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American Modern Figurative Paintings

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Style: American Modern
Parisian Model
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Parisian Model" is an oil on canvas painting by Max Weber painted in 1908. The work is signed and dated, lower right, "Max Weber Paris 1908". The painting size is 35 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches. The framed size is 43 x 27 x 2 1/4 inches. "Parisian Model" was painted in 1908, when Weber participated in a life class in Matisse's studio in Paris and painted several nudes. Weber was influenced toward a more Cubist styler after seeing Cezanne's work in the 1906-07 Salon in Paris, and he consorted within avant-garde circles in Paris as early as 1905. After returning to the US in 1909, Weber was credited with showing American audiences Cubism based on his firsthand knowledge of the key players and the style. Several drawings of Weber's from this time are in museum collections at The Met, the Smithsonian, and MoMA and show a similar style and stocatto gesture. Parisian paintings by Max Weber are extremely rare as there are hardly any that have sold publicly. Provenance: Estate of the Artist Gerald Peters Gallery...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

San Pedro Post Office: History of Writing Mural South, Preliminary Mural Study
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s San Pedro Post Office: History of Writing Mural South, Preliminary Mural Maquette right panel...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

The Guardian of West Point
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Tony Khawam's recent work stems from his interest in histories, human emotion, allusions to place, memory, and the ubiquitous fleeting moments of the conscious and unconscious. The recent work has iconic undertones with a focus on the artist’s fascination with historical imagery from the ancient Mesopotamia, Assyria, Egypt, Greek, Roman, with influences of post-war German and American art adopted into his daily artistic and structural practices with the current surroundings and happenings by marrying a skewed perspective with dimensional flatness, his paintings allude to the continuous development of the American culture. The past and present of “Living the Dream” make the case for the way art and its language of color, line, and shape enrich a viewer’s experience of the work and offer a delicate balance between representation and abstraction, mirroring the real and unreal ways in which he paints lived experience. Moreover, his myriad mediums including acrylic, colored pastel, and spray paint further referencing painterly collage in a more experimental and risk-taking approach. The new work features historical and modern figures, social commentary, fashion motifs, everyday object, pop culture ads, cartoons, film, and Florida flora and fauna that inhabit flat, kaleidoscopic surfaces. The artist’ dialogue with the traditions of the past interweave with his participation in current global artistic discussions. This simultaneous engagement with the past, present, and future speaks to a singular creative presence. The new work is charged with a rawness produced by an ambiguous method to narrative and a fractal, unfinished approach to representing the subjects of the paintings. Characters appearing to piece themselves together from aggregated painterly gestures, these forms become figures of power and personal freedom through their abjection. Khawam’s boundless visual appetite for making pattern paintings with women...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

1930 Oil Painting Sea Side Sailboats American Modernist WPA Artist Morris Kantor
Located in Surfside, FL
Morris Kantor, American, 1896-1974 Seaside View, 1930 Hand signed M. Kantor and dated 1930 lower right Oil on canvas 22 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches 24 1/2 x 21 (frame) Morris Kantor (Belarusian: Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area. This is a beautiful boat scene with a river or lake probably on Long Island. Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to join his father who had previously relocated to the states. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974. He produced a prolific and diverse body of work, much of it in the form of paintings, which is distinguished by its stylistic variety over his long career. Perhaps his most widely recognized work is the iconic painting "Baseball At Night", which depicts an early night baseball game played under artificial electric light. Although he is best known for his paintings executed in a realistic manner, over the course of his life he also spent time working in styles such as Cubism and Futurism, (influenced by the Art Deco movement) and produced a number of abstract or non-figural works. A famous cubist, Futurist, painting of his "Orchestra" brought over 500,000$ at Christie's auction house in 2018. Kantor found employment in the Garment District upon his arrival in New York City, and was not able to begin formal art studies until 1916, when he began courses at the now-defunct Independent School of Art. He studied landscape painting with Homer Boss (1882-1956). In 1928, after returning to New York City from a year in Paris, Kantor developed a style in which he combined Realism with Fantasy, often taking the streets of New York as his subject matter. He did some moody Surrealist Nude paintings and fantasy scenes. In the 1940's he turned towards figural studies. Later in his career, Kantor himself was an instructor at the Cooper Union and also at the Art Students League of New York in the 1940s, and taught many pupils who later became famous artists in their own right, such as Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmund Abeles and Susan Weil...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1950s "Backside" Mid Century Figurative Nude Gouache Painting
Located in Arp, TX
From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedman Opper Backside c. 1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18" Unframed *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann. San Francisco Abstract Expression A free-spirited wave of creative energy swept through the San Francisco art community after World War II. Challenging accepted modes of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out of its postwar complacency. Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Paper

Rabbit Hunters
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Board

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 American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil

Post Impressionist Oil Painting Still Life with Fruit William Meyerowitz WPA Art
Located in Surfside, FL
William Meyerowitz (1887 - 1981) Oil painting on canvas Depicting a still life scene with fruit bowl, bananas, flowers and quilt. Post Impressionist oil painting. Hand signed low...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Portrait of an Old Man with Cane, Important Chicago Modernist WPA Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Portrait of an Old Man with Cane, by American artist William S. Schwartz, c. 1940, gouache painting, signed l.l, framed. William S. Schwartz (February 23, 1896 – February 10, 1977) was an American artist who lived and worked in Chicago. Schwartz was born in Smorgon in Belarus, then in the Russian Empire in 1896. His parents were Samuel Schwartz and Tauba Reznikoff. At the age of thirteen, he moved to the nearby city of Vilna to attend art school. Four years later, he emigrated to the United States and eventually enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating, he put his art career on hold to concentrate on a budding career as an opera singer. When Schwartz returned to painting, he distinguished himself with dreamy, symbolist works and abstractions that tended to bewilder viewers. He also scandalized conservative audiences with numerous lithographs of nude women. During the Great Depression, Schwartz became an artist on the Federal Art Project (WPA) payroll painting murals. He was one of the seven WPA artists who contributed to a mural at Riccardo's, Schwartz (Music), Malvin Albright (Sculpture), Ivan Alrbight (Drama), Aaron Bohrod (Architecture), Rudolph Weisenborn (Literature), Vincent D’Agostino (Painting), and Ric Riccardo (Dance). In 2002 Chicago philanthropist Seymour H. Persky acquired the murals for his personal collection. Through the WPA, Schwarz received commissions to produce murals in post offices and public spaces. He created his “Americana Series,” a group of four paintings featuring poets, painters, composers and scientists. His Composersdepicts four contemporary musicians, among them, Victor Herbert. The mural was discovered at Glencoe Public Library, IL, in 2007, and include: Americana No. 1 Poets: Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe; Americana No. 2 Painters: Saint Gaudens, Bellows, Sargent, Innes, Whistler and Homer; Americana No. 3 Composers: Herbert, DeKoven, Chadwick, MacDowel; Americana No. 4 Scientists: Thomas Alva Edison, Steinmetz, Alexander Graham Bell...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Mid Century Modern Portrait of a Woman
Located in Soquel, CA
Substantial and period painting, a Mid Century Modern portrait of a woman in an abstracted landscape by listed California artist Tarmo Pasto...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"In Front of the Store"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Signed and dated lower right. Illustrated in "Charles Searles" 2013 exhibition catalog (La Salle University Art Museum / Tyler School of Art) pg. 195 Charles Searles (1937-2004) He was born in Philadelphia, PA and received his fine art education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (PAFA) from 1969-72. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania for liberal arts studies, where he worked in the labs beside the scientists and engineers creating technical illustrations for text books. His early paintings embraced the tumultuous 60's and also reflected his own family life and surroundings. Before graduating the PAFA, Searles received the Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, and the following year, the Ware Memorial Traveling Scholarship. He was the first student to use these funds to travel to Africa. His travels in Africa marked his life and work forever -- the life, the rhythms, the patterns, and the energy. Searles returned to Philadelphia and began teaching at the Ile Ife Cultural Center. It was then that he began his "Dancer" Series. This series marked a change in his life, celebrating his new sense of renewal and the African experience. He was awarded his first mural commission at the William G. Green Federal Building. This work, entitled "Celebration" is still on view today. At that time, he was also hired as a drawing teacher at the (then) Philadelphia College of Art, where he remained a professor for over twenty years. In 1978, Searles moved to New York City. He found a large, raw space -- an old sewing factory -- on Broadway and Bleeker where he would remain for the rest of his life. He continued to commute to Philadelphia teaching part time. He met Kathleen Spicer, an art student, in 1983. They married in 1985. Together, they shared a wonderful, open, artistic, social, and creative experience. Searles gradually moved away from painting and into sculpture. His sculptures maintained the vibrant color and patterns from his paintings, but seemed to dance in three dimensions. These new works embodied a live sense of rhythm and energy -- trademarks that he maintained throughout his career, whether in wood, bronze, or aluminum. In his lifetime, Charles Searles participated in over 60 group shows, and 25 solo exhibitions. He was represented by the Sande Webster Gallery in Philadelphia for over 20 years. His paintings and sculptures can be found in innumerable public and private collections. Public commissions include the Delaware River Port Authority, the NYC Mass Transit Authority, the First District Plaza in Philadelphia, and the Amtrak station in Newark, NJ. He was the recipient of many awards, including ones from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottleib Foundation, the Creative Arts Project Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His wife of 23 years, Kathleen Spicer adds: "Charles was his work, and his work was him. Inseparable. Our lives were all about art. We lived each day as if it was a gift. To me, he was enchanted. His vision was clear -- he could envision something and make it come to life as easy as breathing. Genius. Charles made the world a better place. Charles speaks loud and clear." Bio courtesy of Kathleen Spicer (Searles) Selected Periodical Citations: Newhall, Edith, "Dual Celebration of Self-expression", Philadelphia Enquirer, May 2013 Fabbri, Anne, "A Farewell to Charles Searles", Art Matters, January 2005 Cornell University Review, August 2000 O'Neill, Denise I., "Black Experience Puts Soul Into the Heart of Christmas", Chicago Sun-Times, December 1996 Gleuck, Grace, Review, The New York Times, December 1996 McBride, Octavia, "An Artist Acclaimed", Philadelphia Tribune, April 1993 Fox, Catherine, "National Black Arts Festival Program Guide", The Atlanta Journal, July 1990 Wilson, William, "Black Artists in Tune with Ancestors", Los Angeles Times, January 1990 Jamusch, Ann, "Special Show-Legacy of Black Art", Dallas Times Herald, January 1990 Binkley, Barbara, "Colors, Bright and Bold", The Daily News, April 1986 Grafly, Dorothy, "Charles Searles at Neumans", ART in Focus, Summer 1978 Crittendon, Denise, "Back Home from Nigeria", The Michigan Chronicle, December 1977 Garrett, Bob, Art Section Review. Boston Sunday Herald, November 1975 Patry, Louise, "A Jubilee of Afro-American Art in Boston", New England Journal, December 1975 Wright, Charles, "Paint Art Racist", The Village Voice, April 1971 Nelson, Nells, "Black Artists Rise Above the Tempest", Philadelphia Daily News, April 1971 Canaday, John, "Black Artist on View in Two Exhibitions", The New York Times, February 1970 Collections: - Philadelphia Museum of Art - The Woodmere Art Museum - Smithsonian Institute of American Art - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - LaSalle University Art Museum - Howard University Gallery of Art - Dallas Museum of Art - Delaware Valley Arts Alliance - Montclair Museum of Art - Afro-American Historical & Cultural Museum - Museum of Afro-American History - 35 + corporate collections - National & international private collections 75+ Group Exhibitions, Including: - Woodmere Art Museum - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - Whitney Museum of American Art - Museum of American Art - Boston Museum of Fine Arts - Brooklyn Museum - Art Alliance - National Afro-American Museum - Liberty Museum - National Blacks Fine Arts Show - Institute of Contemporary Art - Ackland Arts Museum - Arnot Art Museum 30+ Solo Exhibitions, Including: - Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA - The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA - LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA - Temple University, Philadelphia, PA - Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ - Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ - Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, NY - North Carolina State University - Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, NC - G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York, NY - Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA - June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY - Noel Gallery, Charlotte, NC - Malcolm Brown...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Society of Six Street Scene - Figurative Abstract
By Bernard Von Eichman
Located in Soquel, CA
Stunning New York City urban modernist watercolor titled "Summer Afternoon Stroll" by Society of Six artist Bernard Von Eichman (American, 1899-1990), 1...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Reclining Nude
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Joseph Stella. "Reclining Nude" is a figurative painting, oil on canvas in a bright palette of yellows, greens, and tans by American Modernist artist Joseph Stella. The...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Girl in a White Dress, Oil Painting on Canvas by Edith Varian Cockcroft
By Edith Varian Cockcroft
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Edith Varian Cockroft, American (1881 - 1962) Title: Girl in a White Dress Year: 1961-1962 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.(signed Cocroft) ...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Girl in Pareu"
By RAD Miller
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Robert Alexander Darrah “R.A.D.” Miller (1905 - 1966) Robert Alexander Darrah Miller, called “RAD” by his friends, was born in Philadelphia. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1923 to 1927 under the tutelage of Daniel Garber. In 1928, Miller moved to Bucks County where he would meet and marry Celia Belden Marshall, daughter of Dr. George M. Marshall, who at that time owned the Phillips Mill property. Nearly a year later, in 1929, a committee headed by artist, William Lathrop, negotiated to purchase the Mill property from Dr. Marshall for the purpose of holding art exhibitions. Thus, the Phillips Mill Art Association was formed. RAD Miller was a regular exhibitor at the Phillips Mill with the traditional New Hope Impressionists. Many of the original founders of the New Hope Art Colony, set in their ways, frowned upon the concept of modernist painting. A decision was made by the Association to not include the growing group of modernist painters in the area to exhibit with them at Phillips Mill. Although clearly not a traditional impressionist, Miller was not being excluded with the others, largely because his father-in-law formerly owned the mill and was one of the Association’s board of directors. RAD was sympathetic to his fellow modernists. In 1933, he was one of the original members of the Independents, a group formed for modernist artists who chose to embark on a more non-traditional creative path. They would exhibit in tandem with the Impressionists but at different locations. Around the time of his arrival to New Hope in 1928, Miller struck up a friendship with Thomas Hart Benton, and in 1932 he worked under Benton on a mural project. RAD’s paintings...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

1988 "Utopia" Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas Illustrator Bill Shields
Located in Arp, TX
William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "Utopia" 1988 Oil on canvas 60"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Simka Simkhovitch WPA W/C Painting Gouache American Modernist Bouquet of Flowers
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. This is a miniature watercolor and gouache vibrant, colorful bouquet of flowers in a vase. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board, Watercolor

Coney Island Fire Eaters American Scene Modernism WPA Social Realism Mid-Century
Located in New York, NY
Coney Island Fire Eaters American Scene Modernism WPA Social Realism Mid-Century Frederick "Fritz" Frey Rockwell (1917-1977) Coney Island Fire Eaters 25 x 30 inches Oil on Canvas Si...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bear Witch Project
Located in Denver, CO
When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Wood Panel

Huakai Hui - Mid Century Modern Surrealist Hawaiian Visionary Art
Located in Soquel, CA
Hawaiian Symbolism Figurative & Landscape Oil painting of Huakai Hui (Journey Together) Symbolic and surreal landscape of a female and male figure ascending stairway flanked by to...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Invasion of the Non-Indigenous
Located in Denver, CO
When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Wood Panel

One Square Acre of Mist
Located in Denver, CO
When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Wood Panel

Post Impressionist Oil Painting Two Girls, Sisters William Meyerowitz WPA Art
Located in Surfside, FL
William Meyerowitz (American, 1887 - 1981) Oil painting on canvas Two Girls Hand signed lower right 29.25 x 25.25 Frame. 22 x 18 canvas. (It does not have the gold outer frame) Pr...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Orange Dog" American Modern oil painting of man sitting with two dogs
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Orange Dog" is an American Modern oil painting of a man sitting with two dogs. Massachusetts. Kelly Carmody’s work has been widely exhibited and collected. One of her major figura...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Dressing
By Miriam Tindall Smith
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Smith studied at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia under Edward Warwick. In 1935 she was asked by the Art Institute of Chicago to loan her painting, "Repose" to the forty...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Ram Island Drive" earth toned contemporary oil painting by Kelly Carmody
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Ram Island Drive" is an earth toned contemporary oil painting by Kelly Carmody. framed dimensions: 14 x 24 inches Kelly Carmody’s work has been widely exhibited and collected. One...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Panel, Linen, Oil

Portland's Finest: Viva la Fem - Figurative Painting By Marc Zimmerman
Located in Carmel, CA
A cubistic, playful cityscape of Portland, with its famous bridges crossing the river is a backdrop for this female biker, clad in vintage wear and a red hat. Portland's Finest: Vi...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Looking Out" contemporary seascape with young woman in white
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Looking Out" is a contemporary seascape with a young woman in white admiring the view. Framed dimensions: 14 x 24 inches Kelly Carmody’s work has been widely exhibited and collect...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel, Board, Linen

WPA Scene American Modernism 20th Century Workers Strike Realism Industrial
Located in New York, NY
WPA Scene American Modernism 20th Century Workers Strike Realism Industrial "Pawns" 16 x 20 inches,. Oil on board, c. 1930’s. Signed lower left. Stowell Sherman...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

The Market #2 - by Marc Zimmerman
Located in Carmel, CA
The universal farmers market is bustling with action. Geometric stalls with intense color coupled with contrasting blue arches creates the dynamism in this work of art. The Market #...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare Modernist Oil Painting Line Drawing Nude Man Louis Stettner
Located in Surfside, FL
Signed and Dated Modern Line Drawing Oil Painting of Nude Man. Louis Stettner (November 7, 1922 – October 13, 2016) was an American photographer of the 20th century whose work inclu...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Master Accordionist from Crowley
Located in Lafayette, LA
Here is a small (10"x10" ) oil painting by Francis Pavy. Entitled " master accordionist from Crowley. There are many accordion masters from South Loui...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

NYC Subway Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Contemporary
Located in New York, NY
NYC Subway Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Contemporary David Atkins (1910 – 2012) Subway Train Departure 24 x 30 inches Oil on can...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The world is falling apart
Located in Ridgewood, NY
Most mornings we wake up to a physical reality of sharp contrast and clear-cut edges. Defined outlines help us navigate everyday life and the world around us. But the blurry fringes of perception are where things get interesting. This is what I want to reveal with my work: the unspoken, the hidden parts, the beauty of impermanence. Painting, collage and monoprint allow me to dig around in these spaces and textures as if surfing through the visual twilight. They let me feel the passage of time, the aging patinas and the rawness of urban decay. Some of these spaces feel like an expansion of consciousness or even self transcendence beyond the physical. In others one can barely peek through a few open cracks. Many of these journeys into unexplored inner territories are guided by music and the sounds of color. Each color might stand...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Yellow Symphony #1
Located in Bogotá, Bogotá
This horizontal painting on canvas contains several layers of color, with textures and transparencies, representing a dreamlike scene where fantastic animals and humans in yellow and...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Riders of Pigeon Hill
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Riders of Pigeon Hill, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 24 x 36 inches, label verso with title, artist’s name and address; same information inscribed verso; ex-collection...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

William Fisher Classic American Illustration on Canvas
Located in Larchmont, NY
William Fisher (American, 1891-1985) Untitled, 20th Century Oil on canvas/illustration 23 3/4 x 29 3/4 in. Framed: 31 x 37 1/4 x 1 in. Signed lower right: William Fisher William Fis...
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"At the Opera" WPA Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre American Scene
Located in New York, NY
"At the Opera" WPA Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre American Scene John Winters (1904 - 1983) "At the Opera" 17 x 14 inches oil on canvas Signed and dated 1943 lower r...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Shooting Gallery Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Abstract Realism Modern
Located in New York, NY
Shooting Gallery Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Abstract Realism Modern *William Kienbusch (1914 – 1980) Shooting Gallery, Sixth Avenue Post...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Paint

Untitled (Elevated Platform)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our current exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Elevated Platform), 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 30 x...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled (Transcendental Composition)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Transcendental Composition), oil on board, 1947, oil on board, signed and dated lower r...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

American Modernist Street & Diner Scene, Signed Kittredge
Located in Larchmont, NY
Mystery Artist (Possibly William A. Kittredge, illustrator) Untitled (Diner), c. Mid-20th century Oil on board Sight: 8 x 10 in. Framed: 9 3/8 x 11 3/8 x 7/8 in.
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago
Located in New York, NY
"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago Harold Haydon "History of the U.S. Postal Service" 21 x 25 1/2 inches O...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract painting of People on the Beach oil on canvas circa 1950-1960 New York
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Aaron Berkman (New York, 1900 - 1929) "Beach" Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Signed lower right: Aaron Berkman Unframed Provenance: Private collection, USA An abstract oil painting o...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Deep in the Jungle - Figurative Painting - American Modern Art By Marc
Located in Carmel, CA
Blue women: at home in the jungle- attuned to the wild. Deep in the Jungle - Figurative Painting - American Modern Art By Marc Zimmerman This masterpiece is exhibited in the Zim...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

People Lawn Bowling in Central Park New York City 1950 oil/canvas NYC blue green
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Aaron Berkman (1900 - 1991) “Bowling in Central Park” New York Oil on canvas 10 x 14 inches Signed and titled verso: Aaron Berkman 1950 Provenance: Private collection, USA Aaron Ber...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Over and Above: No. 6, Surreal Cat w/ Fish Bones, 20th Century Cleveland School
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904–2000) Over and Above: No. 6, 1963 Oil, sand & fish bones on canvas Signed and dated upper left 53 x 31 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achie...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Conjuring Spirits (Jungle Drums)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Dynamic jungle drummer scene by unknown NYC American artist. Oil on canvas measuring 20 x 26 inches. Signed "T 42" in ink on verso. Anco stretchers and Grumbacher NYC store stamp con...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Over and Above Surprise (Serpent), 1960s snake painting, Cleveland School
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Over and Above Surprise (Serpent), 1967 Casein on board Signed lower right 7.75 x 5.5 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a lev...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Casein

Hillside and Stream, early 20th century modernist Cleveland School painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clara Deike (American, 1881-1964) Hillside and Stream, 1916 Gouache on paper Signed and dated lower right 22 x 18 inches 25.5 x 21.5 inches, framed A graduate of the Cleveland Schoo...
Category

1910s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Surrealist Still Life with Apples, Mid 20th Century Cleveland School Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Still Life with Apples, 1940 Oil on canvas Signed and dated upper right 18 x 24 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of na...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modernist Judaica Jewish Ink Drawing Painting "New Immigrant" Off the Boat WPA
Located in Surfside, FL
An ink drawing Judaic painting by modern artist Ben-Zion Weinman. It depicts a portrait of an old Jewish man. Coming over from Europe on a ship crossing. The work is signed "Ben-Zion". Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Influenced by Spinoza, Knut Hamsun, and Wladyslaw Reymont, as well as Hebrew literature, Ben-Zion wrote poetry and essays that, like his visual work, attempt to reveal the deep “connection between man and the divine, and between man and earth.” An emigrant from the Ukraine, he came to the US in 1920. He wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name Benzion Weinman, but when he began painting he dropped his last name and hyphenated his first, saying an artist needed only one name. In 1920 he settled in America, where he found little interest in his writing. He began teaching Hebrew to support himself and then in the early 1930s returned to painting. He used his art to comment on the rise of fascism in Europe, events he felt could not be adequately explored with words. Largely self-taught, Ben-Zion visited the museums of New York City to learn his new trade. His first painting on a large scale, Friday Evening (1933, Jewish Museum, New York), depicts a Sabbath dinner table as recalled from his family home. Ben-Zion supported himself by working odd jobs until the establishment of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Under the auspices of the wpa, Ben-Zion thrived and galleries began to show his work. In 1936, after his first one-man show at the Artists' Gallery in New York Ben-Zion was a founding member of “The Ten: An Independent Group” The Ten” a 1930’s...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Woman with Arms Crossed
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Woman with Arms Crossed Mixed media collage-painting on stone chip surface, mounted on fabric, mounted on wood support by the artist, 1955 Signed and dated lower center Image size: 1...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Other Medium

The kiss
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas American box in black and silver wood 116.5 x 116.5 x 3.5 cm
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic

Boys Swimming Industrial Landscape WPA Mid 20th Century Social Realism Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Boys Swimming Industrial Landscape WPA Mid 20th Century Social Realism Modernism Henry Schnakenberg (1982 - 1970) Boys Swimming Industrial Landscape 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 sight Oil on Canvas Signed lower left 14 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches, Framed Bio In many cases, American artists visited the Armory Show in New York in 1913, and returned to their studios to react to or against what they saw. However, for Henry Ernest Schnakenberg it was much more life altering. Prior to visiting this important exhibition of American and European modernist art...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Valentine Couple older tattooed man and woman valentine love theme warm color
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This is a recently completed oil painting created for valentines day. It is painted on linen canvas mounted on a cradled wood panel. Framing suggested but not required. It is signed...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil, Linen

Waiting for the Bus in a Blizzard- WPA American Scene 1938 NYC Modernism Realism
Located in New York, NY
Waiting for the Bus in a Blizzard- WPA American Scene 1938 NYC Modernism Realism. 16 x 16 inches, Oil on board, Signed and dated 1938 lower left. ...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Stylish Hawaiian Luau Oil Painting by Listed artist Mario Larrinaga (1895-1979)
Located in Baltimore, MD
Mario Larrinaga was born in Baja California in 1895 and moved with his brother to Los Angeles in 1909. He had no formal training in art, but had natural talent that was noticed by local movie studios. He was hired by Universal Studios as a designer, art director and creator of background scenes. He produced some of the background effects for King Kong in 1933. After a career in set design and illustration he focused on painting for pleasure in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He belonged to local art clubs and exhibited his works often. This stylized modernist work was likely created around 1960. It is oil on wood panel and of a horizontal format, 18” x 36”. It portrays a procession of seemingly Hawaiian natives...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

American Modern figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern figurative paintings 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 figurative paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, green, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Clarence Holbrook Carter, Patricia Gren Hayes, Jack Hooper, and Donald Stacy. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative paintings 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 $350 and tops out at $330,000, while the average work sells for $4,517.

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