Early Abstract and Modernist Painting

Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Sails, 1911–12
One of the first American artists to abandon imitative representation, Arthur Dove created oil and pastel compositions in which dynamic shapes, lines, and colors evoke the essence—rather than the outward appearance—of natural forms. Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees and Sails belong to a series of ten pastels he made in 1911 and 1912 that were later dubbed the “Ten Commandments.” They were shown together in 1912 at 291, the pioneering New York gallery run by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946). Among the first abstract artworks ever exhibited in the United States, Dove’s pastels caused a sensation among American viewers who, until the Armory Show in New York the following year, were largely unaware of the abstract art then gaining recognition in Europe. With their organic imagery borrowed from nature and their expressive dynamism, these pictures presaged the emerging American modernism of the early twentieth century.
Learn more about Sails and Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees on the Terra Foundation website.
Early Abstract and Modernist Painting

Joseph Stella (1877–1946)
Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917

Max Weber (1881–1961)
Construction, 1915

Patrick Henry Bruce (1881–1936)
Peinture, 1917–18

Marsden Hartley (1877–1943)
Painting No. 50, 1914–15

Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees, 1911–12

Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Sails, 1911–12

Charles Demuth (1883–1935)
Welcome to Our City, 1921

Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1880–1953)
Boy with Cow, 1921

Stuart Davis (1892–1964)
Super Table, 1925

Helen Torr (1886–1967)
Purple and Green Leaves, 1927

Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929

John Graham (1881–1961)
The Green Chair, 1928

John Storrs (1885–1956)
Politics, 1931

Ernest Lawson (1873–1939)
Brooklyn Bridge, 1917–20

John Marin (1870–1953)
Sailboat, Brooklyn Bridge, New York Skyline, 1934

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986)
Red Amaryllis, 1937

Albert Eugene Gallatin (1881–1952)
Room Space, 1937–38

Milton Avery (1885–1965)
Adolescence, 1947

George Tooker (1920–2011)
Highway, 1953

Ed Paschke (1939–2004)
Topcat Boy, 1970

Beauford Delaney (1901–1979)
Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948

Philip Evergood (1901–1973)
Passing Show, 1951

Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946)
Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986