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Realist Abstract Prints

REALIST STYLE

Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world. 

Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history. 

By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.

Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.

Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.

​​Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Realist
III, De la Carpeta Canto General
III, De la Carpeta Canto General

III, De la Carpeta Canto General

By David Siqueiros

Located in New York, NY

Lithograph, 1968. Signed by the artist and inscribed "e'preuve d'artiste" in pencil, lower right. This is an artist's proof, aside from the regular edition of 200. Framed. 23.75 ...

Category

1960s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

ABSTRACT SHORELINE LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof
ABSTRACT SHORELINE LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof

ABSTRACT SHORELINE LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof

Located in Union City, NJ

ABSTRACT SHORELINE LANDSCAPE is an original, hand drawn stone lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches paper 100% acid free paper, by the artist Ido Be...

Category

1970s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Australian Rolling Waves, Nautical Triptych of Vigorous Coast, Large Seascape
Australian Rolling Waves, Nautical Triptych of Vigorous Coast, Large Seascape

Australian Rolling Waves, Nautical Triptych of Vigorous Coast, Large Seascape

By Kind of Cyan

Located in Barcelona, ES

This series of cyanotype triptychs showcases the beauty of nature scenes, including stunning beaches and oceans, as well as the intricate textures of water, forests, and skies. These...

Category

2010s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Emulsion, Lithograph, Paper

César - Original Lithograph
César - Original Lithograph

César - Original Lithograph

By César Baldaccini

Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH

César - Original Lithograph 1961 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm From the art review XXe siècle Unsigned and unnumbered as issued

Category

1980s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

ABSTRACT ARCTIC LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof, c.1975
ABSTRACT ARCTIC LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof, c.1975

ABSTRACT ARCTIC LANDSCAPE Original Lithograph, Hand Drawn, Trial Proof, c.1975

Located in Union City, NJ

ABSTRACT ARCTIC LANDSCAPE is an original, hand drawn stone lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches paper 100% acid free paper, by the artist Ido Ben-P...

Category

1970s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Ansel Adams and the West
Ansel Adams and the West

Ansel Adams and the West

By Ansel Adams

Located in New York, NY

Ansel Adams and the West, 1979 Offset Lithograph Poster 23 × 36 inches Unframed This offset lithograph poster was created on the occasion of the Ansel Adams exhibition, Ansel Adams and the West, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from September 8 - October 28, 1979. The photograph featured in this poster is Old Faithful...

Category

1970s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Colorful landscape abstract Landschaftsszene, mid 20th Century lithograph.
Colorful landscape abstract Landschaftsszene, mid 20th Century lithograph.

Colorful landscape abstract Landschaftsszene, mid 20th Century lithograph.

By Pawel Kontny

Located in Belgrade, MT

Pawel Kontny was born in Poland, he began with sketching wartime scenes combining abstract with realism. He exhibited throughout Europe. This piece is a part of my private collection...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

John Muench at Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art (Signed by John Muench)
John Muench at Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art (Signed by John Muench)

John Muench at Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art (Signed by John Muench)

Located in New York, NY

John Muench at Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art (Signed by John Muench), ca. 1982 Offset lithograph poster (Hand signed by John Muench) Hand-signed by artist, Pencil signed by John...

Category

1980s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset, Pencil

Violin - By Fernandez Arman
Violin - By Fernandez Arman

Violin - By Fernandez Arman

By Fernandez Arman

Located in Winterswijk, NL

Fine serigraphy on plexiglass 1973, hand signed and numbered (edition of 600), in good condition. After Arman's so-called "allures d'objets", in which objects are inked and stamped o...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Plexiglass

La Penitenciaria

La Penitenciaria

By David Siqueiros

Located in New York, NY

A very good impression of this early woodcut. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 145/300 in pencil by Siqueiros.

Category

1930s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Table Legs, from: Nine Objects - German Realism
Table Legs, from: Nine Objects - German Realism

Table Legs, from: Nine Objects - German Realism

By Gerhard Richter

Located in London, GB

This offset lithograph is hand signed and dated in pencil by the artist "Richter, 1969" at the lower right margins. It was printed by Hoppe & Werry, Mulheim an der Ruhr. and was co-...

Category

1960s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Object on Cloth, from: Nine Objects
Object on Cloth, from: Nine Objects

Object on Cloth, from: Nine Objects

By Gerhard Richter

Located in London, GB

This offset lithograph is hand signed and dated in pencil by the artist "Richter, 1969" at the lower right margins. It was printed by Hoppe & Werry, Mulheim an der Ruhr. and was co-...

Category

1960s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

César - Original Lithograph
César - Original Lithograph

César - Original Lithograph

By César Baldaccini

Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH

César - Original Lithograph 1963 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm From the art review XXe siècle Unsigned and unnumbered as issued

Category

1980s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

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Untitled

Sam FrancisUntitled, 1986

$9,000

H 26.5 in W 35 in

Untitled

By Sam Francis

Located in London, GB

67.3 x 88.9 cms (26.5 x 35 ins) Edition of 50 Signed lower right, numbered lower left. Published by Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo. Printed by Harumi Sonoyama at Gendai hanga Kobo Co...

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Ellsworth Kelly, Untitled, from Derriere le miroir, 1966
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By Ellsworth Kelly

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album Lithographies et eaux-fortes originales, livres illustres originaux, affiches, ...

Category

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Materials

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Max Ernst Dada Surrealist Hand Signed Lithograph Poster for a Jewish Museum
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By Max Ernst

Located in Surfside, FL

Max Ernst (German, American, 1891-1976) Color lithograph Titled, "Poster For The Jewish Museum" 1966 Hand signed lower right Hand numbered HC I/XVII Dimensions: 34.75 x 28.5 sight 25 X 19.25 Max Ernst (German 1891 – 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Max Ernst showed for the first time in 1912 at the Galerie Feldman in Cologne. At the Sonderbund exhibition of that year in Cologne he saw the work of Paul Cezanne, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. In 1913 he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay and traveled to Paris. Ernst participated that same year in the Erste deutsche Herbstsalon. In 1914 he met Jean Arp in Cologne who was to become a lifelong friend. In 1921 Ernst exhibited at the Galerie au Sans Pareil in Paris. He was involved in Surrealist activities in the early 1920s with Paul Eluard and André Breton. His work was exhibited that year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913. In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongside Cubist and Expressionist motifs. Ernst fought in world war I. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them August Macke and Franz Marc. In 1918, Ernst was demobilised and returned to Cologne. He soon married art history student Luise Straus, of Jewish ancestry, whom he had met in 1914. In 1919, he visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. In the same year, inspired by de Chirico and mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals and similar sources, he produced his first collage works (notably Fiat modes, a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which later dominated his artistic pursuits. Also in 1919, Ernst, social activist Johannes Theodor Baargeld and several colleagues founded the Cologne Dada group. In 1919–20, Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such as Der Strom, die Schammade and organised Dada exhibitions. Ernst and Luise's son Ulrich Jimmy Ernst was born on 24 June 1920; he later would also become a painter. In 1921, he met Paul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernst's paintings (Celebes and Oedipus Rex) and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collection Répétitions. A year later the two collaborated on Les malheurs des immortels and then with André Breton, whom Ernst met in 1921, on the magazine Littérature. Ernst developed a fascination with birds which was prevalent in his work. His alter ego in paintings, which he called Loplop, was a bird. He suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans. In 1927, he married Marie-Berthe Aurenche and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter of The Kiss and other works of that year. He collaborated with Joan Miro on designs for Sergei Diaghilev Ballet that same year. The following year the artist collaborated with Salvador Dali and the Surrealist Luis Bunuel on the film L'Age d'or. His first American show was held at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1932. In 1936 Ernst was represented in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Ernst began to sculpt in 1934 and spent time with Alberto Giacometti. In 1938, the American heiress and artistic patron Peggy Guggenheim acquired a number of Max Ernst's works, which she displayed in her new gallery in London. Ernst and Guggenheim were married from 1942 to 1946. In September 1939, the outbreak of World War II caused Ernst, being German, to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" in Camp des Milles, near Aix-en-Provence, along with fellow surrealist, Hans Bellmer, who had recently emigrated to Paris. He had been living with his lover and fellow surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington who, not knowing whether he would return, saw no option but to sell their house to repay their debts and leave for Spain. Thanks to the intercession of Paul Éluard and other friends, including the journalist Varian Fry, he was released a few weeks later. 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Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Ernst, who compiled his book Beyond Painting and completed his sculptural masterpiece Capricorn while living in Sedona. As a result of the book and its publicity, Ernst began to achieve financial success. From the 1950s he lived mainly in France. In 1954 he was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale. In 2005, "Max Ernst: A Retrospective" opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contemporary artist tapestries have had their true believers. He produced a tapestry for Gloria Ross...

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1960s Realist Abstract Prints

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Seascape with flag, nautical theme
Seascape with flag, nautical theme

Seascape with flag, nautical theme

Located in Brooklyn, NY

Masterful watercolor painting up Seascape with fence. Naturalistic colors, delicate brush work. With the Frame, this piece measures approximately 18” x 21“ PLEASE NOTE There is no ...

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2010s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Dusk in August
Dusk in August

Louise NevelsonDusk in August, 1967

$1,500

H 17 in W 22.25 in

Dusk in August

By Louise Nevelson

Located in Indianapolis, IN

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20th Century Realist Abstract Prints

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Previously Available Items
Night Shadows

Night Shadows

By Edward Hopper

Located in New York, NY

A superb, richly-inked impression of this iconic etching. Edition of approximately 500. Signed in pencil by Hopper, lower right. Published by The New Republic, New York. Catalogue ...

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1920s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

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1984 Olympic Runner Print, Hand Signed by April Greiman AND Jayme Odgers w/ COA
1984 Olympic Runner Print, Hand Signed by April Greiman AND Jayme Odgers w/ COA

1984 Olympic Runner Print, Hand Signed by April Greiman AND Jayme Odgers w/ COA

By April Greiman

Located in New York, NY

Renowned artists and designers April Greiman and Jayme Odgers 1984 Olympic Games Print (Hand Signed by both April Greiman and Jayme Odgers), 1982 Offset Lithograph Poster - art in sports - Signed in graphite pencil on the front. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the publisher Also accompanied by Certificate of Guarantee issued by Alpha 137 Gallery 36 x 24 inches Unframed Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the publisher on Olympic letterhead. This is one of 750 hand signed lithographic posters (though fewer than 200 said to be extant), published in 1982 to celebrate the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics . April Greiman is an American designer widely recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool. Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator, the late artist Jayme Odgers, with helping to import the European New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s." The Olympic Committee commissioned 15 nationally known artists, including April Greiman and Jayme Odgers to create unique designs to promote the event. The complete list of artists is: Sam Francis, David Hockney, Richard Diebenkorn, Carlos Almaraz, Robert Rauschenberg, Jennifer Bartlett, Jonathon Borofsky, Roy LIchtenstein, April Gornik, Raymond Saunders, Martin Puryear, John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Billy Al Bengston and Garry Winogrand. This was Greiman and Odger's contribution to the portfolio. In 2017, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne Switzerland...

Category

1980s Realist Abstract Prints

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Lithograph, Offset, Pencil

Large Seascape Triptych of Summer Waters in Cannes, Nautical Cyanotype, Blue
Large Seascape Triptych of Summer Waters in Cannes, Nautical Cyanotype, Blue

Large Seascape Triptych of Summer Waters in Cannes, Nautical Cyanotype, Blue

By Kind of Cyan

Located in Barcelona, ES

This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. This beautiful triptych is called "Summer Waters in Cannes" and it shows the water reflection of one of the most iconic ci...

Category

2010s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Photographic Film, Emulsion, Watercolor, Photographic Paper, C Print, Co...

PONDSCAPE Signed Hand Drawn Lithograph, Southhampton Pond, Long Island Landscape
PONDSCAPE Signed Hand Drawn Lithograph, Southhampton Pond, Long Island Landscape

PONDSCAPE Signed Hand Drawn Lithograph, Southhampton Pond, Long Island Landscape

By Jane Freilicher

Located in Union City, NJ

PONDSCAPE is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the American woman painter Jane Freilicher. PONDSCAPE is a freely expressed depiction of a quiet pond landscape comp...

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1970s Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

17th to 18th Century "Orbit of a Comet" Engraving
17th to 18th Century "Orbit of a Comet" Engraving

17th to 18th Century "Orbit of a Comet" Engraving

Located in San Francisco, CA

17th to 18th Century Orbit of a Comet Engraving This remarkable engraving shows the orbit of a comet passing Orion on December 20th, 1652, traveling on through Taurus, December 21st...

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Early 18th Century Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

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The Magpie in the Orchard: Contemporary Print

The Magpie in the Orchard: Contemporary Print

By Peter Fox

Located in Brecon, Powys

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21st Century and Contemporary Realist Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper

Realist abstract prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist abstract prints 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 prints created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Gerhard Richter, César Baldaccini, Ansel Adams, and Elizabeth Catlett. Frequently made by artists working with Lithograph, and Offset Print and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Realist abstract prints, so small editions measuring 3.25 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract prints 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 $295 and tops out at $20,000, while the average work sells for $2,400.