Abraham Walkowitz is perhaps best known for his watercolor studies of Isadora Duncan and the dance. However, Walkowitz laid claim to being the first to exhibit truly modernist paintings in the United States. After 1909, he became an intimate of Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery, and while there became a participant in the debate over modern art in America. Walkowitz was an outspoken proponent of the continuous experimentation in the arts, which was his definition of modernism. As an artist, Walkowitz embodied the changing role of the modernist painter in the United States, as modernism moved from an avant-garde protest against established modes to become an accepted style and tradition.
Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian born, turn-of-the-century immigrant to the United States, who grew up in New York's Lower East Side. He first studied art at the Educational Alliance, the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. In 1906, he journeyed to Europe where he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. Upon his return to the United States in 1907, he became a fully-fledged convert to modernism, and his first exhibit, at the Haas Gallery in that year, brought him a measure of notoriety as well as the attention of Stieglitz and other pioneers of non-objective art. In subsequent years, he became one of the most exhibited painters shown at the 291 Gallery, a fact which was also reflected in the pages of Stieglitz's polemical journal of modernism, camera work. As a result of this early attention, by the time of the Armory Show of 1913, to which Walkowitz contributed several paintings, his work was widely known to both fellow modernists as well as their opponents.
Walkowitz was clearly part of the new vocabulary of American art and criticism. During the 1920s and 1930s, as the first-generation modernists lost their revolutionary cast, and as American realism gained in favor, Walkowitz continued his experiments with form and line, especially in his series of Duncan studies. Although his paintings received less critical attention than they once had, Walkowitz was clearly one of the grand old folk of American modernism. During the depression, Walkowitz was politically active on behalf of unemployed artists supporting various new-deal initiatives in the arts. In the 1940s, Walkowitz gained national attention when he explored the varieties of the modernist vision in the form of an exhibit of 100 portraits of him by 100 artists. The result was widely discussed and was featured in Life magazine in 1944.
In 1945, Walkowitz traveled to Kansas, where he painted landscapes made up largely of strip mines and barns. This was his last venture in active painting — by 1946, glaucoma, which led to his eventual blindness, began to impair his vision and limit his ability to work. Walkowitz then turned to the preparation of a series of volumes of his drawings, designed to illustrate the development of modernism in the 20th century, and in so doing, established his role as a pioneer American modernist.
Early American modernist work by Abraham Walkowitz
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Colfax, CA
Early American modernist work on paper by Abraham Walkowitz. Abraham Walkowitz, (1878-1965), was born in Siberia to Jewish parents. He immigrant to the United States around 1900 wit...
Paper, Mixed Media
Abstraction
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and dated in ink lower center Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, noted collector and patron of Walkowitz. See photo for additional information.
Ink, Pen
Abstraction
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Abstraction Pen and ink on paper, 1932 Signed and dated in ink lower center Condition: Excellent Sheet/Image size: 10 3/8 x 6 1/4 inches Frame size: 16 1/2 x 12 1/2" Provena...
Ink, Pen
$13,600Sale Price|62% Off
Haystacks Oil Painting, American Impressionist, Signed, 20th Century
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in New York, NY
Haystacks by Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965) Oil on canvas 14 x 20 inches unframed (35.56 x 50.8 cm) 19 ½ x 25 ½ inches framed (49.53 x 64.77 cm) Signed on lower right Description: Ab...
Oil
Modernist Watercolor Painting, Portrait of a Man, Judaica Rabbi
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Surfside, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (March 28, 1878 - January 27, 1965) was an American painter grouped in with early American Modernists working in the Modernist style. Walkowitz was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents. He emigrated with his mother to the United States in his early childhood. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City and the Académie Julian in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens. Walkowitz and his contemporaries later gravitated around photographer Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery, originally titled the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, where the forerunners of modern art in America gathered and where many European artists were first exhibited in the United States. During the 291 years, Walkowitz worked closely with Stieglitz as well as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin (often referred to as "The Stieglitz Quartet"). Early Career and Training Portrait of Abraham Walkowitz - 1907 - Max Weber - Brooklyn Museum Walkowitz was drawn to art from childhood. In a 1958 oral interview with Abram Lerner...
Paper, Watercolor
Beautiful abstract sketch American modern art
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in London, GB
This soft and inviting work is the first in a series of abstractions. Walkowitz utilises innovative drawing techniques, the side of the pencil becomes a valuable tool in creating a b...
Paper, Photographic Film
Intriguing abstract pencil sketch American modern art famous artist
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in London, GB
“If it brings to me a harmonious sensation…” Walkowitz once said, “…I then try to find the concrete elements that are likely to record the sensation in visual forms.” This philosoph...
Pencil
Woman Bathing #3 Abraham Walkowitz Nude watercolor Circa 1920s
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Signed lower left Provenance American Heritage Gallery, Inc., New York Private collection This work can be viewed at our New York City showroom by appointment.
Watercolor, Graphite, Paper
Abraham Walkowitz Modernist Floral Still-Life Painting, circa 1915-1920
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Original oil on board - a still life of flowers by noted Modernist artist Abraham Walkowitz, (1878-1965). Signed lower right “A. Walkowitz” and inscribed lower left “to Mr. and Mrs. ...
Paint
"Abstraction" American Modernist Geometric Pen/ Ink/Wash/Paper Black White Sepia
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Wellesley, MA
Abraham Walkowitz (1878 -1965) Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian-born American artist who arrived in New York in 1889 and who went to Paris in 1906 where he met the Steins and the le...
Ink, Pen, Illustration Board
"Abstraction" American Modernist Geometric Pen/ Ink/Wash/Paper Black White Sepia
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Wellesley, MA
Abraham Walkowitz (1878 -1965) Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian-born American artist who arrived in New York in 1889 and who went to Paris in 1906 where he met the Steins and the le...
Ink, Pen
Museum Quality, Nude with Pink Towel
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Walkowitz creates a powerful composition with the tightly cropped nude figure pushed up-close to the viewer and occupying half of the picture plane. Smaller figures lead the eye back...
Oil
"Abstraction" American Modernist Geometric Pen/ Ink/Wash/Paper Black White Sepia
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Wellesley, MA
Abraham Walkowitz (1878 -1965) Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian-born American artist who arrived in New York in 1889 and who went to Paris in 1906 where he met the Steins and the le...
Ink, Pen
Isadora Duncan
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Isadora Duncan Graphite with grey wash on paper mounted to cardstock Signed and dated in pencil lower right (see photo) Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, f...
Graphite
$6,000Sale Price|20% Off
A Sailing Ship at the Port
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) A Sailing Ship at the Port, 1909 Watercolor on cardboard Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz', in pencil '1909' Dimensions: 33.5 x 56 cm Born: Tyumen, Ru...
Watercolor
Modernist Watercolor Painting, Portrait of a Man, the Rabbi
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Surfside, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (March 28, 1878 - January 27, 1965) was an American painter grouped in with early American Modernists working in the Modernist style. Walkowitz was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents. He emigrated with his mother to the United States in his early childhood. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City and the Académie Julian in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens. Walkowitz and his contemporaries later gravitated around photographer Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery, originally titled the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, where the forerunners of modern art in America gathered and where many European artists were first exhibited in the United States. During the 291 years, Walkowitz worked closely with Stieglitz as well as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin (often referred to as "The Stieglitz Quartet"). Early Career and Training Portrait of Abraham Walkowitz - 1907 - Max Weber - Brooklyn Museum Walkowitz was drawn to art from childhood. In a 1958 oral interview with Abram Lerner...
Paper, Watercolor
"Isadora Duncan Dancing #3, " Watercolor and Ink signed by Abraham Walkowitz
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Isadora Duncan Dancing #3" is an original ink and watercolor piece on cream paper by Abraham Walkowitz. The artist signed the piece in the lower center. The drawing depicts Isadora ...
Ink, Watercolor
New York
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in New York, NY
Signed and dated lower left: A. WALKOWITZ / 1908
Ink, Paper, Pencil, Watercolor
"Isadora Duncan (Blue), " Pen, Ink, & Watercolor signed by Abraham Walkowitz
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Isadora Duncan (Blue)" is an original mixed media drawing created by Abraham Walkowitz. It is made with pen & ink, graphite, and watercolor piece on cream paper. The artist signed t...
Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Graphite
$4,500
H 29 in W 35 in D 2 in
“Impressionist Landscape, c. 1915-1920” California Forest American Impressionist
By Francis Stillwell Dixon
Located in Yardley, PA
“Impressionist Landscape, c. 1915-1920” by Francis Stillwell Dixon (American, 1879-1967). One of Dixon’s finest canvases, depicting a tranquil forest scene bathed in soft, dappled l...
Canvas, Oil
Saint Sulpice, Paris
Located in North Clarendon, VT
Beautiful Paris Market scene by American Impressionist master Frederick Usher de Voll. Painted in 1907 and passed down through his family since...
Oil
$2,240Sale Price|20% Off
H 16 in W 20 in D 2 in
Lovely California Landscape Painting by listed artist John Thomas Nolf, ca 1920s
Located in Baltimore, MD
John Thomas Nolf was born in Allentown, Pa. in 1872. He had his academic studies in Chicago at the Art Institute. He exhibited often at the Institute,...
Oil
$2,320Sale Price|51% Off
H 44 in W 36 in D 3 in
Antique 1898 American Impressionist O/C Venetian Canal Scene / Gilded Frame
Located in Exton, PA
Here is a fine, early American Impressionist painting of a Venetian Canal. The painting is oil on canvass measuring 36" x 28". Overall framed dimensions are 44" x 35". The painting i...
Oil
Rainstorm Sunset
By Robert Noel Blair
Located in Buffalo, NY
You are viewing a modernist American watercolor painting by Robert Noel Blair. Robert Noel Blair (American, 1912-2003) was an American artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and te...
Paper, Watercolor
$1,200
H 16.5 in W 13.75 in D 0.75 in
"I Think I Will" Modern Oval Drawing of a Nude Woman with Wings and Boots
By Charles Pebworth
Located in Houston, TX
Modern oval figurative drawing of a nude, tattooed woman with wings and cowboy boots by Houston, TX artist Charles Pebworth. Signed by the artist next to the figure's right hip. Hung...
Ink, Pen
$6,500
H 22.25 in W 28.25 in D 2 in
“October Morning Matunuck, c. 1925” Frank Convers Mathewson Rhode Island Oil
Located in Yardley, PA
About this work: “Birches and Huckleberry, October Morning Matunuck, c. 1925” by Frank Convers Mathewson (American, 1862-1941). A stunningly beautiful autumn view of Matunuck, Rhode...
Oil, Board
$920Sale Price|20% Off
H 29 in W 18.25 in D 0.5 in
"Indian Dance", Multicolor Abstract Geometric Composition
By Ellwood Graham
Located in Soquel, CA
Bright and colorful abstract geometric watercolor with multicolor connected forms cascading in a dynamic vertical composition by Ellwood Graham (American, 1911-2007). Signed "GRAHAM" in the upper right corner, and "Ellwood Graham" on verso. Circa 1961-1966. The title "Indian Dance...
Paper, Watercolor, Pen, Pencil
$1,950
H 19.5 in W 23.5 in D 1 in
“Bermuda Coast” Henrietta Dunn Mears American Impressionist Oil on Board Signed
By Henrietta Dunn Mears
Located in Yardley, PA
A vibrant Bermuda seascape depicting the rocky shoreline with turquoise waters breaking against sunlit boulders beneath a sweeping tree. Mears uses bold, textured brushstrokes and a ...
Oil, Board
$6,000
H 11 in W 14 in
NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA
By David Fredenthal
Located in New York, NY
NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA. David Fredenthal (1914-1958) "View of New York from New Jersey,"7 x 10 inches. Watercolor on Paper, c. 1948. Signed lower right. David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road...
Paper, Watercolor
Fall in the Mountain Valley
Located in North Clarendon, VT
Beautiful American School impressionist piece, unsigned, oil on board. Likely 1920-1940. Painted by a talented artist with wonderful composition and brushwork. 10" x 14" sight, 16.2...
Oil
$6,000
H 24 in W 20 in D 2 in
Abstract Work on Paper Mid-Century Modernism Greek American Gouache Drawing
By Jean Xceron
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Work on Paper Mid-Century Modernism Greek American Gouache Drawing. A modernist artist who emigrated to America from Greece in 1904, when he was fourteen years old, Jean Xceron is described as having a reputation as an artist that has mysteriously fallen into obscurity---especially since he was reportedly quite prominent during his lifetime. However, a partial explanation of that omission is the fact that many of his papers and early records have been lost. He was a painter of biomorphic abstractions and did collages, which were influenced by Dadaism. Xceron was active in New York City when modernism was gaining influence. Of him during this period, it was written that his artistic role was "a vital link between what is commonly termed as the first-generation (the Stieglitz group, the Synchromists, etc.) and second-generation, the American Abstract Artists, the Transcendental Painting...
Paper, Gouache
Sold
H 31 in W 24 in D 2 in
Antique American Modernist Flower Still Life Heydenryk Frame Signed Painting
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist still life painting by Abraham Walkowitz (1878 - 1965). Watercolor on paper. Signed. Framed. Measuring: 24 by 31 inches overall, and 17.25 by 24.25 paintin...
Archival Paper, Watercolor
Lower East Side Crowd
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Lower East Side Crowd Ink and ink wash on paper, c. 1910 Signed in ink lower center edge (see photo) Signed with the initials lower right corner (see p...
Ink
Modernist Drawing, Portrait of a Man
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Surfside, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (March 28, 1878 - January 27, 1965) was an American painter grouped in with early American Modernists working in the Modernist style. Walkowitz was born in Tyumen,...
Paper, Ink
Improvisations of New York
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) Improvisations of New York, 1910 Watercolor and pencil on paper Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz 1910' Dimensions: 7 x 5 inches (paper) Titled on Berna...
Watercolor
New York Improvisation
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) New York Improvisation, 1910 Ink wash on paper Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz 1910' Titled and dated on Zabriskie Gallery label enclosed in clear sle...
Ink
Sold
H 6.75 in W 5.25 in
"Abstraction" American Modernist Geometric Pen/ Ink/Wash/Paper Black White Sepia
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Wellesley, MA
Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian-born American artist who arrived in New York in 1889 and who went to Paris in 1906 where he met the Steins and the leaders of the avant-garde, as well...
Ink, Pen
Landscape, France (Abstraction)
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in New York, NY
Watercolor on cream laid paper. Signed by the artist, inscribed "Paris" and dated in lower right in ink. Framed dimension overall 18 x 24 x 1.5 inches.
Watercolor
Sold
H 14 in W 16 in
"Abstract Cityscape" NYC Early 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Ashcan
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in New York, NY
"Abstract Cityscape" NYC Early 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Ashcan Abraham Walkowitz (American, 1878-1965) Abstract Cityscape Sight: 6 1/4' x 8 1/2 inches Mixed media...
Paper, Mixed Media
Sold
H 6 in W 7.5 in
Beautiful simple abstract pencil sketch American modern art
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in London, GB
This soft and inviting work is the second in a series of abstractions by Walkowitz. Containing a central sequence of wavey lines and a singular circle, it evokes a feelings of joy in...
Pencil
City Abstraction II
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in London, GB
This intimate abstract work, depicting towering buildings emerging from the smog filled city, is one of many drawings the artist did of New York City in the early 20th century. A den...
Pencil
"Untitled Abstraction"
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Wellesley, MA
Abraham Walkowitz (1878 -1965) NOTE: This drawing is signed 'A.W' lower left in ink. The provenance is Estate of the Artist. Abraham Walkowitz was a Russian-born American artist who arrived in New York in 1889 and who went to Paris in 1906 where he met the Steins and the leaders of the avant-garde, as well as famed dancer Isadora Duncan in Rodin’s studio. The meeting was electric. Isadora became the subject of many now famous watercolors, whose fluid gestures drawn in pen...
Paper, India Ink
Sold
H 11.25 in W 8.75 in
Simple pencil abstract sketch American modern art perfect for interior design
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in London, GB
In ‘Untitled’ 1932, Walkowitz crafts a memorable image. Tessellating lines are centred on the page and form geometric shapes. Faint pencil marking reveal the artists forward planning...
Pen, Pencil