Skip to main content

Contemporary Abstract Prints

CONTEMPORARY STYLE

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

to
440
692
591
1,047
461
499
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
9,031
2,276
1,162
1,095
295
246
143
110
108
76
15
14
129
124
68
64
64
2
1,306
1,979
3
16
80
591
294
205
1,694
1,033
535
34
30
19
11
9
9
7
7
6
5
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
949
792
621
530
527
535
1,140
1,930
1,204
Style: Contemporary
Wallscape VII (Green Door) - abstraction of urban textures and palimpsest colors
Located in San Francisco, CA
Large scale photograph of mesmerizing monochromatic emerald surface abstraction, from a series of photographic observances capturing urban textures and color palettes Wallscape VII (Green Door) by Frank Schott 48 x 60 inches / 122cm x 152cm signed edition of 7 32 x 40 inches / 81cm x 102cm signed edition of 25 archival quality fine art pigment print limited art edition published by Edition EKTAlux artist signed + numbered certificate of authenticity ________________________ About the artist: Frank Schott grew up in Germany and attended the prestigious Academy of Arts in Cologne, studying under Professor Arno Jansen, who was an early influence. Moving to California in 1998, Schott's work has evolved to include the epic landscapes and deserts of the American West as well as architectural, conceptual and more formal environments from both home and his travels. Influenced by a number of photographic piers and precursors such as Candida Höfer, Andreas Gursky. Thomas Struth. Jeff Wall, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Steven Shore...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment

Spike, Affordable Contemporary Art, Silkscreen Prints, Colourful Abstract Prints
Located in Deddington, GB
This handmade screen print depicts an imaginary spiked sphere shape in five colours including fluorescent Yellow, metallic Gold and Red. The Gold ink layer gives the abstract print an extra brilliance and shine showing off the multi layered liquid patterns on the surface of the object. Chris Keegan artist online and in Wychwood Art Gallery...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Screen

Into the Space - Original Mixed Media by Carlo Scarpa - 1975
Located in Roma, IT
Into the Space is an original screen print and embossing on paper and metal realized by Carlo Scarpa. The artwork is in good condition, on a grey cardboard. Limited edition of 90 s...
Category

1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Metal

Give Me Solutions, Not Fucking Problems
Located in London, GB
Mixed media, archival pigment and silkscreen on deckle-edged satin paper 101.6 × 67.3 cm Edition of 195 hand-signed and numbered by the artist James McQueen, born in 1977, is a Brit...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Mixed Media, Archival Pigment, Screen

Murakami print - Kansei : The Golden Age - Last One - Framed
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This is an offset print, limited edition 118 of 300, signed and numbered by Artist. It is beautiful, brand new, and framed using archival materials at a reputable framer in Los Angeles. Ready for installation or gifting. Last One Available. Enjoy video of the unwrapping of this brand new print at our Los Angeles framer! This print is now sold framed, in Los Angeles, CA. "Kansei : The Golden Age" 潤声 ゴールデンエイジ 4c offset w/cold stamp + spot varnishing オフセット印刷4色+箔+厚盛ニス Diameter: 710 mm / 28 in. Framed: approx 34 x 34 x 2 in. Edition 300 Signed and numbered: edition 118 of 300 Made in Japan Pristine condition, brand new, framed in Los Angeles, California Seller in Los Angeles...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

George Condo, Compression VI, from Drawing Paintings, 2011 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite four color process archival pigment print after George Condo (born 1957), titled Compression VI, from the folio George Condo, Drawing Paintings, originates from the 20...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Pigment

SCIENCE IS TRUTH FOUND OUT (RED)ITION
Located in London, GB
Ed Ruscha SCIENCE IS TRUTH FOUND OUT (RED)ITION, 2022 100% Silk twill Signed in the plate and numbered 130 × 130 cm 142.5 x 141 cm (Framed) Edition of 500
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Silk

Takashi Murakami - Flowers in a Qinghua Vase - Pop Art Japanese Flowers Colours
Located in London, GB
Edition of 300. Murakami signed and numbered in silver marker pen along the lower right edge. Offset lithograph with cold foil stamp and high gloss varnishing on UV paper. 70 x 52.8 ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Ocean Park Series: New Work
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This original exhibition poster was created to accompany Richard Diebenkorn’s celebrated Ocean Park Series: New Work exhibition at Marlborough Galerie in Zürich, showcasing a fresh e...
Category

1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Silhouettes - Original Screen Print by Gianpistone - 1975
Located in Roma, IT
Silhouettes is a beautiful colored serigraph realized by Gianpistone in 1975. Hand-signed and dated in pencil on the lower right margin. Numbered on the lower left. Edition of 81/90...
Category

1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

I Could Feel You, Tracey Emin, rare 2015 giclee print plate signed 300 gsm paper
Located in New York, NY
Tracey Emin I Could Feel You, 2015 Archival quality giclée print on Purcell Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper 300 GSM 9 1/2 × 12 inches Plate signed Unframed Rare archival quality, giclée reproduction of Tracey Emin's original gouache I Could Feel You, which is in the permanent modern art collection of the Tate. This was printed back in 2015 in an undisclosed limited edition, and is now long sold out. More details about the original 2014 work are on the Tate Gallery's website as follows: Emin, whose work is often candidly autobiographical, scrutinises her relationship with her own body, using drawing...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

THERE IS A WOMAN IN EVERY COLOR 1994 Vintage Poster, Black Women, Rainbow Colors
Located in Union City, NJ
Elizabeth Catlett - THERE IS A WOMAN IN EVERY COLOR Rare vintage fine art lithograph poster reproduced after Catlett's original 1975 woodcut print entitled THERE IS A WOMAN IN EVERY...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Wu Zetian [H10-1]
Located in London, GB
Wu Zetian [H10-1], 2022 Laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite, screen printed with glitter.
 100 x 100 cm Edition of 2853 Signed and numbered on the ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

It s My Party I ll Cry If I Want To, 24ct gold leaf embellishment, Mixed Media
Located in New York, NY
Yinka Shonibare It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To, 2013 24ct gold leaf embellishment, hand applied dutch wax batik fabrics on 225gsm Somerset Enhanced Paper Boldly signed and n...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Gold Leaf

Rufino Tamayo Deux Tetes from Mujeres Suite, Limited Edition, Signed Print
Located in San Rafael, CA
Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899-1991). Deux Tetes, from Mujeres Suite (P. 107), 1969. Lithograph in colors on wove paper  Signed in pencil and numbered 27/150 (there was also an edition...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

A Surrealist Composition - Etching by Henry Goetz - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Image dimensions: 27 x 34 cm. A Surrealist Composition is an original artwork realized by Henry Goetz in the 1970s. Colored etching on paper. The print i...
Category

1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching

Kick Against the Pricks (Blah, Blah, Blah) Pop Silkscreen Hand Signed/N, Framed
Located in New York, NY
MEL BOCHNER Kick Against the Pricks (Blah..Blah...Blah...), 2018 Two color silkscreen on boutique silk fair paper with blue-colored back, 350 gsm paper Signed, dated, and numbered 29/30 on the front by Mel Bochner Frame included: elegantly framed in a museum quality white wood frame with UV plexiglass is included Measurements: Framed: 12.5 inches x 30 inches x .5 inch Artwork: 10.5 inches x 28 inches Published by Two Palms Press Bibliography Catalogue Raisonné of Editioned Prints Krakow Witkin...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

"Crush me (framed)" Text and Color Photography
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "Crush me (framed)" is an original artwork by Roxana Azar made of a digital c print. The piece measures 21.5”h x 17.5”w framed. Roxana Azar’s work utilizes photog...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

C Print, Digital

We are the Jocular Clan (10)
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Takashi Murakami Title: We are the Jocular Clan (10) Portfolio: We are the Jocular Clan Medium: Offset lithograph with silver, glossy varnish on wove paper Date: 2018 Edition...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Varnish, Lithograph

"Juice Coffee", Abstract, Cup, Warm Yellows, Violet, Sepia, Photography, 2020
Located in Franklin, MA
Patty deGrandpre’s “Juice & Coffee” is a 13.5 x 10.75 inch unique abstract inkjet print represented on 17 x 11 inch Awagami Washi paper embracing both digital printmaking and creativ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Color, Digital

H18-4 Splendour (from the Kaleidoscopes)
Located in Bristol, GB
Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminium composite panel Edition of 69/180 85 x 140 cm (33.5 x 55.1 in) Hand-signed by the artist and numbered Mint. Minor imperfections may appear du...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Digital Pigment

Love By Robert Indiana
Located in Dubai, Dubai
Love By Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (1928–2018) was an American artist known for his bold, typographic pop art, particularly his iconic "LOVE" sculpture and print. His work ofte...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Screen

Ignore the Ghosts
Located in London, GB
David Shrigley Ignore the Ghosts, 2022 Screenprint in eleven colours with varnish overlay on Somerset Satin Tub Sized 410gsm paper Signed by the artist and numbered, on verso 76 x 56...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

"Uplifting", Contemporary, Vines, Interior, Blue, White, Brown, Color Photograph
Located in Franklin, MA
Rebecca Skinner’s “Uplifting” is a 12 x 18 inch color photograph of vines growing into the interior of an abandoned building. A natural sculpture from mother nature, the tiny feet of...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Metal

Night Chanters, black and white framed lithograph, kachina, limited edition
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Night Chanters, black and white framed lithograph, kachina, limited edition 100 The Gallery Wall, Inc. now doing business as Glenn Green Galleri...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

David Shrigley - Art Will Save the World
Located in London, GB
Artist David Shrigley (British, b. 1968) Title: Art Will Save the World Year: 2019 Medium: 25 colour screenprint with a varnish overlay on Somerset Satin Tub sized 410 gsm paper Shee...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Robert Rauschenberg Earth Day Limited Edition, Signed Lithograph Print
Located in San Rafael, CA
This listing is for the limited edition lithograph, not the mass produced poster. Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008) Earth Day, 1970 Lithograph with chine collé Signed, dated, numbered by the artist Edition 11/50, Full sheet: 52 1/2 x 37 1/2 in. With mat: approx 55 x 40 in Published by the American Environment Foundation Printed by Gemini G.E.L. Los Angeles, with blindstamp to lower center Catalog Raisonné: RRF 70.E016 Provenance: Butterfield & Butterfield (now Bonhams) Lot 3115, sale 5367L February, 24, 1993 This Robert Rauschenberg lithograph...
Category

1970s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Flower Smile
Located in Bristol, GB
Offset print with cold stamp Edition 108 of 300 50 x 50 cm (19.7 x 19.7in) Signed, numbered and titled on the front Mint. Minor imperfections may appear due to the production process
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Yellow Blossom (floral, still life, watercolor, bright colors, flowers)
Located in New York, NY
Watercolor on paper 32 x 25 inches framed
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Amsterdam V ed 12/50 black-white canal house facade aquatint etch print
Located in Doetinchem, NL
Amsterdam V is an intriguing early career aquatint dry-needle etch print by renowned French-Dutch artist Olivier Julia. It depicts a detail of an old Amsterdam house facade and is bo...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint

H2O IV - Homage to David Hockney
Located in San Francisco, CA
large format photograph of sun reflections on pool water surface, mesmerizing light reflections of glistening sunlight on turquoise aquamarine water surface, an homage to the iconic ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Giclée

TRACEY EMIN/EDVARD MUNCH, THE LONELINESS OF THE SOUL print, SCARCE, Hand Signed
Located in New York, NY
Tracey Emin Svart katt / Black cat (2008), from the exhibition TRACEY EMIN/EDVARD MUNCH: THE LONELINESS OF THE SOUL (hand signed), 2021 Offset lithograph promotional print on card st...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Cacti - large format photograph of iconic desert cactus landscape 48" x 72"
Located in San Francisco, CA
large scale photograph of sunny cactus landscape, from a series of highly detailed large format nature observations, an homage to the photo realistic ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Giclée, Archival Pigment

"an ancient conversation", Abstract, Collaged Monoprints, Ink, Botanical
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "an ancient conversation" is an original piece by Cassie Normandy White and is made from fabric monotypes and ink. This piece m...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Ink, Monotype

Amsterdam IX ed 28/50 black-white canal house facade aquatint etch print
Located in Doetinchem, NL
Amsterdam IX is an intriguing early career aquatint dry-needle etch print by renowned French-Dutch artist Olivier Julia. It depicts a detail of an old Amsterdam house facade and is b...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint

In the Fifth Season
Located in New York, NY
Gregory Amenoff is a painter who lives in New York City and Ulster County, New York. He is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including the American Academy of Arts ...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Seascape I Diptych - abstract photograph of water color cloud horizon
Located in San Francisco, CA
large format abstract photograph of water color clouds and horizon from a series of photographic works capturing the sea blue color palette of the ocean SEASCAPE I Diptych by Frank...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment

"Untitled" screenprint by artist Heinz Mack from the "Kinderstern" portfolio
Located in Boca Raton, FL
"Untitled" blue abstract screenprint by artist Heinz Mack from the "Kinderstern" portfolio, published in 1989 by Edition Domberger to raise money to house families of children hospit...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Valentine Love (number 10 white) R By Agent X, Limited edition print, Love
Located in Deddington, GB
Valentine Love (number 10 white) R By Agent X [2021] limited_edition Mixed Media Edition number 100 Image size: H:55 cm x W:55 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:55 cm x W:55 c...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Giclée

Cuban Artist signed limited edition original art print silkscreen on canvas
Located in Miami, FL
Maite Diaz Gonzalez (Cuba, 1963) Untitled from Cuban Portfolio, ca.2010 silkscreen on canvas 25.6 x 19.7 in. (65 x 50 cm.) Edition of 100 Unframed ID: DIA1205-001-100_3 Hand-signed ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Engraving, Screen, Canvas

Orbiting Masses, Blue and White Abstract Diptych, Monotype Cyanotype on Paper
Located in Barcelona, ES
Orbiting Masses is an exclusive handmade cyanotype diptych that features modern, abstract rocky shapes rendered in deep indigo tones. Each panel captures the raw texture and organic ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Monotype

Lightheaded - Contemporary Abstract Geology Encaustic Monotype Orange, 2025
Located in Kent, CT
In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight kozo paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Encaustic, Archival Paper, Monotype

Seven Seas, Organic Abstraction Diptych, Indigo Blue Unique Monotype Cyanotype
Located in Barcelona, ES
Seven Seas is a one-of-a-kind cyanotype monotype, created using traditional cyanotype printing techniques and a contemporary eye for form, this diptych captures the rhythmic motion o...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Monotype

Celebration of the Ordinary 2 by Sister Mary Corita Kent (INV# NP3241)
Located in Morton Grove, IL
Sister Mary Corita Kent Celebration of the Ordinary 2 screenprint on Pellon rice paper 30 x 40" edition of 50 1963 signed *Slight condition issues due to...
Category

1960s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Untitled, Vertical Abstract Geometric Monotype, Light Blue, Coral, Black
Located in Kent, CT
This is a monotype print meaning that it is a unique print with no other editions. This geometric abstract monotype on Asian paper layers shapes in cobalt blue, maroon, red, black, g...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Monotype

2779494: The Olympic Runner (Limited Ed. Hand Signed with Olympic Committee COA)
Located in New York, NY
Jonathan Borofsky 2779494: The Olympic Runner Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games (Hand Signed with Olympic Committee COA), 1982 Offset Lithograph on Parson'...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Coral Reef - large format photograph of sun reflections on a coral reef
Located in San Francisco, CA
large format photograph of sun reflections on a coral reef water surface, mesmerizing light reflections of glistening sunlight on turquoise aquamarine water surface, an homage to the...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment

H12-5 - 132 Beautiful, Very Undescribable, Almost Universal, Altogether Novel
Located in Bristol, GB
Giclée print on poly-cotton artist canvas mounted on birch plywood stretcher Unique variant from an edition of 473 100 x 100 cm (39.4 x 39.4 in) Signed on the front Mint. Sold in...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Canvas, Plywood, Giclée

"said the zinnia", Abstract, Collaged Monoprints, Watercolor, Botanicals
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "said the zinnia" is an original piece by Cassie Normandy White and is made from fabric monotypes and ink. This diptych piece m...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Fabric, Ink, Monotype

Plate 209 from Imaginary Beings - Marine Giclée Print on Archival Paper
Located in Brighton, GB
Giclée print on Archival Matte Paper with Archival Pigment Ink. In 2017 she was awarded the New York State Council for the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship grant for...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée

Cage (P19-3) by Gerhard Richter
Located in Dubai, Dubai
Cage (P19-3) By Gerhard Richter 2020 Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminium composite panel Based on a series of paintings in 2006 100 x 100 cm Edition 141/200 Published by...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Giclée

George Condo, Parallel Figures, from Drawing Paintings, 2011 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite four color process archival pigment print after George Condo (born 1957), titled Parallel Figures, from the folio George Condo, Drawing Paintings, originates from the ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Archival Pigment

HIOB - abstract contemporary artwork by Günther Uecker ZERO art
Located in Hamburg, DE
"Verbindunden-Verletzungen" ("Injuries-Connections") is an original screen print on hand-made Japanese paper from 1998 by internationally acclaimed German ZERO group artist Günther U...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Handmade Paper, Screen

"Portalito", Abstract Patterns, Geometric Abstraction, Woodcut Monoprint
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "Portalito" is an original piece by Alexis Nutini and is made from a woodcut monoprint mounted on panel. This piece measures 7.25"h x 9.5"w. Born in Mexico City, ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Panel, Monoprint, Woodcut

Fantasy, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, titled
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Fantasy, Japanese, limited edition lithograph, black, white, red, signed, titled Shinoda's works have been collected by public galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum and Metropolitan Museum (all in New York City), the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the British Museum in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Singapore Art Museum, the National Museum of Singapore, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. New York Times Obituary, March 3, 2021 by Margalit Fox, Alex Traub contributed reporting. Toko Shinoda, one of the foremost Japanese artists of the 20th century, whose work married the ancient serenity of calligraphy with the modernist urgency of Abstract Expressionism, died on Monday at a hospital in Tokyo. She was 107. Her death was announced by her gallerist in the United States. A painter and printmaker, Ms. Shinoda attained international renown at midcentury and remained sought after by major museums and galleries worldwide for more than five decades. Her work has been exhibited at, among other places, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the British Museum; and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Private collectors include the Japanese imperial family. Writing about a 1998 exhibition of Ms. Shinoda’s work at a London gallery, the British newspaper The Independent called it “elegant, minimal and very, very composed,” adding, “Her roots as a calligrapher are clear, as are her connections with American art of the 1950s, but she is quite obviously a major artist in her own right.” As a painter, Ms. Shinoda worked primarily in sumi ink, a solid form of ink, made from soot pressed into sticks, that has been used in Asia for centuries. Rubbed on a wet stone to release their pigment, the sticks yield a subtle ink that, because it is quickly imbibed by paper, is strikingly ephemeral. The sumi artist must make each brush stroke with all due deliberation, as the nature of the medium precludes the possibility of reworking even a single line. “The color of the ink which is produced by this method is a very delicate one,” Ms. Shinoda told The Business Times of Singapore in 2014. “It is thus necessary to finish one’s work very quickly. So the composition must be determined in my mind before I pick up the brush. Then, as they say, the painting just falls off the brush.” Ms. Shinoda painted almost entirely in gradations of black, with occasional sepias and filmy blues. The ink sticks she used had been made for the great sumi artists of the past, some as long as 500 years ago. Her line — fluid, elegant, impeccably placed — owed much to calligraphy. She had been rigorously trained in that discipline from the time she was a child, but she had begun to push against its confines when she was still very young. Deeply influenced by American Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell, whose work she encountered when she lived in New York in the late 1950s, Ms. Shinoda shunned representation. “If I have a definite idea, why paint it?,” she asked in an interview with United Press International in 1980. “It’s already understood and accepted. A stand of bamboo is more beautiful than a painting could be. Mount Fuji is more striking than any possible imitation.” Spare and quietly powerful, making abundant use of white space, Ms. Shinoda’s paintings are done on traditional Chinese and Japanese papers, or on backgrounds of gold, silver or platinum leaf. Often asymmetrical, they can overlay a stark geometric shape with the barest calligraphic strokes. The combined effect appears to catch and hold something evanescent — “as elusive as the memory of a pleasant scent or the movement of wind,” as she said in a 1996 interview. Ms. Shinoda’s work also included lithographs; three-dimensional pieces of wood and other materials; and murals in public spaces, including a series made for the Zojoji Temple in Tokyo. The fifth of seven children of a prosperous family, Ms. Shinoda was born on March 28, 1913, in Dalian, in Manchuria, where her father, Raijiro, managed a tobacco plant. Her mother, Joko, was a homemaker. The family returned to Japan when she was a baby, settling in Gifu, midway between Kyoto and Tokyo. One of her father’s uncles, a sculptor and calligrapher, had been an official seal carver to the Meiji emperor. He conveyed his love of art and poetry to Toko’s father, who in turn passed it to Toko. “My upbringing was a very traditional one, with relatives living with my parents,” she said in the U.P.I. interview. “In a scholarly atmosphere, I grew up knowing I wanted to make these things, to be an artist.” She began studying calligraphy at 6, learning, hour by hour, impeccable mastery over line. But by the time she was a teenager, she had begun to seek an artistic outlet that she felt calligraphy, with its centuries-old conventions, could not afford. “I got tired of it and decided to try my own style,” Ms. Shinoda told Time magazine in 1983. “My father always scolded me for being naughty and departing from the traditional way, but I had to do it.” Moving to Tokyo as a young adult, Ms. Shinoda became celebrated throughout Japan as one of the country’s finest living calligraphers, at the time a signal honor for a woman. She had her first solo show in 1940, at a Tokyo gallery. During World War II, when she forsook the city for the countryside near Mount Fuji, she earned her living as a calligrapher, but by the mid-1940s she had started experimenting with abstraction. In 1954 she began to achieve renown outside Japan with her inclusion in an exhibition of Japanese calligraphy at MoMA. In 1956, she traveled to New York. At the time, unmarried Japanese women could obtain only three-month visas for travel abroad, but through zealous renewals, Ms. Shinoda managed to remain for two years. She met many of the titans of Abstract Expressionism there, and she became captivated by their work. “When I was in New York in the ’50s, I was often included in activities with those artists, people like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Motherwell and so forth,” she said in a 1998 interview with The Business Times. “They were very generous people, and I was often invited to visit their studios, where we would share ideas and opinions on our work. It was a great experience being together with people who shared common feelings.” During this period, Ms. Shinoda’s work was sold in the United States by Betty Parsons, the New York dealer who represented Pollock, Rothko and many of their contemporaries. Returning to Japan, Ms. Shinoda began to fuse calligraphy and the Expressionist aesthetic in earnest. The result was, in the words of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 1997, “an art of elegant simplicity and high drama.” Among Ms. Shinoda’s many honors, she was depicted, in 2016, on a Japanese postage stamp. She is the only Japanese artist to be so honored during her lifetime. No immediate family members survive. When she was quite young and determined to pursue a life making art, Ms. Shinoda made the decision to forgo the path that seemed foreordained for women of her generation. “I never married and have no children,” she told The Japan Times in 2017. “And I suppose that it sounds strange to think that my paintings are in place of them — of course they are not the same thing at all. But I do say, when paintings that I have made years ago are brought back into my consciousness, it seems like an old friend, or even a part of me, has come back to see me.” Works of a Woman's Hand Toko Shinoda bases new abstractions on ancient calligraphy Down a winding side street in the Aoyama district, western Tokyo. into a chunky white apartment building, then up in an elevator small enough to make a handful of Western passengers friends or enemies for life. At the end of a hall on the fourth floor, to the right, stands a plain brown door. To be admitted is to go through the looking glass. Sayonara today. Hello (Konichiwa) yesterday and tomorrow. Toko Shinoda, 70, lives and works here. She can be, when she chooses, on e of Japans foremost calligraphers, master of an intricate manner of writing that traces its lines back some 3,000 years to ancient China. She is also an avant-garde artist of international renown, whose abstract paintings and lithographs rest in museums around the world. These diverse talents do not seem to belong in the same epoch. Yet they have somehow converged in this diminutive woman who appears in her tiny foyer, offering slippers and ritual bows of greeting. She looks like someone too proper to chip a teacup, never mind revolutionize an old and hallowed art form She wears a blue and white kimono of her own design. Its patterns, she explains, are from Edo, meaning the period of the Tokugawa shoguns, before her city was renamed Tokyo in 1868. Her black hair is pulled back from her face, which is virtually free of lines and wrinkles. except for the gold-rimmed spectacles perched low on her nose (this visionary is apparently nearsighted). Shinoda could have stepped directly from a 19th century Meji print. Her surroundings convey a similar sense of old aesthetics, a retreat in the midst of a modern, frenetic city. The noise of the heavy traffic on a nearby elevated highway sounds at this height like distant surf. delicate bamboo shades filter the daylight. The color arrangement is restful: low ceilings of exposed wood, off-white walls, pastel rugs of blue, green and gray. It all feels so quintessentially Japanese that Shinoda’s opening remarks come as a surprise. She points out (through a translator) that she was not born in Japan at all but in Darien, Manchuria. Her father had been posted there to manage a tobacco company under the aegis of the occupying Japanese forces, which seized the region from Russia in 1905. She says,”People born in foreign places are very free in their thinking, not restricted” But since her family went back to Japan in 1915, when she was two, she could hardly remember much about a liberated childhood? She answers,”I think that if my mother had remained in Japan, she would have been an ordinary Japanese housewife. Going to Manchuria, she was able to assert her own personality, and that left its mark on me.” Evidently so. She wears her obi low on the hips, masculine style. The Porcelain aloofness she displays in photographs shatters in person. Her speech is forceful, her expression animated and her laugh both throaty and infectious. The hand she brings to her mouth to cover her amusement (a traditional female gesture of modesty) does not stand a chance. Her father also made a strong impression on the fifth of his seven children:”He came from a very old family, and he was quite strict in some ways and quite liberal in others.” He owned one of the first three bicycles ever imported to Japan and tinkered with it constantly He also decided that his little daughter would undergo rigorous training in a procrustean antiquity. “I was forced to study from age six on to learn calligraphy,” Shinoda says, The young girl dutifully memorized and copied the accepted models. In one sense, her father had pushed her in a promising direction, one of the few professional fields in Japan open to females. Included among the ancient terms that had evolved around calligraphy was onnade, or woman's writing. Heresy lay ahead. By the time she was 15, she had already been through nine years of intensive discipline, “I got tired of it and decided to try my own style. My father always scolded me for being naughty and departing from the traditional way, but I had to do it.” She produces a brush and a piece of paper to demonstrate the nature of her rebellion. “This is kawa, the accepted calligraphic character for river,” she says, deftly sketching three short vertical strokes. “But I wanted to use more than three lines to show the force of the river.” Her brush flows across the white page, leaving a recognizable river behind, also flowing.” The simple kawa in the traditional language was not enough for me. I wanted to find a new symbol to express the word river.” Her conviction grew that ink could convey the ineffable, the feeling, "as she says, of wind blowing softly.” Another demonstration. She goes to the sliding wooden door of an anteroom and disappears in back of it; the only trace of her is a triangular swatch of the right sleeve of her kimono, which she has arranged for that purpose. A realization dawns. The task of this artist is to paint that three sided pattern so that the invisible woman attached to it will be manifest to all viewers. Gen, painted especially for TIME, shows Shinoda’s theory in practice. She calls the work “my conception of Japan in visual terms.” A dark swath at the left, punctuated by red, stands for history. In the center sits a Chinese character gen, which means in the present or actuality. A blank pattern at the right suggests an unknown future. Once out of school, Shinoda struck off on a path significantly at odds with her culture. She recognized marriage for what it could mean to her career (“a restriction”) and decided against it. There was a living to be earned by doing traditional calligraphy:she used her free time to paint her variations. In 1940 a Tokyo gallery exhibited her work. (Fourteen years would pass before she got a second show.)War came, and bad times for nearly everyone, including the aspiring artist , who retreated to a rural area near Mount Fuji and traded her kimonos for eggs. In 1954 Shinoda’s work was included in a group exhibit at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Two years later, she overcame bureaucratic obstacles to visit the U.S.. Unmarried Japanese women are allowed visas for only three months, patiently applying for two-month extensions, one at a time, Shinoda managed to travel the country for two years. She pulls out a scrapbook from this period. Leafing through it, she suddenly raises a hand and touches her cheek:”How young I looked!” An inspection is called for. The woman in the grainy, yellowing newspaper photograph could easily be the on e sitting in this room. Told this, she nods and smiles. No translation necessary. Her sojourn in the U.S. proved to be crucial in the recognition and development of Shinoda’s art. Celebrities such as actor Charles Laughton and John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet bought her paintings and spread the good word. She also saw the works of the abstract expressionists, then the rage of the New York City art world, and realized that these Western artists, coming out of an utterly different tradition, were struggling toward the same goal that had obsessed her. Once she was back home, her work slowly made her famous. Although Shinoda has used many materials (fabric, stainless steel, ceramics, cement), brush and ink remain her principal means of expression. She had said, “As long as I am devoted to the creation of new forms, I can draw even with muddy water.” Fortunately, she does not have to. She points with evident pride to her ink stone, a velvety black slab of rock, with an indented basin, that is roughly a foot across and two feet long. It is more than 300 years old. Every working morning, Shinoda pours about a third of a pint of water into it, then selects an ink stick from her extensive collection, some dating back to China’s Ming dynasty. Pressing stick against stone, she begins rubbing. Slowly, the dried ink dissolves in the water and becomes ready for the brush. So two batches of sumi (India ink) are exactly alike; something old, something new. She uses color sparingly. Her clear preference is black and all its gradations. “In some paintings, sumi expresses blue better than blue.” It is time to go downstairs to the living quarters. A niece, divorced and her daughter,10,stay here with Shinoda; the artist who felt forced to renounce family and domesticity at the outset of her career seems welcome to it now. Sake is offered, poured into small cedar boxes and happily accepted. Hold carefully. Drink from a corner. Ambrosial. And just right for the surroundings and the hostess. A conservative renegade; a liberal traditionalist; a woman steeped in the male-dominated conventions that she consistently opposed. Her trail blazing accomplishments are analogous to Picasso’s. When she says goodbye, she bows. --by Paul Gray...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

H12-2 Beautiful, Very Gallant But Heart-Soothing, Brave And Selfless Comet Paint
Located in Bristol, GB
Giclée print on poly-cotton artist canvas mounted on birch plywood stretcher Unique variant from an edition of 606 70 cm (27.5 in) (diameter) Signed on the front Mint. Sold in th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Canvas, Plywood, Giclée

Joie Innocente - Original rare Lithograph by Jean Dubuffet - 1959
Located in Roma, IT
B/W lithograph on watermarked paper "Arc". Abstract composition signed, titled and dated on the lower margin in pencil by the French artist Jean Dubuffet. From the cycle of "Texturologie" (1953-1959). In excellent conditions. Jean Dubuffet (Le Havre 1901 - Paris 1985) Best known as the founder of the contemporary art movement called Art...
Category

1950s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

"Requiem/Let Them Be, " Etching and Aquatint signed by Joan Snyder
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Requiem" is an original etching and aquatint by Joan Snyder. The artist signed the piece, and the edition is of 120. This piece features abstract, expressionist text and an striking portrait of a woman with red lipstick on a pink background. 25 5/8" x 20" art 32" x 26" frame Joan Snyder was born on April 16, 1940, in Highland Park, New Jersey. She received her AB from Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1962), and an MFA from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1966). She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974) and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1983). Snyder lives in Brooklyn and Woodstock, New York. Although Snyder’s paintings are often placed under various art-movement umbrellas—Abstract...
Category

1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

"Pauses" 2006 Original Abstract Hand Signed silkscreen Print Cuban Artist
Located in Miami, FL
Carlos Garcia De La Nuez (Cuba, 1959) 'Pausas', 2006 silkscreen on paper 19.7 x 23.7 in. (50 x 60 cm.) Edition of 99 Unframed ID: GAR1649-006-104 ____________________________________________ "Carlos García de la Nuez. Born in Havana, Cuba, 1959. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico. He is a member of the renowned 1980s generation of Cuban artists, whose works differentiated from other contemporaries, noticeably in their intentional distancing from political criticism as a form of expression. This generation was interested in establishing and legitimizing new values of art for art’s sake, gathering inspiration from art movements happening outside of Cuba. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1959, the artist’s paintings explore abstraction and semiotics through the use of color, texture and scale. García de la Nuez participated in the historic 1982 exhibition titled 4x4 with colleagues Gustavo Acosta...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Ink, Screen

Flight Pattern - Contemporary Abstract Geology Encaustic Monotype, 2024
Located in Kent, CT
In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological forma...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Encaustic, Archival Paper, Monotype

Contemporary abstract prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary abstract prints 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 prints created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, red, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Roger Mudre, Rafael Alberti, Johanna Goodman, and Leo Guida. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Lithograph and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary abstract prints, so small editions measuring 0.02 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract prints made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $50 and tops out at $195,622, while the average work sells for $1,000.

Recently Viewed

View All