Skip to main content

Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

ABSTRACT STYLE

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

2
to
40
211
66
67
28
132
128
19
114
49
57
27
36
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
284
127
32
13
7
7
4
4
3
2
2
118
166
4
10
4
4
10
14
36
14
19
7
6
6
5
177
173
116
49
46
Style: Abstract
Color:  Brown
composition 1 - gouache on paper, 95x70 cm., framed
Located in Nice, FR
Very impressive gouache on paper by the french (nice) painter Gerard Seree in the scale of pink and green. Framed
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

Tablescape IV (Abstract Framed Gouache Drawing on Paper in Beige, Blue, Red)
Located in Hudson, NY
Abstract gouache on paper drawing in a palette of beige and soft blue with accents of sienna red and dusty yellow Created by Hudson ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Sunset Landscape', Hamburg, Rivne, Volhynia, Rivne Museum
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'G. Kosmiadi' for Georg Kosmiadi (Ukranian-German, 1886-1967) and dated, '66'; additionally signed verso, 'Georg Kosmiadi', inscribed with serial number and dated, '20/9/66'. Georg Kosmiadi was a resident of Rivne before moving to Hamburg in 1940 where he worked as an art teacher. Kosmiadi exhibited at the Rivne Regional Museum and a regional art...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Untitled
Located in New York, NY
This refined ink on paper work was realized by the renowned American artist Alexander Markovich circa 1985, which the scholar Svetlana Rakic called "The most dispersed and energy-cha...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper

Many-Worlds Interpretation (C.D.H.S.c)
Located in New York, NY
Looking at a painting by Colin Hunt is like watching someone pass through a hole in our consciousness. As the landscape refracts through the sitter’s absence and fills that emptiness...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Many-Worlds Interpretation (H.C.H.L.V.b)
Located in New York, NY
Looking at a painting by Colin Hunt is like watching someone pass through a hole in our consciousness. As the landscape refracts through the sitter’s absence and fills that emptiness...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Linda Turner, Art Meditation 18, Collage, Pattern and Decoration, Automatism
Located in Darien, CT
Linda Turner, raised both in NYC and Northern Virginia, resides in Brooklyn, NY. She achieved a BFA in Surface Design/Textile Design from the Fashion Inst...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Archival Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil

Landscape Striations, Painting, Watercolor on Watercolor Paper
Located in Yardley, PA
This abstract landscape comes with a white mat ready for framing in a standard frame. :: Painting :: Abstract :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Original Watercolor Abstract vs. Figurative Painting by Cuban artist Alain Pino
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Abstract vs. Figurative Neutral Original Watercolor by Cuban Artist Alain Pino Pino’s new works continue his exploration on the intersection between identity and industrial design. ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Untitled 28.2.12 (Abstract Drawing)
Located in London, GB
Untitled 28.2.12 (Abstract Drawing) Pen and Inkjet on Paper - Unframed. Caldicott's drawings have a minimal esthetic, an architectural character, created with only one or two lines....
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen, Inkjet

Untitled 13.6.12 (Abstract Drawing)
Located in London, GB
Untitled 13.6.12 (Abstract Drawing) Pen and Inkjet on Paper - Unframed. Caldicott's drawings have a minimal esthetic, an architectural character, created with only one or two lines....
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen, Inkjet

Preliminary drawing for the painting entitled Trapezoids
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ink, graphite and colored pencil on graph paper The final composition measured 28 x 28 inches Annotated #615 in the lower right corner of the sheet Provenance: Francine Seders Galler...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Color Pencil

"Labyrinth" Acrylics and Ink on Paper in Hues of Raw Umber, Black and White
Located in New York, NY
"Labyrinth" 2021, 23.5" x 21.5" vertical drawing on paper by Argentine-born artist Karina Gentinetta (featured in Elle Decor, the New York Times, Traditional Home, Veranda Magazine, ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Glaze, Ink, Acrylic

Smudges Yankel Contemporary painting arbstract art collage brown text word
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint and collage on panel Unique work Hand-signed lower right by the artist
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

#4- intricate copper color 3D abstract circle drawing with pulled paper fiber
Located in New York, NY
Finesse and delicateness are what best characterize Antonin Anzil’s artistic practice. Using a sharp tool to carefully pull the fiber of the paper from the front, the artist gives bi...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

Veiled Series XX , Abstract Expressionist Organic Drawing Watercolor Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Dorothy Gillespie (June 29, 1920 – September 30, 2012) was an American artist and sculptor who became known for her large and colorful abstract metal sculptures. Gillespie became best known for the aluminum sculptures she started to produce at the end of the 1970s. She would paint sheets of the metal, cut them into strips and connect the strips together to resemble cascades or starbursts of bright colored ribbon. The New York Times once summarized her work as “topsy-turvy, merrymaking fantasy,” and in another review declared, “The artist’s exuberant sculptures of colorful aluminum strips have earned her an international reputation.Her works are featured at her alma mater (Radford University) in Virginia, where she later returned to teach, as well as in New York (where she was artist in residence for the feminist Women's Interart Center), Wilmington, North Carolina and Florida. She enrolled both at Radford University near her hometown, and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. The director of the Maryland Institute, Hans Schuler, helped foster her career in fine art. On June 5, 1943, aged 23, Gillespie moved to New York City. There she took a job at the B. Altman department store as assistant art director. She also joined the Art Students League where she was exposed to new ideas about techniques, materials, and marketing. She also created works at Atelier 17 printmaking studio, where Stanley William Hayter encouraged to experiment with her own ideas. She and her husband, Bernard Israel, opened a restaurant and night club in Greenwich Village to support their family. She returned to making art in 1957, and worked at art full-time after they sold the nightclub in the 1970. In 1977 Gillespie gave her first lecture series at the New School for Social Research, and she would give others there until 1982. She taught at her alma mater as a Visiting Artist (1981-1983) and gave Radford University some of her work to begin its permanent art collection. Gillespie then served as Woodrow Wilson visiting Fellow (1985-1994), visiting many small private colleges to give public lectures and teach young artists. She returned to Radnor University to teach as Distinguished Professor of Art (1997–99).[8] She also hosted a radio program, the Dorothy Gillespie Show on Radio Station WHBI in New York from 1967-1973. Gillespie began moving away from realism and into the abstraction that marked her career. Gillespie returned to New York City in 1963 to continue her career. She maintained a studio through the 70s and advocate worked towards feminist goals in the art industry, picketing the Whitney Museum, helping to organize the Women's Interart Center, curating exhibitions of women's art, and writing articles raising awareness of her cause. Gillespie numbered among her acquaintances such art-world luminaries as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson and Georgia O’Keeffe. “She had amazing stories that unfortunately are gone,” her son said. During the 1960s, she built multimedia art installations that made political statements, such as 1965’s “Made in the USA,” that used blinking colored lights, mirrors, shadow boxes, rotating figures and tape recordings to convey a chaotic look at American commercial fads. The floor was strewn with real dollar bills, which visitors assumed were fake. By the 1980s, Gillespie's work had come to be known internationally. She completed many commissions for sculptures in public places, including Lincoln Center, Rockefeller Center and Walt Disney World Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida. Her work is in many collections across the United States, including the Delaware Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her sculptures can also be found in the Frankfurt Museum in Germany and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel. Group Shows Conceived and Curated by Dorothy Gillespie Women's Interart Center, New York, NY 1974 included: Betty Parsons, Elsie Asher, Alice Baber, Minna Citron, Nancy Spero, Seena Donneson, Alice Neel, Natalie Edgar, Dorothy Gillespie, and Anita Steckel...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Permanent Marker

American Modernist Peter Macchiarini "Brooch Sketch"
Located in Arp, TX
Peter Macchiarini "Brooch Drawing" c. 1950s Pencil on paper Site 3.5"x3.5" silver carved wood frame 14.75"x16.75" Studio stamp lower left Was born to Italian parents on the Wohler Ranch, a hop yard and vineyard spread on the Russian river near Santa Rosa, Sonoma County on August 27, 1909. I attended grammar school and high schools in Sonoma County until the age of fourteen at which time my parents returned to Italy. There I took preliminary courses in the Italian language and having decided on an artistic career, took the entry examinations for the Art Academy Pietrasanta, Province of Lucca, and was accepted. At the Academy I received basic training in marble carving, clay modeling, architectural drawing and general sciences. In 1928 I returned to the United States and was gainfully employed as a stonecarver with several San Francisco Bay Area firms. I continued my art studies in San Francisco at the California School of Fine Arts, taking night courses. In 1936, I worked on projects under Beniamino Bufano and Ralph Stackpole...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Pencil

#5- intricate gold color 3D abstract geometric drawing with pulled paper fiber
Located in New York, NY
Finesse and delicateness are what best characterize Antonin Anzil’s artistic practice. Using a sharp tool to carefully pull the fiber of the paper from the front, the artist gives bi...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

1980s "Brown DNA" Abstract Marker Drawing
Located in Arp, TX
John Peters 1927-2019 "Brown DNA" 1980s Marker on paper 8"x10" brown wood frame float mount over linen mat 11"x12.75 Unsigned, came from a portfolio of the artist's work
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

Floating Ash #1
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery. New Landscapes is a series of landscapes painted over the past year. It includes the artist’s observations of oceans, wooded hills, and ponds i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Acrylic

Untitled
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Initialed and dated lower right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. Provenance: Estate of the Artist The Orange Chicken...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Untitled
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Initialed lower right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. Condition: excellent Image size: 11 8 7/8 inches Frame size: 18 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist The Orange Chicken...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Happy hotel, Amboise
Located in Genève, GE
Work on paper
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Large Abstract Expressionist Watercolor Color Field Painting Paul Jenkins Style
Located in Surfside, FL
Dominic Mingolla (1922 – 1999) Mingolla created paintings in many different materials and genres. Best known for his large abstract expressionist watercolor paintings similar in style to Paul Jenkins and for his Enamel work. His work bears affinities both to Lyrical Abstraction and to Tachisme artists such as Nicolas de Staël, Serge Poliakoff, Andre Lanskoy, Hans Hartung, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Gustave Singier, Alfred Manessier, Roger Bissiere, "Lyrical Abstraction arose in the 1960s and 70s, following the challenge of Minimalism and Conceptual art. Many artists began moving away from geometric, hard-edge, and minimal styles, toward more lyrical, sensuous, romantic abstractions worked in a loose gestural style. These "lyrical abstractionists" sought to expand the boundaries of abstract painting, and to revive and reinvigorate a painterly 'tradition' in American art. At the same time, these artists sought to reinstate the primacy of line and color as formal elements in works composed according to aesthetic principles – rather than as the visual representation of sociopolitical realities or philosophical theories." "Characterized by intuitive and loose paint handling, spontaneous expression, illusionist space, acrylic staining, process, occasional imagery, and other painterly techniques, the abstract works included in this exhibition sing with rich fluid color and quiet energy. Artists associated with Lyrical Abstraction include: Natvar Bhavsar, Lamar Briggs, Friedel Dzubas, Sam Francis, Ronnie Landfield, Pat Lipsky...
Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Roberto Burle Marx, Stamp. Drawing From The Series Terms And Conditions 2.0.
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Roberto Burle Marx, 2021 (Framed) by Rodrigo Spinel From The Series Terms And Conditions 2.0. Chinese ink on Fabriano paper 250 g. Frame size: 46 cm H x 38 cm W x 6 cm D Image size:...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink

Bavaria, Stamp drawing. From The Series Terms and Conditions
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Bavaria, 2021 (Framed) by Rodrigo Spinel From The Series Terms and Conditions 2.0 Chinese ink on Fabriano paper 250 g. Frame size: 44 cm H x 37 cm W x ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink

Clausen. Stamp. Drawing From The Series Terms and Conditions
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Clausen, 2022 (Framed) by Rodrigo Spinel From The Series Terms and Conditions 2.0 Chinese ink on Fabriano paper 250 g. Frame size: 44 cm H x 37 cm W x 4 cm D Image size: 32 cm H x ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink

Abstract painting listed artist Royal Society Arts Blue Orange Pink Music Africa
Located in Norfolk, GB
Anthony Benjamin, 'Seurah', watercolour and acrylic on paper, image size 31cm x 28cm, framed size, 62cm x 58cm, signed and dated 2001 Provenance: From the Artist Estate A Gallery Certificate accompanies the painting Anthony Benjamin was a 20th Century abstract precisionist artist. Born in 1931 he was active throughout the second half of the century. Experimental, talented and obsessive, Benjamin moved fluidly between mediums and refused to be tied to any practise. He was recognised by the Academy, his pier group and leading Galleries who displayed his work. He was also daring. At at time when the art-world was fixated with the St Ives Group of artists, Benjamin, who was part of this group, chose to leave. Although adept at making St Ives abstractionism it did not sit naturally with him. He did not see value in its art. He sought to replicate abstraction in nature and was inspired by others who had also mastered this craft such as the Composer Brian Eno, who he later collaborated with and Gnawa musicians of Morocco. Right the way through his artistic production we can see his engineering draughtsmanship, his formally perfect artworks always infused with an air of technical experimentation and a poetic response to the natural world.The artist was inspired by pattern and obsessed with process. Benjamin made monumental paintings. In the studio he thought a lot and considered every move. It was during these periods of contemplation that he would make warm up paintings that were beautifully loose and almost the antithesis in process of his large works. However it was in these smaller watercolour...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Paper, Acrylic

Fragments of August
Located in Surfside, FL
Lawrence Kupferman was born in the Boston area (b.1909 - d.1982) , and he became one of the most important abstract artists to emerge from there in the early 1940s. Kupferman worked as an artist for the WPA in the 1930s, developing a strictly realist style that depicted Victorian houses and other detailed architectural images. Around 1943 Kupferman began to integrate more expressionistic forms into his works. He soon moved completely away from recognizable subject matter and definitively became an abstract painter. In 1946 he studied with the influential German-born artist Karl Zerbe at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Kupferman later attended the Massachusetts College of Art, where he would become a professor and retire as its Head of Painting in 1969. His focus, as it would remain until the late 1960s, was on abstract, marinelike amoeboid forms—intimated, rather than strictly described. Kupferman was an active participant in a huge thrust in Boston art in the 1940s to create a vibrant art scene that rivaled New York. He has been appropriately credited with bringing Abstract Expressionism to Boston, serving as a critical artistic conduit to New York painters such as Mark Rothko and Hans Hofmann, contacts he made in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he spent his summers beginning in 1946. Kupferman’s unique brand of abstraction integrated with the already burgeoning figurative expressionism in Boston, and he showed at the Boris Mirksi Gallery, arguably the most important Boston gallery...
Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil, Color Pencil

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - L'Amérique
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 42 x 30 x 2 cm
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

In Between 05 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
In Between 05 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflective ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Rotor-Archi-Equilibrio
Located in Milano, IT
"Rotor-Archi-Equilibrio" 1990 Drawing on paper CM 59x70 With hand and with fire, on metal. With hand and thought on paper. Drawing is inseparable from sculpture and cannot be les...
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media

C Zone 01 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
C Zone 01 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natu...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - La Natue de Mars
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 52 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - La Confession
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 54 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Cathedral of Saint Gatianys of Tours
Located in Belgravia, London, London
Mixed media Paper size: 21.75 x 14.5 inches Framed size: 36.25 x 29 inches Signed lower left
Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - Saint Suaire
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 40 x 30 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Blue, Pink & Red Abstract in Watercolor on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Blue, Pink & Red Abstract in Watercolor on Paper A bold abstract expressionist watercolor by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). Bright sections of yellow, pink, orange, and red are divided by dark blue lines. Although some shapes are repeated, there is not a definitive pattern, which creates a dynamic composition. Signed "Les Anderson" on verso. From the estate of Les Anderson in Monterey, California. Unframed. Paper size: 14"H x 20"W. Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson(American, 1928-2009) owned and operated the Bear Flag Gallery in San Juan Bautista...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - Le Persécuté
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 54 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - Icone
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 54 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Untitled
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Signed with the artist's initials in pencil Provenance: Estate of the artist Francis M. Nauman (label) Private collection, NY A very early abstract/cubist work by Kelly. Created while the artist was studying with Arthur Carles in Philadelphia. Leon Kelly (October 21, 1901 – June 28, 1982) was an American artist born in Philadelphia, PA. He is most well known for his contributions to American Surrealism, but his work also encompassed styles such as Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction. Reclusive by nature, a character trait that became more exaggerated in the 1940s and later, Kelly's work reflects his determination not to be limited by the trends of his time. His large output of paintings is complemented by a prolific number of drawings that span his career of 50 years. Some of the collections where his work is represented are: The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Boston Public Library. Biography Kelly was born in 1901 at home at 1533 Newkirk Street, Philadelphia, PA. He was the only child of Elizabeth (née Stevenson) and Pantaleon L. Kelly. The family resided in Philadelphia where Pantaleon and two of his cousins owned Kelly Brothers, a successful tailoring business. The prosperity of the firm enabled his father to purchase a 144-acre farm in Bucks County PA in 1902, which he named "Rural Retreat" It was here that Pantaleon took Leon to spend every weekend away from the pressures of business and from the disappointments in his failing marriage. Idyllic and peaceful memories of the farm stayed with Leon and embued his work with a love of nature that emerged later in the Lunar Series, in Return and Departure, and in the insect imagery of his Surrealist work. "If anything," he once said,"I am a Pantheist and see a spirit in everything, the grass, the rocks, everything." At thirteen, Leon left school and began private painting lessons with Albert Jean Adolphe, a teacher at the School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) in Philadelphia. He learned technique by copying the works of the old masters and visiting the Philadelphia Zoo, where he would draw animals. Drawings done in 1916 and 1917 of elephants, snakes and antelope, as well as copies of old master paintings by Holbein and Michelangelo, heralded an impressive emerging talent. In 1917, he studied sculpture with Alexander Portnoff but his studies came to an abrupt halt with the start of World War I. Being too young to enlist, he joined the Quartermaster Corp at the Army Depot in Philadelphia, where he served for more than a year loading ships with supplies and, along with other artists, working on drawings for camouflage. By 1920, the family's fortunes drastically changed. His father's business had failed due to the introduction of ready made clothing and his marriage, unhappy from the beginning, dissolved. Broken by circumstance Pantaleon left Philadelphia to begin a wandering existence looking for work leaving Leon to support his mother and grandmother. He found a job in 1920 at the Freihofer Baking Company where he worked nights for the next four years. Under these circumstances Leon continued to develop his skills in drawing and painting and learned of the revolutionary developments in art that were taking place in Paris. During the day he was granted permission to study anatomy at the Philadelphia School of Osteopathy where he dissected a cadaver and perfected his knowledge of the human figure. He also met and studied etching with Earl Horter, a well known illustrator, who had amassed a significant collection of modern art which included work by Brancusi, Matisse, and Cubist works by Picasso and Braque. Among the artists around Horter was Arthur Carles, a charismatic and controversial painter who taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Leon enrolled in the Academy in 1922, becoming what Carles described as, "his best student". In the next three years Leon work ranged from academic studies of plaster casts, to pointillism, to landscapes of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, as well as a series of pastels showing influences from Matisse to Picasso. Clearly influenced by Earl Horter's collection and Arthur Carles he mastered analytical cubism in works such as The Three Pears, 1923 and 1925 experimented with Purism in Moon Behind the Italian House. In 1925 Kelly was awarded a Cresson Scholarship and on June 14 he left for Europe. Paris The first trip to Europe lasted for approximately three and a half months and introduced Kelly to a culture and place where he felt he belonged. Though he returned to the Academy in the Fall, he left for Europe again a few months later to begin a four-year stay in Paris. He moved into an apartment at 19 rue Daguerre in Paris and began an existence intellectually rich but in creature comforts, very poor. "I kept a cinderblock over the drain in the kitchen sink to keep the rats out of the apartment" he once explained. He frequented the cafes making acquaintances with Henry Miller, James Joyce and the critic Félix Fénéon as well as others. His days were split between copying old master paintings in the Louvre and pursuing modernist ideas that were swirling through the work of all the artists around him. The Lake, 1926 and Interior of the Studio, 1927, now in the Newark Museum. Patrons during this time were the police official Leon Zamaran, a collector of Courbets, Lautrecs and others, who began collecting Kelly's work. Another was Alfred Barnes of the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. In 1929 Kelly married a young French woman, Henriette D'Erfurth. She appears frequently in paintings and drawings done between 1928 and the early 1930s. Philadelphia The stock market crash of 1929 made it impossible to continue living in Paris and Kelly and Henriette returned to Philadelphia in 1930. He rented a studio on Thompson Street and began working and participating in shows in the city's galleries. Work from 1930 to 1940 showed continuing influences and experimentation with the themes and techniques acquired in Paris as well as a brief foray into Social Realism. The Little Gallery of Contemporary Art purchased the Absinthe Drinker...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Abstract painting listed artist Royal Society Arts Pink Blue Red Orange Africa
Located in Norfolk, GB
Anthony Benjamin, 'El Badi', watercolour and acrylic on paper, image size 31cm x 29cm, framed size, 44cm x 41cm, signed and dated 2000 Provenance: From the Artist Estate A Gallery Certificate accompanies the painting Anthony Benjamin was a 20th Century abstract precisionist artist. Born in London in 1931 he was active throughout the second half of the 20th century. Experimental, hugely talented and obsessive, Benjamin moved fluidly between mediums and refused to be tied to any practise. He trained with the best, amongst others with Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris and was recognised by the Royal Society of the Arts, his pier group and leading Galleries and Institutions who displayed and collected his work. Anthony Benjamin was also daring. At at time when the art-world was fixated with the St Ives Group of artists, Benjamin, who was part of this group, chose to leave. Although adept at making St Ives abstractionism it did not sit naturally with him. He did not see value in its art. Instead he sought to replicate abstraction in nature and was inspired by others who had also mastered this craft such as the Composer Brian Eno, with whom he later collaborated with and the Gnawa musicians of Morocco. A trained engineering draughtsman, Benjamin's formally perfect artworks are always infused with an air of technical experimentation and a poetic response to the natural world. The artist was inspired by pattern and obsessed with process. He was a sculptor, printmaker, painter, draughtsman and used collage, canvas, brass, perspex, steel, paper and anything that inspired him. Throughout his career, Benjamin made monumental paintings. In the studio he thought, pondered and considered every move. It was during these periods of contemplation that he would make warm up paintings that were beautifully loose, almost the antithesis in process to his large works. However it was in these smaller watercolour paintings...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - La Passe
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 54 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - La Rose
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 40 x 30 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Armenian Contemporary Art by Mariam Khachatryan - Les Orphelins
Located in Paris, IDF
Watercolor on paper, Framed 54 x 44 x 2 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Christmas colors n°2 by Gilbert Pauli - Watercolor 53x74 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Total size with the frame: 77x56cm Born in 1944 in the canton of Fribourg, Gilbert Pauli currently lives in Geneva, where he devotes himself to painting and sculpture, a passion he ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

In Between 12 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
In Between 12 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflective ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

In Between 06 (Abstract Painting)
Located in London, GB
In Between 06 (Abstract Painting) Acrylic on Hahnemühle paper - Unframed Emma Godebska is a French abstract artist living in Nimes, France. Her use of natural pigments, reflective ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

1980s "Red Vessel" Abstract Mixed Media
Located in Arp, TX
Artist unknown "Red Vessel" c. 1980s Acrylic and charcoal on paper 22"x30 unframed Unsigned Very Good Condition - Minor wear consistent with age history.
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Acrylic

Std097-Contemporary, Abstract, Minimalism, Modern, Pop art, Geometric, Acrylic
Located in London, London
Stdk097, 1997 His work has been shown in Reina Sofía Museum of Madrid, Royal Academy of London, Arco Madrid, Pinta Art Fair, London, London Art Fair, The Other Art Fair, London, an...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Pencil

Archaic Spirit - Watercolor Drawing by Martin Bradley - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Archaic Spirit is an artwork realized by the English artist Martin Bradley in 1970 ca.. Watercolour on cardboard, hand-signed on the lower left corner "Martin Bradley " and titled o...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Quadrants Quadrille
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Quadrants Quadrille' from Irene Zweig, where intellect, science, mathematics and order are at play in shades of calm blue, silver, grey and white, in the abstract mixed media painti...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Wood, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor

Quadrants Ephemeral
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Quadrants Ephemeral' from Irene Zweig, where intellect, science, mathematics and order are at play in shades of green, blue, grey and white, in the abstract mixed media painting tha...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Wood, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor

Untitled, Kirsten Hawthorne
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Kirsten Hawthorne received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she lives and works in New York City. Hawthorne is a master oil pastellist creating works on p...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Graphite

Untitled Orange Silver and Gold: Abstract Expressionist Painting
Located in Hudson, NY
Gestural abstract painting on paper with gold metallic powders and orange and silver colored enamel paint "Untitled Orange Silver and Gold", made in 2022 by Hudson Valley painter, Br...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Enamel

Orange to Blue : contemporary abstract artwork
Located in New York, NY
Abstract work of art by a contemporary artist David Michael Slonim. In the tradition of artists like Miro, Albers, Kelly, and Calder, David Michael Slonim reaches simultaneously for the playful and spiritual through structured experiments in color. David earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design in 1988. For the next decade, he created images for advertising, editorial, and corporate clients including Wrigley’s Gum...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

Blue & Yellow Abstract Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Blue & yellow abstract watercolor by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). From the estate of Les Anderson in Monterey, California. Signed on verso and unframed. Image...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Untitled - Drawing by Lucio Fontana - 1946
Located in Roma, IT
Untitled is an original artwork realized by Lucio Fontana in 1946. Mixed colored pencil, pastel and watercolor drawing. Hand signed and dated on the lower right margin. Certificat...
Category

1940s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel, Pencil

Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors 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 drawings and watercolors 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, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Martin Reyna , Mila Akopova, Jaanika Peerna, and Sumit Mehndiratta. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and 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 Abstract abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 0.5 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract drawings and watercolors 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 $1 and tops out at $400,000, while the average work sells for $1,502.

Recently Viewed

View All