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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
Large Contemporary Female American Modernist Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas
Located in Buffalo, NY
Wonderful large abstract painting by Betty Weiss. Oil on canvas. Signed with her married name "Betty Perez". Measuring 60 by 72 inches. Artist Bio: Betty Weiss has been a Ne...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Rail Crossing: Middletown, NY"
By Jules Halfant
Located in New York, NY
This beautiful oil on linen canvas painting, entitled "Rail Crossing: Middletown, was executed by the esteemed artist Jules Halfant (American, 1909-2001)...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Newstand, " 1960s Modern Abstract Painting
Located in Westport, CT
"Newstand" by Modernist painter Stanley Bate features a dark grey and brown perimeter with a white, blue and red composition that features geometric crosshatched lines with integrate...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Polish Ecole De Paris Modernist Oil Painting Abstract Dancers
Located in Surfside, FL
Alfred Aberdam (1894–1963) painter and graphic artist was a painter of School of Paris, born in Lvov, capital of Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. Born in Lviv, Krystonopol, East Galicia (now Chervonograd, Ukraine) and received a traditional Jewish education in a Heder while studying Hebrew with private teachers. In 1905–12 he lived in Lvov, where he finished high school. He decided to become an artist at the age of 14. At this time he came into contact with young Yiddish Judaic writers (Melech Ravitch, Abraham Moshe Fuks, and others) and with Zionist youth groups in Lvov. He attended their meetings and their lectures on Jewish Judaica artists. After graduating high school, he organized several conferences in his hometown on Italian and Flemish masters and on the first Jewish painters, including Josef Israels (1824-1911). In 1911 he started to study art at the Munich Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Akademie der Bildenden Künste München. Lemberg/Lwów (today Lviv), studies under Gabriel von Hackl (1843-1926). During World War I he was imprisoned by the Russians and stayed in the camp for prisoners of war in Siberia where he became acquainted with David Burliuk and other Russian futurists. In 1917, Aberdam was appointed People’s Commissar of the Department of Fine Arts by the local soviet, which assigned him the task of reorganizing artistic teaching. A year later, in Moscow, he befriended the poet Vladimir Mayakovski. In 1921 in Poland, he began his studies at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Teodora Axentowicz, then lived in Paris. There he participated in numerous exhibitions, and in a Poland exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art Editions in 1929. In the latter he organized the exhibition in 1931. In 1932 he exhibited in Warsaw and Lviv. From 1933 he belonged to a group of visual artists known as "Nowocześni". In 1923, while he was staying in Berlin, he met Menkes and Weingart in sculptor Alexander Archipenko’s studio. In 1924, he settled in Paris in the Montparnasse area. In the end of 1925, Jan Sliwinski held an exhibition in his gallery Au Sacre du Printemps, at 5 rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris. His work was exhibited alongside paintings by his Galician friends Leon Weissberg, Sigmund Menkes and Joachim Weingart...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

L’écorché
Located in Atlanta, GA
Artist
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Vintage Signed Israeli American Modernist Beach Scene Framed Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist abstract landscape painting by Abraham Pariente. Oil on canvas, circa 1990. Signed. Displayed in a giltwood impressionist frame.
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Modernist Painting on Canvas
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Striking modernist painting on canvas with a hot palette that conveys a strong reference to the sun's energy. Signed in the upper left C. Rosenberg ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Other Medium

Mid Century Modern Swedish Geometric Abstract Oil Painting - Geometry in Grey
Located in Bristol, GB
GEOMETRY IN GREY Size: 63.5 x 53 cm (comes unframed) Oil on canvas A mesmerising mid-century geometric abstract painting composed of layered angular forms that appear to float and o...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique French Modernist Paris School Signed Street Scene Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique French modernist Paris school cityscape street scene oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring 27 by 40 inches overall and 26 by 39 painting alone. In excellent...
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Vintage 1957 Modernist Boat Dock Signed Precisionist Large Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage modernist harbor view. Oil on board, circa 1957. Signed. Displayed in a period frame. Image size, 24"L x 20"H.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

King of Swords by Salvador Dalí
Located in New Orleans, LA
Salvador Dalí 1904-1989 Spanish King of Swords Signed “Dalí” (lower center) Gouache on photographic background This unique gouache by Surrealist master Salvador Dalí combines the...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Photographic Paper

British Modernist Oil Painting Sunlit Pathway Under the Canopy of Trees
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: Jill Jackson (British, contemporary) Title: Sunlit Pathway Medium: oil on artist paper, unframed Painting : 23 x 16 inches Provenance: all the paintings we have ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Pájaros Birds
Located in Segovia, ES
The artwork "Pájaros" ("Birds"), created by Spanish artist Celia Herranz, is a striking large-format piece, 116 x 89 cm / 45.67 x 35 inches, executed in Indian ink on canvas. This w...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled, Water colour on Paper by Modern Indian Artist Ganesh Haloi “In Stock”
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Ganesh Haloi Untitled Water colour on Paper 7 x 10.5 inches 2023 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Born : In 1936 Ganesh Haloi born in Jamalpur, Mymensingh, now in Bangladesh. Education ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Swirling Colors 1960 s French Abstract Oil Painting Large Scale Original
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Abstract Composition French school, circa 1960's period oil on board, unframed board: 28.75 x 24 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound conditio...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Tapestry

Composition - Oil on Canvas by Mario Asnago - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Composition is an original contemporary artwork realized in the mid-20th Century by Mario Asnago. Mixed colored oil painting. Hand signed on the lower margin. Includes frame: 90x5...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Aragua, Abstract Painting, Contemporary Red Blue and Green Art, Statement Art
Located in Deddington, GB
This is an original abstract acrylic painting on canvas. Discover new works by Julia Craig available to buy online and in our art gallery. Julia is an abstract artist whose love of c...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Abstraction"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Arthur B. Carles (1882-1952) Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Arthur Carles was a painter whose work went through phases...
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cosmic Connection
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modernist acrylic painting by Robert Blair in which the artist has utilized a comb to create designs within the painting. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003)...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Paper

"Promises Kept" Large Blue Tonal Surrealist Painting
By David True
Located in Houston, TX
Large-scale blue abstract painting of a stormy seascape. This painting features mainly deep blue tones and a coral colored castle. Framed in a black floating frame. Signed by the art...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Signed 1956 Antique American School Modernist Abstract Indian Space Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive and large mid century abstract painting. Signed and dated illegibly lower right. Oil on canvas.
Category

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

ENCOUNTER
Located in Los Angeles, CA
LORENA VILLALOBOS "ENCOUNTER" OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED COSTA RICA, DATED 2005 39 X 29 INCHES Lorena Villalobos Villalobos was born in Costa Rica in 1961. She studied Fine Arts at...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionist Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed illegibly.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Charles Levier Midcentury Oil Painting of French Canal Scene, Signed c. 1955
Located in Miami, FL
CHARLES LEVIER – UNTITLED [PONT AU-DESSUS DU CANAL] Oil on Canvas ⚜ Signed Lower Right ⚜ Custom Conservation Frame A STYLIZED MIDCENTURY CITYSCAPE WITH CUBIST RHYTHM AND MODERN ELEG...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Other Medium

Phenomena Royal House, Abstract Gouache on Paper, Late 20th Century
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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Antique American School Signed Framed Modernist Nature Abstract Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 5.5L x 7.5H.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Paul Kauvar Smith American Modernist Still Life Oil on Board, Zinnia Flowers
Located in Denver, CO
This original oil on board by acclaimed American Modernist Paul Kauvar Smith (1893–1977) presents a vibrant still life featuring zinnia flowers in shades of red and orange. Set withi...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Static 246 Original Seacape mind, Painting, Acrylic on Watercolor Paper
Located in Yardley, PA
Blue is the color of trust and peace. seascape It can suggest loyalty and integrity as well as conservatism and frigidity. Painting is 8.5X10.5" heavyweight stock comes custom-fr...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Israeli Modernist Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
size is with frame. Motke Blum was born in Racacun, Romania in 1925. Early in his childhood, the Blum family moved to Bukarest where they settled in a house situated near a circus. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage Framed American Modernist Surreal Beach Scene Fauvist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist beach scene oil painting by Brooks Kelly (1935 - 2012). Framed. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Signed. Image size, 12H by 16L.
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled, Figurative, Pen, Ink Marker on Paper by Jogen Chowdhury "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Jogen Chowdhury Untitled Pen, Ink & Marker on Paper 7 x 5 inches 2024 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Modern Indian artist Jogen Chowdhury executed Still life drawing in Ink, pastel. Alw...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Pen, Permanent Marker

Large Antique American Abstract Landscape Framed Vintage Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red Table
Located in Atlanta, GA
Chris Liberti is a favorite with collectors here and abroad. Gesture, color, and surface enliven the new harmonies and patterns Liberti creates as he wor...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Night Trees
By Walter Hahn
Located in Surfside, FL
Early in the 1950s, WALTER HAHN was a force to be reckoned with in Chicago painting. In 1951, his final year as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Hahn won first prize in oil in the Chicago and Vicinity exhibition. As this was a purchase prize, this placed his work in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, provoking jealous awe from some of his teachers. Born in 1927, Hahn studied with Kathleen Blackshear...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Signed Modernist Street Scene Rare Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed scene oil painting. Oil on paper. Signed. Framed. Image size, 20L x 15H.
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Under The Sea Series, Nº 11. Fantasy abstract underwater landscape.
Located in Segovia, ES
Under The Sea Series, Nº 11. Fantasy abstract underwater landscape. Author: Úbeda. Oil on paper, 59 x 40 x 0,1 cm. The sheets that make up t...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Collage Series VIII, Abstract, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic, Blue"In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Collage Series VIII - 23 x 16 inches (unframed size) Collage Series, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic. Inclusive of shipment in ready to hang form. Sunil Das (1939-2015...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Foil

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

1940s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

20th C. Figurative Abstract Painting Cleveland School African American Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Untitled Oil on canvas board Estate stamped #611 verso 24 x 18 inches Charles Elmer Harris was born in 1917 in Cleveland, Oh...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Collage Series IX, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic, Blue, White "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Collage Series IX - 23 x 16 inches (unframed size) Collage Series, Mixed Media, Paper, Foil, Acrylic. Will be shipped, ready to hang with frame . Sunil Das (1939-2015) ...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Foil

Tide Pools 43 - Contemporary Shiny Resin Minimalist Abstract Artwork on Wood
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

Vintage American School Modernist Geometric Abstract New York School Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed verso.
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Untitled" Albert Heckman, Mid-Century American Modernist Abstract Composition
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman Untitled Signed lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at...
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WILLIAM C GRAUER "Oriental Hints" 1970s Cleveland School acrylic/panel ABSTRACT
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
William C. Grauer’s 1970s acrylic on panel Oriental Hints stands as a striking late career exploration of abstraction and surface. Unlike his earlier representational watercolors, th...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Panel

Abstract Composition, Oil on Canvas, Gail Lapins
Located in Palm Desert, CA
This is a fantastic oil on canvas by Gail Lapins. This piece is perfect for a splash of color in that drab interior! A great size at 47" x 35", this piece shines with color and tex...
Category

1990s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas

WILLIAM C GRAUER Abstract Archaeological Fresco colorful 1970s Cleveland School
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
This powerful 1970s painting by William C. Grauer is executed in acrylic on panel at an impressive scale of 48 by 36 inches. The work immediately draws the viewer in with a glowing f...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Panel

The Window 352 - Contemporary Shiny Resin Minimalist Brown Dual Tone 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

Rare German Israeli Surrealist Judaica Abstract Gouache Watercolor Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
A Surrealist Judaica scene of a bearded man (Rabbi) in a boat with Shabbat candlesticks. Sight size: 17.75" x 22.5". Overall size with frame: 26.5" x31.5" Naftali Bezem (Hebrew: נ...
Category

1970s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Gouache

In the Garden of Ebeneezer Goode - Los Angeles Hillside in Mid-Century Colors
Located in Chicago, IL
Pat garnered international attention in 2012 when a time-lapse video showing the painstaking production of his Manhattan skyline drawing, Empire State of Pen (2012), went viral. Since then, he has become something of a cityscape specialist, producing large-scale works such as Colossus (2015) and a range of new pieces created for clients such as MGM Park in Las Vegas and Gensler Architects. Pat has recently collaborated on a book with Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA, making drawings in response to stories about his life and has just worked with legendary Podcaster, Roman Mars (99% Invisible) on his first book, which was a New York Times Bestseller. Pat has also established a creative relationship with the Iconic British fashion designer, Sir Paul Smith, painting a mural for him in NYC and will be working with him on multiple London projects in 2024. Other past clients have included Apple, Tiffany's and Co, BMW, Ian Happ (Chicago Cubs), RIBA, IDEO, BMW, Pentagram, Washington Post, NIKE, Adidas and British Airways. Patrick...
Category

2010s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Acrylic, Archival Paper

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Ink, Oil

Still life on black table. Oil on canvas, 135x140 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Still life on black table. Oil on canvas, 135x140 cm
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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 Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil

"The Gate Keeper", Bay Area Figurative Abstract
By John Hoft
Located in Soquel, CA
A highly abstracted figure emerges in fluid, elegant brush strokes, reminiscent of the works of Francis Bacon, in this striking abstract painting by Bay...
Category

1980s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Modernist Beach Scene Painting, Playing Ball in Surf, WPA Jewish Woman Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Modernist beach scene; signed lower right; image size is 11.5 x 8.5 inches, framed it measures Ruth Gikow (January 6, 1915 Ukraine - 1982 New York City) was an Important American Jewish woman visual artist known primarily for her work as a genre painter. Her paintings often depict human figures interacting with an urban environment. Ruth Gikow was born in 1915 in the Ukraine. Her father, Boris, was a photographer and her mother was named Lena. In 1920 she emigrated to New York City due to civil war and pogroms against the Jewish community. The pilgrimage took around two years. Once in New York City, the Gikow family found themselves in poverty, rather than the middle-class comfort they enjoyed in Ukraine. Ruth Gikow's skill was prominent even in youth, as she excelled in drawing in elementary school and entered Washington Irving High School at age thirteen in which she furthered her art prowess. Later, she studied at the Cooper Union Art School, where she studied under school director Austin Purvis, Jr. and regional artist John Steuart Curry. In her second year of Art School, she was awarded a scholarship which she used to work with fellow painter Raphael Soyer. She joined the New York City WPA Federal Art Project in 1935, where she was allowed to dedicate herself to her artwork full-time. In 1939, inspired by the muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, she applied and later won a commission to paint murals for Bronx Hospital, Rockefeller Center and the New York World's Fair. After the events of Pearl Harbor and once the Federal Arts Project was abandoned, Gikow's murals were sought after by New York department stores wishing to commission wall paintings. Gikow became disillusioned with mural painting due to the commercial aspect of these commissions. With other associates, she founded the American Serigraph Society (along with Anthony Velonis, Lena Gurr, Robert Gwathmey, Leonard Pytlak, Harry Shoulberg, Russell Twiggs...
Category

1960s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paint, Paper

Modern British mid century oil painting of aubergines on purple and white
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Rodney Gladwell (British, 1928 – 1979) Aubergines, 1959 Signed and dated ‘Gladwell 59’ (lower left) Oil on board 79.1/2 x 31.1/2 in. (202 x 80 cm.) including frame Painter Rodney Gl...
Category

20th Century Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Tropical 19th Century Landscape Original Oil Painting Flower Path
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist landscape painting. Oil on canvas. Housed in a period frame. Image size, 17.5L x 13.75H. Signed.
Category

Early 1900s Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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