviera" in Primary Colors
By Carl Robert Holty
Located in Detroit, MI
"Riviera" is an exquisite painting of American Modern - primary colors actively composed in energetic movement and structure on the painted surface. These colors formulate the painting, play both for and against each other and create a lively surface with hints of either an architectural structure or freeway. This painting hints to future Modernists such as Richard Diebenkorn "Driveway" and David Hockney "Garrowby." Unframed the piece measures 18 x 24. "Riviera" is signed on lower left. On verso is Provenance of over 70 years, 3 galleries in New York and one in Detroit, Michigan: Andrew Crispo Gallery, Sid Deutsch Gallery and Linda Hyman Gallery in New York and Collected Detroit Gallery in Detroit, Michigan. Abstractionist Carl Robert Holty was known for his biomorphic abstract forms as well as the geometric abstractions he painted with his vibrant color palette. Born in Frieburg, Germany his family immigrated to the United States settling in Wisconsin. In 1919, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, and shortly thereafter attended the Parsons School of Design. He spent a short time at the National Academy of Design and studied with Francis Coates Jones...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Cubist Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernist, Fractured Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Signed lower right Oil on canvas 21 3/4 x 30 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to tr...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Scale Modernist Abstract Square and Circle
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful large scale natural toned mixed media abstract comprising a rectangle of antiqued white texturized with gesso'd hemp sacking and set above second ivory rectangle in pale ivory with circle of scumbled grey by British contemporary artist Richard Lawrence...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil

Colorful Abstracted Landscape in the Style of Diebenkorn
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful Abstracted Landscape in the Style of Diebenkorn by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This dynamic piece features textured blocks of color which resemble an abstracted lan...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Stretcher Bars, Oil

1955 View of Ajax Mountain in Aspen, Colorado by Artist Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A small, vibrant 1950s Mid-Century Modern mountain landscape painting depicting Aspen, Colorado by famed Chicago artist Harold Haydon. Titled "Western Vi...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Bird Abstraction — Mid-Century Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Stephen Harty, Untitled (Bird Abstraction), gouache, 1953. Signed and dated lower left. A fine, meticulously rendered, mid-century, modernist gouache painting, with fresh colors on 1...
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Torso No. 3, Mid-Century Figural Abstract Acrylic Painting, Ohio artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Torso No. 3, 1967 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated lower right 13 x 9 inches 21 x 17 inches A mid-century figural abstract painting. Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Important Early Painting by Spokane, WA Artist Robert Gilmore, Titled Metropolis
Located in Chicago, IL
Important, large early (1963) painting by Spokane, WA artist Robert David Gilmore, titled "Metropolis". The painting depicts the interstate highway system. Artwork size: 46...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1950s "Red Sun" Mid Century Abstract Art Students League NYC
Located in Arp, TX
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...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Gouache

"Piscatory" Abraham P. Hankins, Modernist Composition of Fish, Abstracted Nature
Located in New York, NY
Abraham P. Hankins Piscatory, 1941 Signed and dated lower center Tempera on panel 24 x 30 inches Provenance Private Collection, New York Alexandra Avlonitis, New York (acquired from...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Panel

Dichotomy, mid-century figural abstract green oil painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Dichotomy, 1962 Oil on paper Signed and dated upper left 20 x 25 inches Mid-century figural abstract green painting of woman swimming ...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Color Block Modernist Still Life with Fruit Bowl
Located in Soquel, CA
Color Block Modernist Still Life with Fruit Bowl by Ellis Hopkins (American, b. 1952). This bold still life depicts a yellow bowl of fruit sitting on a table next to a long bottle,...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto
Located in Soquel, CA
Vintage Abstract Expressionist Standing Pensive Figurative Nude - Heavy Impasto Abstract expressionist figurative composition of a nude woman by California artist Harald "Harry" Dr...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

1947 Abstract Gouache Family Portrait by Lewis Lee Tilley, American Modernist
Located in Denver, CO
Ortez (Modernist Family Portrait) is a vibrant 1947 abstract gouache on paper by American modernist artist Lewis Lee Tilley (1921–2005). This dynamic mid-century composition depicts ...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Abstraction
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modern abstract painting by Robert Blair. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and teacher. He is best k...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstraction
$9,600 Sale Price
20% Off
Painting (#29)
Located in New York, NY
Jean Xceron (1890 – 1967) is a modernist artist who was born in Isary, Greece with the birth name of Yiannis Xirocostas. In 1927, he went to Paris to further his art career, which in...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American Woman Artist Modernist Large Oil Painting Cubist Influenced Landscape
Located in Surfside, FL
A beautiful wooded landscape scene with houses and trees. Painted on a masonite board. hand signed lower right. with framers label verso. Framed to 40 X 55 inches. 33 X 48 without the frame and mat. It is not dated. Lena Gurr (1897–1992), was an American woman artist who made paintings, prints, and drawings During the course of her career Gurr's compositions retained emotional content as they evolved from a naturalistic to a semi-abstract cubist style. Born into a Russian-Jewish Yiddish speaking immigrant family, she was the wife of Joseph Biel, also Russian-Jewish and an artist of similar genre and sensibility. Gurr used Lena Gurr as her professional name. After marrying Joseph Biel she was sometimes referred to as Lena Gurr Biel. Biel had been born in Grodno, Poland (later absorbed into Russia) and had lived in England, France, and Australia before coming to New York. An artist, he specialized in landscape paintings and silkscreen printing as well as photography. He studied art at the Russian Academy in Paris. After immigrating to the United States, he studied under George Grosz at the Arts Students League. Gurr was born in Brooklyn and, apart from brief stays in Manhattan and in Paris, lived there her whole life. This painting bears the influence of Lyonel Feininger an influential German American artist. Gurr began studying art at a young age. In 1919 she studied painting and printmaking at the Educational Alliance Art School and between 1920 and 1922 she won a scholarship to attend the Art Students League where she took classes with John Sloan and Maurice Sterne. In 1926 and 1928 Gurr participated in group shows at the Whitney Studio Club in Greenwich Village and in 1928 she also participated in the 12th annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf Roof in New York. (Reviewing this show, Helen Appleton Read, the critic for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, said "I made three discoveries on my first visit, Thomas Nagel, Eugenie McEvoy and Lena Gurr with two figure compositions which have something of Marie Laurencin or Helene Perdriat quality of naive sophistication.") The Waldorf Roof was a set of rooms on the top floor of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, one of which had glass sides and a glass roof. The rooms were used for concerts, dances, benefits, and exhibitions.From 1929 to 1931 Gurr took a leave of absence from her teaching position to travel in France with Joseph Biel, an artist whom she had met while studying at the Art Students League. They spent time in Nice and Mentone but mainly in Paris. During the early months of 1931, while she was still abroad, her work appeared in group exhibitions held at the R. H. Macy department store and the Opportunity Gallery (opened by Gifford Beal). In 1932 she participated in three shows: a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, an annual exhibition of the New York Society of Women Artists, ( Its first president was Marguerite Zorach. Founding members included Agnes Weinrich, Anne Goldthwaite...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Weehawken Sequence
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Weehawken Sequence, c. 1910-16 Oil on canvas board, 9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm) Framed dimensions: 13 3/8 x 16 1/4 inches John Marin’s long and prolific career is best marked by ...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

"So What How?" - Abstract Expressionist Earth Tone Abstract in Oil on Canvas
By John O. Thomson
Located in Soquel, CA
"So What How?" - Abstract Expressionist Earth Tone Abstract in Oil on Canvas Expressive abstract work in earth tones by Monterey Bay artist and gallery owner John O. Thomson (Americ...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

A Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Horse Race Painting by Chicago Artist, Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A Large, Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Horse Race by noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph Pen. Artwork size: 24" x 36"; Framed size: 25" x 37". Signed "Pen" lower right and ti...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Henriette “Yetti” Stolz Mid-Century Abstract Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
This mid-20th-century abstract landscape by American modernist Henriette “Yetti” Stolz beautifully blends stylized natural forms with expressive color fields. Painted in rich, earthy tones of gold, brown, orange, and blue, the composition presents a rhythmic forest scene where trees are distilled into bold vertical shapes and layered hues. Stolz’s modernist approach emphasizes structure and emotion over realism, creating a landscape that feels both grounded and dreamlike. Executed in oil on canvas and signed on the back, the painting reflects Stolz’s deep engagement with modernist ideas circulating through Colorado in the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by artists such as Mary Chenoweth...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil

1950s "Mound Street" Mid Century Figurative Painting American Modernist
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Mound Street" c. 1950s Gouache paint on paper 24" x 18'" unframed Unsigned Came from artist's estate For sale is a striking black and white painting titled "Mound Stre...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

"Saturday Night Live" Abstract Painting on Panel William Shields Acclaimed I
Located in Arp, TX
William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "Saturday Night Live" 1996 Oil on canvas 36"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields. He took them by storm, first Houston, then San Francisco, followed by New York in the late 60's. For 35 years, Bill produced some of the country's best illustrations: fresh, playful, loose and innovative. His illustrations were coveted by such clients as Bantam Books, Time Life, MacMillan Publishing Co., and were awarded numerous gold medals by the Societies of Illustrators in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the Houston Artists Guild. Later, following inspirational trips to Mexico and France, Bill shifted his attention to the self-directed world of fine art. After years of sculpting, making assemblages, painting nudes and landscapes, he settled on the exploration of large abstract oil paintings. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Connecticut and New York. CV EDUCATION: Chicago Academy Of Fine Art San Antonio Art Institute MAJOR FIELDS OF PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVOR: Freelance graphic design and illustration Instructor of painting and illustration Landscape, figurative and abstract painting ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT: (Professor of Art) California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Art Institute San Jose State University AWARDS FOR ILLUSTRATION, Gold Medals: New York Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Society of Illustrators San Francisco Society of Illustrators Dallas-Fort Worth Art Director's Club Houston Artist's Guild BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feature articles in: American Artist, Communication Arts, Print, North Light. Architectural design featured in: Better Homes and Gardens, American Home, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest. ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS: Oil Companies: Champlin Oil Company, Mobil Oil Company, Continental Oil Company, Standard Oil Company, Humble Oil...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Phenomena Royal House
Located in New York, NY
Paul Jenkins American, 1923–2012 Paul Jenkins’s intuitive, chance-based painting techniques helped pioneer new approaches to Abstract Expressionism. Jenkins made his vibrant composi...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Like a Bird- Shadow Follows Light s Illusion
Located in Dallas, TX
Dallas artist David A. Dreyer’s eighth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery was presented early in 2021, accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. His recent paintings are inspired ...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Chalk, Charcoal, Oil, Graphite

Joseph Wolins WPA Artist Dancing, Torah Modernist Judaica Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Joseph Wolins 1915-1999 Subject: Jewish, Dancing with the Torah (New Torah, Simchat Torah) Hand signed oil painting In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary co...
Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1950s "Eve" American Modern MidCentury Figurative Gouache Oil Pastel
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Eve" c.1950s Gouache and oil pastel on paper 14x17" black wood frame 14.75"x17.75" Unsigned, Eve written in paint along right margin Came from artist's estate Donald S...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Oil Pastel

Dessin (Star) Mixed media Collage with Painting James Brown Galerie Bernd Kluser
Located in Surfside, FL
James Brown (American, 1951-2020) Mixed media 1994, "Dessin (Star)", Paint and collage on paper, Hand signed and dated lower right, bears label verso Dimensions: 19.5"h x 29.5"w (sheet), 26"h x 36"w (frame) Provenance: Galerie Bernd Klüser, Bears label verso They represented internationally renowned artists such as Joseph Beuys, Tony Cragg, Enzo Cucchi, Jannis Kounellis, Mimmo Paladino and Andy Warhol. Their first exhibitions were with Andy Warhol, Tony Cragg, Julião Sarmento...
Category

1990s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paint, Paper, Mixed Media

Untitled
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original oil on canvas painting by American artist James Koenig created in 1944.
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Like a Comet - Nocturnal Sky in Oil on Masonite
Located in Soquel, CA
Like a Comet - Nocturnal Sky in Oil on Masonite Surrealistic oil painting landscape of comet by listed San Francisco, California artist Eleanor Perry (American, 1928-2014). Signed ...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large
Located in New York, NY
Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large O. Louis Guglielmi (1906 - 1956) OBSESSIVE THEME 44 x 33 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated '48 lo...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Green Landscape, Abstract Countryside, Fields, Modern, Contemporary, Oil, French
Located in LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, FR
Abstract landscape with colored plots in a dominant green. The landscape evolves in modulations with blurred contours, to suggest volumes more than to draw a precise pattern. The pal...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Antica Roma Figurative Abstract Collage
Located in Soquel, CA
Stunning mid century mixed media collage of Roman travel items and photos by James A. Couglin, a Berkeley Abstract Expressionist (American, 1929-1979), c.1966. Painted during his Par...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Permanent Marker, Magazine Paper

"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat
Located in Soquel, CA
"Personage" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Portrait of Lady with a Hat Abstract expressionist portrait of a woman wearing a hat by California artist Harald "Harry" Dry Schmidt (America...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

"On Guard" Heavy Impasto Expressionist Figure
Located in Soquel, CA
"On Guard" Vintage Abstract Expressionist Heavy Impasto Figure Abstract expressionist figurative composition of a man in a button down shirt with a brimmed hat by California artist ...
Category

1970s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Figure with Guitar II
By Henry Fitch Taylor
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Provenance Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York; Collection of Jeptha H. Wade and Emily Vanderbilt Wade, Boston, until 2025 Exhibitions Cleveland Museum of Art, Art for Collectors, 1971...
Category

1910s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-Century Modern Abstract Geometric Trapeze Artists by Hilda Arp
By Hilda Arp
Located in Soquel, CA
Fanciful mid-century modern abstract of trapeze artists by Brooklyn artist Hilda Dora Pape Arp (b. 1909). This 1962 highly abstracted depiction of trape...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Large Richard Merkin Painting Harlem Jazz Club, New Yorker Magazine Cover Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Richard Marshall Merkin (American, 1938-2009) Gladys and Half-Pint Hand signed 'Merkin' (center right), Titled, inscribed, dated, and initialed 'GLADYS BENTLEY AND FRANKIE 'HALF-PINT' JAXON 1997/R.M.' verso. Oil on canvas 37 1/2 x 72 in. (95.3 x 182.9 cm) framed 39 1/4 x 74 x 2 in. Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tailcoat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience. On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, born Frank Devera Jackson was an African American vaudeville singer, stage designer and comedian, popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama, orphaned, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. His nickname of "Half Pint" referred to his 5'2" height. He started in show business around 1910 as a singer in Kansas City, before travelling extensively with medicine shows in Texas, and then touring the eastern seaboard. His feminine voice and outrageous manner, often as a female impersonator, established him as a crowd favorite. By 1917 he had begun working regularly in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Chicago, often with such performers as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, whose staging he helped design. He served slightly less than a year in the United States Army in 1918–1919 and rose to the rank of sergeant. In the late 1920s he sang with top jazz bands when they passed through Chicago, working with Bennie Moten, King Oliver, Freddie Keppard and others. He performed and recorded with the pianists Cow Cow Davenport, Tampa Red and "Georgia Tom" Dorsey, recording with the latter pair under the name of The Black Hillbillies. He also recorded with the Harlem Hamfats. In the 1930s, he was often on radio in the Chicago area, and led his own band, titled Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon and His Quarts of Joy. Jaxon appeared with Duke Ellington in a film short titled Black and Tan (1929), and with Bessie Smith in "St. Louis Blues" (1929). Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" (1931) is based both musically and lyrically on Jaxon's "Willie the Weeper" (1927). Richard Merkin, Sometimes described as Rhode Island’s most famous New York artist, Richard Merkin has led a dual life for nearly 40 years - teaching at RISD while enjoying a celebrated painting career based in New York City. He has exhibited in countless gallery and museum shows in the US and abroad and is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the RISD museum and many others. In addition to contributing drawings and paintings to The New Yorker (along with, Art Spiegelman, Saul Steinberg, Harper’s, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and several books on Erotica and Baseball, he is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a former style columnist for GQ. Merkin’s honors include a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship and the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Museums and Selected Collections : The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA First city Bank, Chicago, Ill Fisk University Art Gallery, Nashville, TN Hallmark Collections, Kansas City, MO Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Maimi-Dade Junior College, Miami, FL Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Pennsylvania Acadamy of the Arts, Philadelphia PA Prudential Insurance Company, Boston, Ma Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Sara Robey Foundation, New York, NY Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC State University of Brockport, Brockport, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Selected Publications : 1986-Present Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair ..1988-Present, New Yorker... 1988-Present, style column, GQ...1997, Text and Illustration for The Tijuana Bibles, published by Simon & Shuster, 1995, Illustrated book, Leagues Apart: the Men and Times of the Negro Baseball Leagues published by Morrow. 1967 Cover of the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” Album (Mr. Merkin appears in the back row, right of center) RISD: MFA in Painting, 1963; Professor, Department of Painting special skill: Merging his role as flaneur (connoisseur of city life) with his role as painter and social historian, Merkin retrieves lost cultural artifacts – a Turkish cigarette, a gangster, a bowler and generally “things most people don’t know about” – and reconstitutes their Jazz Age virtues on canvas in cubist, comic-laced landscapes of tropical color. (ala Robert Crumb and Ben Katchor) breaking in: Perpetually on the fly from his middle-class Brooklyn background, Merkin found the perfect escape in the mid ‘60s in George Frazier, a dapper Boston columnist who inspired the emerging New York painter’s overnight reinvention of himself. The elements of structure, stability and surprise he admired in this well-dressed dandy – a cool linen suit, a splash of suspender, a polka dot scarf and pearl-handled walking stick – soon surfaced in paintings peopled by impeccable underdogs of café society along with his personal pop heroes: William Burroughs, Bobby Short and Krazy Kat...
Category

1990s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil

Vintage Expressionist Portrait of a Man with a Bowtie Oil on Wood
Located in Soquel, CA
Expressive portrait, a caricature of a man with bowtie by Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957). Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Another version of th...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Fiberboard

Wilma Fiori 1994 Abstract Oil Painting, Large Horizontal Modernist Canvas
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1994 abstract oil painting by Wilma Fiori (1929–2019) presents a rich, moody composition in a commanding large horizontal format. Signed and ...
Category

1990s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Annette Cords, Crosstalk, 2013, Tapestry
Located in Darien, CT
Jacquard weaving is at once simple and complex. The language used to set up weave structures is straightforward and binary: the warp is either up or down. With the Jacquard loom, h...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tapestry

Spiritual Origins - Geometric Abstract
By Julie Fudge
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract oil on wood panel depicting the beginnings of the ascendancy of the Earth by Julie R. Fudge (American, 20th Century). Signed "Julie Fudge" on verso. Unframed. Image, 42"H x ...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

1950s "Purple Sky Landscape" Mid Century Abstract Landscape Painting
Located in Arp, TX
Bearnice Fisher "Purple Sky Landscape" 1978 Gouache on paper 30" x 22.5" unframed Signed and dated lower right in pencil Bearnice Fisher lived and worked in NYC
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

"THE CLOWN" MICHAEL FRARY MID CENTURY MODERN TEXAS ARTIST
Located in San Antonio, TX
Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 16 x 12.5 Medium: Oil "The Clown" Biography Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Michael Frary was born in Santa Monica, California on Ma...
Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Girl with Blue Face
Located in East Hampton, NY
Girl with Blue Face, 48 X 36 X 1.5 This large scale painting of a woman's face hints at Picasso. Both technically accomplished and classically approached, the thick gestural brushstrokes add a fragmented & tactile character to the canvas. The cool palette makes it easy to live with and makes it perfect for any room. This comes stretched and ready to hang. Message me for shipping quote About the artist: James Koskinas, born in Terre Haute...
Category

2010s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Modernist Abstract Bull
Located in Soquel, CA
Unique modernist depiction of an abstracted bull by California artist Dick Crispo (American, b.1945), 1981. The earthtoned animal is outlined in bold strokes of black, and is rendered in an interesting fractured geometric style evocative of cubism's handling of perspective. Signed and dated lower left "D. Crispo '81", and on label on verso. Presented in a dark copper metal frame. Image size; 22.5"H x 28.75"L. An award winning artist, Crispo has studied at the Carmel Art Institute under John Cunningham and Sam Colburn...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tempera

American Modern abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern abstract paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add abstract paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange, blue, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Annette Cords, David Hayes, Louisa Chase, and Valton Tyler. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Fabric and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 5.5 inches across are also available.

Still Thinking About These?

All Recently Viewed