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Modern Abstract Paintings

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Abstract Interior with Womens Shoes Colourful French Modernist Gouache Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Abstract Interior with Womens Shoes Colourful French Modernist Gouache Painting Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 19.5 x 24 inches (heigh...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Expressions in Bloom: Portraits from the 20th Century IV - Florentine School
Located in London, GB
'Expressions in Bloom: Portraits from the 20th Century IV', oil on canvas mounted on board, Florentine School (circa 1980s-90s). This gallery has acquired a number of paintings throu...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Vintage Abstracted Cape Cod Landscape Original Modernist Pastel Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape pastel painting. Pastel on board. Framed in plexi box.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1960s Corrado Cagli Italian Signed Abstract Painting
Located in Roma, IT
Corrado Cagli (Ancona 1910 – Rome 1976) oil pastel on canvas paper. The work is signed “Cagli” in the lower right corner. The work is in excellent condition, with a natural patina ...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Surreal Dry Dock Boat Scene Signed Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted modernist dry dock boat landscape by Karl Soderlund (Born 1962). Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Artist Studio Interior with Easels Portraits and Painting Tools French Modernist
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Artist Studio Interior with Easels Portraits and Painting Tools French Modernist Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 19.75 x 24 inches (hei...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

"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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

Abstract Still Life with Teapot Rope and Green Orbs French Modernist Gouache
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Abstract Still Life with Teapot Rope and Green Orbs French Modernist Gouache Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 19.25 x 22.5 inches (heigh...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Vintage American Modernist New Orleans Street Scene Original Large Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist cityscape painting by Kamil Kubik. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Unframed. Image size, 30L x 24H.
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Time Zone 8 - Modern Resin Minimalist Rhythmic Geometric Abstraction Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed-media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past, which led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acryl...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil

Wiggle Room 16-1 - Modern Resin Minimalist Blue Cool Tone Gradient Abstract Art
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Nine of Swords by Salvador Dalí
Located in New Orleans, LA
Salvador Dalí 1904-1989 Spanish Nine of Swords Signed “Dalí” (lower center) Gouache on photographic background Representing a unique blend of spiritualism and Surrealism, this go...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Photographic Paper

Early American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Figural Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Eugene Arcieri (1914 - 2005). Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Measuring 15 by 19 inches overall and 14 by 18 painting alone. In exce...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Portrait of a Smiling Woman
Located in London, GB
'Portrait of a Smiling Woman', oil on board, by Peter Robert Keil (1983). A cheerful look on the painting's subject puts a smile on the face of the viewer as well. Her beautiful blue eyes express a contentedness suggesting life is good...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Large 20th Century French Modernist Provencal Landscape Cubist Village Houses
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Provence Village 20th century French school after Andre Lhote (bears signature, ie: not by Andre Lhote) oil on board, framed framed: 12 x 19.5 inches board: 8 x 15.5 inches Pro...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American Modernist Framed Flower Still Life interior Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist still life painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Interior Still Life with Fish Bowl and Houseplants French Modernist Gouache
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Interior Still Life with Fish Bowl and Houseplants French Modernist Gouache Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 22.75 x 19.25 inches (heigh...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Hayfields: Impressionist Painting of Bouquet by David Konigsberg
Located in Hudson, NY
Abstract landscape painting of a gestural blue cloud over an olive green field "Hayfields" painted by David Konigsberg in 2015 oil on wood panel, 23 x 24 x 2 inches Ready to hang, s...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting African Model In Purple
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Antique American School Modernist Hamptons New York Sandy Path Rare Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 18H x 24L.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Small Tide Pools 35 - Small Modern Resin Minimalist Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Modern French Abstract Paintig Still Life by Roland Bierge
By Roland Bierge
Located in Roma, IT
Modern French Abstract Paintig Still Life by Roland Bierge Beautiful, important painting by the great French artist Roland Bierge (1922-1991). Still life oil on canvas  ‘Pomme et Po...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Stunning 1930s French Oil Lady in Wedding Dress in Interior, very thick impasto
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: early 20th century (c. 1930's) French School Title: Lady in an interior, painted with very thick impasto oil Medium: oil on canv...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Abduction of the Emperor, " 1970s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
"Abduction of the Emperor" by Stanley Bate is an abstract oil painting made in 1971. This piece is primarily a textured sandy gold color with geometric shapes that add pops of light ...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

"Centurion, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
This vertical format abstract painting by Modernist artist Stanley Bate measures at 26" x 50" framed. The original gold-hued floater frame pulls out the vibrant and warm pops of yell...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Gamut Wave 14 - Large Original Modern Shiny Resin Minimalist Brown Tone Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist paintings are influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in his creative practice. His works evoke the many layers of his life...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Untitled Yellow 01 (Geometric, Abstract, Gestural, Vibrant)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Susan Kiefer Untitled Yellow 01 (Geometric, Abstract, Gestural, Vibrant) Oil on Canvas 2023 Size: 16 x 16 x 1.25 in (40.64 x 64.64 x 3.17 cm) COA provided *On stretcher frame, galle...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Still Life with Lemons Fruit Boxes and Green Leaves French Modernist Gouache
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Still Life with Lemons Fruit Boxes and Green Leaves French Modernist Gouache Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 19.25 x 23 inches (height ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Reed 22 November 09:54 - Modern Nature Oil Painting, Abstract, Minimalism
Located in Salzburg, AT
Robert Motelski's paintings are exceptional visions of nature, visions of space which surrounds us. They tell about being, fate and passing. They depend on the season of year, the ti...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hibiscus Garden, Vertical Modern Still Life in Pastel Tones of Vivid Flowers
Located in Barcelona, ES
"Hibiscus Garden I" is an abstract expressionist painting by Romina Milano where a dance of black gestures unfolds across colorful brushstrokes infused with raw emotion. Romina Mil...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Watercolor, India Ink, Paper

Mid Century Mountain Stream Modernist Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century Mountain Stream Modernist Landscape by Honora Berg This mid century modernist landscape painting by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985) depicts a vibrant mountain stream, ...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Laid Paper

Wiggle Room 15-1 - Modern Resin Minimalist Green Tone Gradient Abstract Art
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Still Life with Garlic Strawberries and Blue Vase French Modernist Gouache
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Still Life with Garlic Strawberries and Blue Vase French Modernist Gouache Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 24 x 19.5 inches (height x w...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Still Life with Red Drapery Fruit and Blue Background French Modernist Gouache
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Still Life with Red Drapery Fruit and Blue Background French Modernist Gouache Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Gouache on artist paper, unframed Size: 22.5 x 15.75 inches (hei...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Brown Bridge In Red Sky
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Framed Landscape Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 14 by 21 inches overall, and 9 by 16 painting alone.. In excellent original co...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fidget Spin 2
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Drawing inspiration from the vibrant California landscape, British artist Paul Westacott creates original abstract artworks that showcase a harmonious blend of minimalist geometry an...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

JEAN MARC (1949-2019) 20th CENTURY FRENCH MODERNIST PAINTING - PORTRAIT OF FACE
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"Portrait" by Jean Marc (French 1949-2019) watercolour on artist paper signed and dated 97' double sided painting: 12.5 x 9.5 inches provenance: private collection, South of Fran...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Monumental Abstract Modernist Oil Panel Oregon Centennial Exposition Mural 1959
By Louis Bunce
Located in Portland, OR
Monumental modernist oil on panel painting by Louis Demott Bunce (1907-1983), from an installation for the Oregon Centennial Exposition, 1959. A rare & important and monumental abstract painting by the celebrated Oregon artist Louis Bunce, the artist was commissioned to paint a mural for the 1959 Oregon Centennial & Trade Fair in Portland, the installation was titled " Gay Garden Way ", it was painted for the exterior of the Horticultural building. The mural having abstract plant abstractions, according to Bunce in his own words it was "the rounded shapes of flowers and the sun", the mural created a major furor from the conservative art public. The painting signed and dated by the artist lower left, the work was sold in the late 1980s through the celebrated Laura Russo Gallery, this painting is featured in Roger Hull's book; "Louis Bunce, Dialogue with Modernism". The painting is in good condition and ready to grace your wall. Louis Bunce attended high school and the Museum Art School before leaving for the Art Students League in New York. He established a New York connection that began when he first attended classes there in 1927 and continued over the years with frequent visits. He became friends with many promising artists, including Jackson Pollock and David Smith. In 1939 he worked for the WPA Easel Project in New York and by the time he returned to Portland he was an established artist on the East Coast. He worked at the WPA art center in Salem as an Instructor and Assistant Director. His work included murals, two of which are in the Post Offices in Grants Pass and St. Johns. Their subjects, mining and orchard farming, are activities of each region. "I have always been visually drawn to the landscape, at first the desert and mountain regions of Wyoming; then the lush and gentle color of the Pacific Northwest and the urban landscape of New York." From 1942-1945 he worked as an illustrator, a tool designer, and in assembly for the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation. After WWII, Bunce joined the faculty of the Museum Art School in Portland, where he had been a student in 1925-1926. He taught there until his retirement in 1972. He excelled at producing screen-prints and introduced this technique to Oregon. While maintaining a national reputation throughout the 1950s and 1960s, some of New York's most prestigious galleries represented him. Theater buffs will remember his murals and portraits for Portland Civic Theater's 1938 production of Pride and Prejudice. In a career that made him one of the most recognized names in Oregon's art history, Bunce had many styles: cubism, expressionism, surrealism and abstractionism. His 1958 mural in the Portland International Airport presents this abstract style: "whirling propellers and shadows of the concourse as seen from above." It was controversial at the time as being too abstract for a public art project. Louis and wife Eda opened a full-time art gallery in Portland in 1949, called the Kharouba. Located first at 1016 SE Morrison, then at SW 11th and Alder, the gallery represented many of the leading artists of the day: Josephine Cameron, William Givler, Clifford Gleason, Jack Hammack, Charles Heaney, Frederick Heidel, George Johanson, Jack McLarty, Rick Norwood, C.S. Price, Arthur Runquist, Jolan Torok, Charles Voorhies...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Untitled #296 (Modern), " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
This Modern painting by Abstract Expressionist painter Stanley Bate features a textured aesthetic and a deep, colorful palette. Deep blue and red is contrasted by a brighter accents ...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wiggle Room 17 - Modern Resin Minimalist Brown Warm Tone Gradient Abstract Art
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

"Crescent and Cactus" Modern Abstract Colorful Desert Night Landscape Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Modern Cubist inspired colorful desert landscape painting by the iconic Houston based artist David Adickes. The work features an abstract cluster of purple, coral, and yellow cacti s...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Terror of History No. 1, Mid-Century Abstract Acrylic Sand, Blue and Yellow
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Terror of History No. 1, 1962 Acrylic and sand on scintilla Signed and dated upper left 23 x 30 inches 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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Virginia Hills American Female Modernist Abstract Signed Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract signed oil painting by Anne Sharp. Oil on canvas. Signed.
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

The Window 317 - Modern Resin Beige Minimalist Artwork
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

The Path to the Beach , Carmel Art Association, Laguna Beach, CSFA, SWA, PAFA
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Dooley' for Helen Bertha Dooley (American, 1907-1994); additionally signed, verso, titled 'Turquoise Sea' and dated 1983. Exhibited: Carmel Art Association, Cal...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Framed Abstract Flower Still Life Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Provenance from a Sag Harbor, NY collection. Measuring: 16 by 13 inches overall. Handsomely framed in a wood m...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Abstract Study
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021) Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studies ...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Window 332 - Modern Resin Minimalist Vibrant Red Color Field Abstract Art
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Ricky Hunt’s mixed media minimalist wall art is influenced by his tumultuous past that led to a paradigm shift in creativity and life. He covers the wood panel with layers of acrylic...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Cotton, Masonite, Mixed Media, Oil, Tissue Paper

Little Yellow Ochre
Located in London, GB
Born in Persia Gohar Goddard was educated in France and the foothills of the Himalayas. She came to England in her teens, working for a variety of organisations including the British...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic

Vintage American Modernist Framed Winter Mountain Landscape Scene Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American modernist winter mountain landscape oil painting. Oil on board. Signed. Framed. Provenance from a Sag Harbor, NY collection. Measuring: 14 by 17 inches overall. Han...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

untitled #1
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Enrique Kico Govantes (Cuban, born 1957) Title: Untitled Year: Circa 1985 Medium: Oil on pressed board panel Panel size: 23.5 x 9.5 inches Signature: Signed on t...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

White - Acrylic Painting by Mario Padovan - 1976
Located in Roma, IT
White is an contemporary artwork realized by Mario Padovan in 1976. Mixed colored acrylic painting on canvas. Signature, title, date and technique on the back.
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Modern abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

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