Contemporary wall art with a modern look
Contemporary wall art here means art that suits a modern room: clean color, simple forms, and open space. Some of it is new. Much of it is older work that still looks current. The common thread is calm color and strong shape.
Gold-toned abstract watercolors
The largest group is a series of abstract watercolors with gold-toned lines, swirls and washes. Colors are mostly gray, beige, black and blue, lifted by gold. Some read as clouds or mountains. Others are pure pattern, such as swirls and waves.
These watercolors come in five sizes, from 8 × 12 to 28 × 42 inches. They suit living rooms and bedrooms with neutral walls. A gold or black frame picks up the gold tones.
Line works and early abstraction
Myriam Thyes, a Swiss artist born in 1963, made the geometric and wavy line works in 2014. Their thin lines and bright colors suit a white wall.
Older abstract paintings also fit a modern room. Alexej von Jawlensky's Abstract Heads reduce a face to a few arcs and bars of color. Otto Freundlich fitted colors together like mosaic. Rudolf Bauer and Adolf Hölzel worked with circles and blocks of color.
Big skies and clouds
A second group is landscapes where the sky does most of the work. William Henry Holmes painted watercolors of mesas and fields under large clouds. Paul Baum and Alexander Helwig Wyant painted open land below moving skies. Jan Stanislawski painted a single cloud over the Dnieper River.
Works to start with
- Abstract Watercolor Mountains with Gold Accents
- Golden Clouds Abstract Watercolor
- Black Watercolor Waves with Gold Lines
- Myriam Thyes, Lignes géométriques et ondoyantes (2014)
- Alexej von Jawlensky, Abstract Head, Pink-Light Blue (1929)
- Otto Freundlich, Komposition (c. 1931)
- William Henry Holmes, The Enchanted Mesa (1927)
- Jan Stanislawski, Cloud over the Dnieper River (1903)
Sizes and frames
Standard prints run from 8 × 12 to 28 × 42 inches, or from 11 × 14 to 30 × 40 inches. The range depends on the shape of the work. Each product page shows the current price for every size and format. Frames come in black, white, gold, silver, walnut and oak. Panoramic prints come in 8 × 24 to 20 × 60 inches. Panoramic framed canvas comes in black, walnut or oak.
Styling contemporary art
Pair one large print with plain walls and simple furniture, and leave space around it. Two or three works from the same color family make a quiet group. For long spaces, choose a panoramic print. See Wall Art Above Couch, Above Bed Wall Art and Panoramic & Horizontal Wall Art.
Old and new work can hang together. A Freundlich mosaic beside a gold-toned watercolor works when both share one color, such as blue or ochre.
For more abstract work, see Abstract Wall Art and Geometric Wall Art.