1950s Abstract Paintings

Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting by Ken Munowitz. Oil on canvas. Framed.

SURFACE CP/869 Steel 1951 Tempera, pencil on twelve paper tiles, on sheet Tempera, pencil on twelve layers of paper, on sheet cm 31 x 24 (sheet) 15 x 20 (panel) EXHIBITONS F.R. Mor...

Very impressive early abstract painting by Peter Busa (1914 - 1985). Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Housed in a period modernist frame.

John Walter Stephan was an early member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. He was born in Chicago and studied art at the University of Illinois and the Art Institute o...

This oil on paper piece by Federico Castellón exhibits the hallmarks of his artistic style, blending elements of surrealism with a striking, yet subtle, realism. The composition is r...

Home in the desert  is an artwork realized by Mario Asnago (Barlassina, 25 March 1896 – Monza, 28 January 1981).  Oil paiting on canvas. 107 x 85 cm; framed. Hand signed in the lo...

An original oil on canvas by the noted Scottish artist William Gear. A fabulous painting. One of his best and a seminal work which dates to 1959. Provenance. Douglas Foulis Art Galle...

American artist Hellier (20th Century) designed this stunning post-cubist constructivist oil on canvas painting. This painting named "Ste Augustine" features a skillful composition a...

This elegant oil on mounted canvas is by André Hambourg (France, 1909-1999) and features a seaside composition. The artwork is signed in the bottom left corner. The landscape is a lovely pastel color composition, by the beach, on the French Atlantic coast nearby Cabourg or Deauville. Newly framed with a gray and green ceruse wood frame and a blue canvas matte. Measurements: With frame: 22.82 in. wide (58 cm) x 19.32 in. high (49 cm). Opening: 16.13 in. wide (41 cm) x 12.63 in. high (32 cm). About: André Hambourg was born in Paris on 5 May 1909. Entering the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in 1926, he studied sculpture under Paul Niclausse for four years. The young artist then entered the studio of Lucien Simon at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. While in the middle of his academic studies, Hambourg had his debut solo exhibition at the Galerie Taureau in Paris in 1928. He was only 19 years old. Because of the early recognition of his talent, Hambourg became active in major Paris salons in the first stages of his fledgling career. In 1931, he was made a member of the Salon de l’Art Français Indépendant and the Salon de l’Oeuvre Unique. The first of Hambourg’s many honors was the Prix de la Villa Abd-el-Tif, awarded in 1933. As a result, the artist traveled to North Africa for the first time and spent nearly ten years working in Algeria and Morocco. The strong light of the sun, and the bleak poverty of this region, inspired Hambourg’s works. In 1937, he executed a large mural for the Algerian Pavilion at the Exposition Internationale of Paris. Throughout his years in North Africa, Hambourg would exhibit his paintings in numerous solo exhibitions in Algeria and Paris. In 1939, Hambourg was mobilized as a military reporter and draughtsman and worked on the staff of the Journal de Commissariat a la Guerre, the newspaper of the French army, under the pseudonym Andre Hache. Special missions on combat vessels led to his appointment as a war correspondent in 1944 with the staff of inter-allied SHAEF. As such, he participated in the campaigns of Germany, Alsace, the Atlantic front, and the Liberation of France. After returning to his artistic career for a short time, Hambourg became the official painter of the Navy in 1952. He undertook numerous voyages aboard French Navy vessels on missions worldwide, including Venice, the Soviet Union, Israel, Great Britain, The Ivory Coast, The United States, and Mexico. From these extended trips, the artist brought back numerous sketches and preparatory drawings for future paintings and illustrations. His international trips would have a lasting influence on his artwork. Hambourg’s adventurous maritime career resulted in his receiving the honor of Laureate of the Salon de la Marine and becoming the official painter of the Marine Ministry. In 1970, five hundred of his works created a prestigious retrospective at the Maison de Culture in Bourges, France. Other notable shows include Drawings of Venice...

Watercolor painting on paper by Roger Lersy (France - 1920 - 2004). Stunning abstract cubist composition with a colorful design from the "Telstar" series executed by the artist in Paris in the 1950s. The signature on the bottom right corner reads R. Lersy. The watercolor was newly reframed in an elegant wood frame with navy blue PU leather wrapping, beige jute matte, and acrylic glass protection. Measurements: With frame: 33.50 in. wide (83.50 cm) x 17 in. high (43.25 cm). Opening view: 25.20 in. wide (64 cm) x 8.66 in. (22 cm). About: Roger Lersy is a French painter, lithographer, and composer, born in Paris on April 2, 1920, and died in Orsay on June 22, 2004. He belongs to the School of Paris and the Young Painting movement. Roger Lersy was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris on April 2, 1920. Studying the piano from his earliest childhood, likewise beginning to draw on his father's lap, Roger Lersy, son of a decorator, enters after his schooling and for three years at the École supérieure des arts appliqués Duperré in Paris. He lives at 19 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine and begins to paint. He also worked as a decorator and pursued higher musical studies, in parallel with Noël Gallon, between 1950 and 1954. After 1954, the year when galleries, both in Paris and abroad, began to exhibit him regularly, he practiced painting (canvases, watercolors, tapestry cartoons) and music. From 1961 to 1968, Lersy lived in the United States. In 1970, he went on to solo exhibitions in Paris, London, Geneva, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York. Roger Lersy was initiated into the first degree of Freemasonry in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in 1979 at the Loge du Grand Val in the Paris region and later at the Grande Loge de France. Leading two careers at the same time, Roger Lersy has left paintings that present themselves as so many rhythms and tremors. In his paintings, the motif develops along a melancholy line with well-concerted chords, pauses, and cadences. One could define Lersy as a baroque expressionist. For Bernard Dorival, Roger Lersy is, along with Gabriel Dauchot, Jean Commère...

Vintage modernist harbor view by Aksel Jorgensen (1883 - 1957). Oil on board, circa 1957. Signed. Displayed in a period frame. Image size, 24"L x ...

Expressionist Abstract Composition With Orange and Blue Colors Canvas size 24"x32" gold leaf frame 27"x35", signed lower right corner. Sandro von Lorsch German painter born 1921-19...

A modern abstract painting by American female New York City artist Irene Zevon titled "Medusa" created in 1960. This painting was born out of Zevon's Flamenco series, but opened u...

Gouache, ca1950 Handsigned by the artist in pencil 22.00 cm. x 28.00 cm. 8.66 in. x 11.02 in. (image) Framed work Gouache on paper A certificate of authenticity etaliblished by Pie...

Hand signed on the rear, in excellent conditions.

Taro Yamamoto, (American, 1919-1994) "La Gatta Miso" Oil or Acrylic/Canvas 32" x 50" Hand signed lower right, dated 1990, Titled on the stretcher verso, unframed. Taro Yamamoto (1919 – 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract...

Thisoil painting on masonite board, "Untitled," by Modernist Stanley Bate was created circa 1950, part of his earlier body of work. The dark, heavy line work combined with bright col...

Abstract Landscape is an original contemporary artwork realized by Maria Asnago. Signed in the bottom right. Hand signed on the back. Mario Asnago. A renewed architect and painte...

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...

Abstract Composition is a suggestive artwork realized by Piero Sadun (1919-1974) in 1953. Original Title: VII n.912. Tempera on heavy paper. Signed and dated by the artist on the...

Composition 1956 Oil on panel Signed and Dated 73 x 100 cm The painting is framed. This beautiful painting is representative of David Lan Bar's 1950's compositions. Dav...

Antique American impressionist New York City scene. A view of washington square park. Signed and dated lower right. Nicely framed. Oil ...

A rare color lithograph by late French artist, Éliane Thiollier. Edition of 275, certificate of authentication is provided. Minor acid staining from the old mat. Éliane Thiollier s...

Vivid mid century landscape of autumn trees blurring into colorful abstraction by Helen Gleiforst (American, 1903-1997). Presented in a giltwood frame. Image size: 10" H X 8" W. G...

Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...

20th Century Oil by Lison Favarger 1957 Oil on canvas Signed 120 x 90 cm

Jean Cortot "Ville 24" 1958 Oil on canvas 23.75 x 23.75 inches Signed and dated lower right corner Provenance: Collection of the artist; Galerie Jacques Massol, Paris France; France...

Sewell Sillman Red, circa 1958 Acrylic on masonite 18 x 36 inches Upon attending Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, Sewell Sillman’s life was arguably altered for...

Sewell Sillman Green, circa 1958 Acrylic on masonite 21.5 x 28 inches Upon attending Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, Sewell Sillman’s life was arguably altered...

A fine example of early Abstract Expressionism Estate of the artist Paul Brach was a second generation abstract expressionist painter whose work evolved into minimalism and eventual...

Initialed lower right, 'J.e.t.' for Jessie E. Thomason (American, 20th Century) and dated 1956. Exhibited: Jack London Art Festival, 1956. Displayed in the original and period, paint...

Signed lower left, 'Stoltenberg' for Donald Hugo Stoltenberg (American, 1927-2016) and dated 1957. Titled, verso on original artist's label, 'West Side, New York'. Provenance: Mr. & ...

Jirayr Zorthian(1911-2004), went through two Turkish massacres before age eight. He left Turkey at age nine with his family and spent a year in Padua, Italy, waiting for his visa to open to the United States. This period was very important in his life because his father took him to many cities in Europe and exposed him to great works of art. Zorthian arrived in the United States at the age of eleven and settled with his family in New Haven, Connecticut. He obtained his formal education there, after graduating from Yale in 1932, the Winchester Fellowship granted him a year and a half at the American Academy in Rome with travel and study throughout Europe. His art career branched into various directions on his return to the United States. As a mural painter his reputation was established. He has forty two (42) murals throughout the United States. Zorthian worked and taught painting at some of the finest art academiJirayr Zorthian(1911-2004), went through two Turkish massacres before age eight. He left Turkey at age nine with his family and spent a year in Padua, Italy, waiting for his visa to open to the United States. This period was very important in his life because his father took him to many cities in Europe and exposed him to great works of art. Zorthian arrived in the United States at the age of eleven and settled with his family in New Haven, Connecticut. He obtained his formal education there, after graduating from Yale in 1932, the Winchester Fellowship granted him a year and a half at the American Academy in Rome with travel and study throughout Europe. His art career branched into various directions on his return to the United States. As a mural painter his reputation was established. He has forty two (42) murals throughout the United States. Zorthian worked and taught painting at some of the finest art academies on the west coast including both the Chouinard Art Institute and the Otis Art Institute. es on the west coast including both the Chouinard Art Institute and the Otis Art Institute. The Gathering...

We are pleased to offer Rambla de las Flores, 1958, by the second generation American Abstract Expressionist painter Robert S. Neuman (1926-2015). Neuman's work bridged a love of pig...

Arctic Light-Orange Sun Unsigned Gouache on Japanese fibrous paper Series: Tundra Paintings Exhibited: Karl Zerbe, Gouaches of the Artic Nordness Gallery, (Madison Avenue, NY) Feb 3 through Feb 23, 1958 Cat. No. 12 (label with work, see photo...

Amaranth Ehrenhalt was a multifaceted artist best known for her paintings. She was part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, working first in New York in the early 19...

Original Sierra Mountain Cabin Abstract Expressionist Landscape Original acrylic painting depicting a cabin in the Sierra Mountains by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985), circa 1950....

Gouache on artist board An artist whose work was simultaneously figurative and abstract, Brodie was praised as "one of the best painters of his generation" by art historian, Meyer Sc...

'The Harlequin', oil on board, by Richard Mandin (1952). Harlequin's traditional diamond patterned costume, bicorn hat, and the wooden sword that denoted his buffoonery have appealed...

Work on canvas

Acrylic on masonite. This is a pivotal work in deep and radiant cobalt blue from 1950. It dipicts calligraphic and hieroglyph structures over a grid and pyramidal base by the first generation abstract expressionist. Provenance: Skinner: November 13, 1992 [Lot 00219}, The entry in the Skinner catalog indicates that the painting came directly from the artist to the family of the consignor to Skinner. Kaminsky Auctions. There is an unbroken paper trail that traces the ownership of the painting from the current owner, through two auction houses to the artist. Perfect unbroken provenance. Pousette-Dart was among the most inventive of the Abstract Expressionist generation, His uncanny talent was to expand the nature of abstraction and still make each mark each element very much his own; a reflection of what he called   "the concealed power of the spirit," he said, “not of the brute physical form."   His was not aiming for a singular, realized aesthetic formula but to expand the possibilities of painting; the transcendental in painting. Typical of such invention and exploration is this  painting  Untitled 1950 when the artist was only 34 years old and represented by one of the champions of the new American painting, Betty Parsons.  
A banner year for Pousette-Dart, the Museum of Modern Art acquired their first painting by the Minnesota born artist.  He worked on easel size works such as this painting an oil on masonite. At the same time Pousette-Dart was also working on larger scale works such as Path of the Hero, running over ten feet in length now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Both contain fields of color articulated by a highly sophisticated white hieroglyphic vocabulary. Rather than demonstrate an expressionist sensibility, Pousette-Dart harnesses his more cerebral ideas transforming thick areas of paint into a more refined composition of geometric forms akin to the pattern and forms of say a stained glass window. In a way he is looking back at Fugue, 1940 a black and white composition which makes use of a similar format of painting albeit smaller. Color and form are minimal, but what Pousette-Dart has maximized is the rhythmic and syncopated character of painting casting his ideas into purely symbolic terms that one might link to the pictograms of Adolph Gottlieb. Nonetheless, nature is always at the core of Pousette-Dart’s thinking and dreaming. Here he has transformed the local Ramapo Mountains—where he will eventually move with his family to live and work— into a complex series of articulated fragments linked by style, scale and color.  The painting’s imagery built on two large triangles and reduced to just two colors, cobalt blue and white all outlined in black.  Pousette-Dart symbols stacked in horizontal and vertical rows:  blue is ground, white is language, symbolic of light, consciousness and awareness . The painting maintains a mystical character images compounded that formulate a secret code and linked to the series of white paintings Pousette-Dart authored in the first half of the 1950s. Get up close to the picture and you discover images within images a kind of picture puzzle...

Abram Abraham Krol was born January 22, 1919, in Pabianice (Lodz), Poland. Abram Krol went to France in 1938 to study civil engineering at the University of Caen. In 1939 at the be...

Signed and dated oil on canvas landscape by French cubist painter André Lhote. The piece depicts a view of a mountainous landscape from a Mullion window - a decorative with a vertica...

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated verso. 49.5 x 34.5 in. 51 x 36.25 in. (framed) Custom framed in a maple floater with a polyurethane clear coat finish. Provenance Howard Wise Galle...

Piero Sadun (Siena 1919 - 1974), Plastic space (late 1950s) Oil painting on canvas measuring 90 x 100 cm. The work appears to be archived at the Piero Sadun Archives. Provenance: ...

Casein on paper Like many of his compatriots of the time, Shulman transitioned from representation to abstraction in the post-WWII period as he studied with Hans Hoffman. Yet, his wo...

Richard Andres American, 1927-2013 Untitled, c. 1950 oil on masonite 8 x 10 inches Richard Andres was born in Buffalo, New York in 1927. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art...

The Hill Dwellers' JOHN BOLAM, 1922-2009 Oil on board, 1959, signed and inscribed verso. John Bolam is seen by many as following in the path of the neo-Romantics, most notabl...

RICHARD ANDRES American, 1927–2013 Untitled, c. 1950 oil on canvas signed lower left 10 x 7 inches Richard Andres was born in Buffalo, New York in 1927. A graduate of the Clevelan...

George F. Welch (1926 - 2003) designed this lovely Mid-Century modernist enamel on copper artwork. The large square enameled plaque is wall-mounted and framed. The artwork boasts an ...

An abstract collage on wood by Kenneth Morrow Martin, American (1911-1983). Exhibited: 1st Knoxville Art Center National Exhibtion, 1961 White Landscape by Keith Morrow Martin, Amer...

Very impressive mid 20th century cubist abstract. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Casein on paper Like many of his compatriots of the time, Shulman transitioned from representation to abstraction in the post-WWII period as he studied with Hans Hoffman. Yet, his wo...

Large Surrealist Abstract, Yellow, Original Oil Painting By French artist, Sophie Danielle Rubinstain 1922-2018 The painting is stamped with the artis...

Guinovart. Josep Guinovart i Bertran (Barcelona 1927-2007) was a painter, draftsman and engraver from Catalonia, Spain. After studying at the School of the Lonja and the Promotion ...

Nicely painted mid 20th century French impressionist landscape. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

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...

Very impressive mid 20th century modernist interior view. So well painted with great color and bold expressive strokes. Signed illegibly. Housed in a period modernist frame. Oil ...