Rockford Painting

Ralph Moffett Arnold was an American artist and educator from Chicago, Illinois. He briefly attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before enlisting in the U.S. Army and serving in Korea from 1950–52. Returning to Chicago, Arnold met William Frederick, a silversmith teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Arnold and Frederick became partners and were together until Arnold's death more than 50 years later. Frederick encouraged Arnold to experiment with various artistic mediums in classes at the Art Institute. Arnold subsequently completed an undergraduate degree in 1955 at Roosevelt University. In 1976, he earned an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. Arnold developed an artistic practice that utilized collage and assemblage to address and explore American popular culture. In 1966, Arnold began his involvement with the South Side Community Art Center, exhibiting individual works and serving as a juror for group exhibitions, followed by a solo retrospective of his work in 1973. In the late 1960s, Arnold was an Artist in Residence at Art Soul, a collaborative art space in North Lawndale initiated by the Museum of Contemporary Art and CVL, Inc. – the latter being a new configuration of the Vice Lords, a West Side street gang. In 1969, Arnold began a position aṣs an assistant professor of painting at Rockford University, followed by work at Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois. In 1972, Arnold joined the Fine Arts Department at Loyola University Chicago. He was an influential facility member at Loyola, named chairman of the art department, and remained at the University through 2000. During his time at Loyola, Arnold was a member of the Illinois Arts Council, on the Advisory Board of the Illinois Arts Alliance, and served as an adjunct lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2006, the Pauls Foundation created two scholarship funds in memory of Arnold at Loyola University and Chicago Academy for the Arts. The Ralph Arnold Fine Arts Annex and the Ralph Arnold Gallery at Loyola University are named in his honor.

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.

Revitalize your interiors — introduce drawings and watercolor paintings to your home to evoke emotions, stir conversation and show off your personality and elevated taste.

Drawing is often considered one of the world’s oldest art forms, with historians pointing to cave art as evidence. In fact, a cave in South Africa, home to Stone Age–era artists, houses artwork that is believed to be around 73,000 years old. It has indeed been argued that cave walls were the canvases for early watercolorists as well as for landscape painters in general, who endeavor to depict and elevate natural scenery through their works of art. The supplies and methods used by artists and illustrators to create drawings and paintings have evolved over the years, and so too have the intentions. Artists can use their drawing and painting talents to observe and capture a moment, to explore or communicate ideas and convey or evoke emotion. No matter if an artist is working in charcoal or in watercolor and has chosen to portray the marvels of the pure human form, to create realistic depictions of animals in their natural habitats or perhaps to forge a new path that references the long history of abstract visual art, adding a drawing or watercolor painting to your living room or dining room that speaks to you will in turn speak to your guests and conjure stimulating energy in your space.

When you introduce a new piece of art into a common area of your home — a figurative painting by Italian watercolorist Mino Maccari or a colorful still life, such as a detailed botanical work by Deborah Eddy — you’re bringing in textures that can add visual weight to your interior design. You’ll also be creating a much-needed focal point that can instantly guide an eye toward a designated space, particularly in a room that sees a lot of foot traffic.

When you’re shopping for new visual art, whether it’s for your apartment or weekend house, remember to choose something that resonates. It doesn’t always need to make you happy, but you should at least enjoy its energy. On 1stDibs, browse a wide-ranging collection of drawings and watercolor paintings and find out how to arrange wall art when you’re ready to hang your new works.