[ Chronology | Solo Exhibitions | Collections | Bibliography ]
I view Abraham Walkowitz as a pivotal precursor to much that has happened in 20th Century American art. I am also among those who believe that he deserves even more recognition, not only for his exquisite, diversified and courageous art, but also for the dynamic role he played in forging the New York art scene for over half a century.
Abraham Walkowitz, the visionary, certainly made a difference during his lifetime and far beyond.
With this show I hope to do him justice.
-Yoram Gil
“I am seeking to attune my art to what I feel to be the keynote of an experience. If it brings to me a harmonious sensation, I then try to find the concrete elements that are likely to record the sensation in visual forms, in the medium of line, of color shapes, of space division. When the line and color are sensitized, they seem to me alive with the rhythm which I felt in the thing that stimulated my imagination and expression. If my art is true to its purpose, then it should convey to me in graphic terms the feeling which I received in imaginative terms. That is as far as the form of my expression is involved.
“As to its content, it should satisfy my need of creating a record of an experience.”
-Abraham Walkowitz, 1913
CHRONOLOGY
1878
Born in Tyumen, Siberia.
1889
Immigrates with his widowed mother and three brothers to the U.S.
1894
Starts attending evening art classes.
1898
Studies at the National Academy of Design.
1899
Studies etching with Walter Shirlaw.
1900
Teaches at the Educational Alliance with Henry McBride and Jo Davidson. First trip to Gloucester, MA. Exhibits at Eductional Alliance.
1901
Exhibition at Art Culture League, University Settlement.
1904
Wins medal in Men’s Life Class, National Academy.
1906-1907
Arrives in Paris. Studies at Academie Julian, visits Rodin, first sees Isadora Duncan dance at a private salon. Travels in Holland and Italy, visits Rome, Venice, lives in Anticoli Corrado.
1908
First one-man show at Haas Gallery.
1909
Max Weber shares quarters with Walkowitz in a studio on 23rd Street.
1912
Introduced to Alfred Stieglitz through Marsden Hartley. First exhibition at Stieglitz’s 291.
1913
Exhibits eleven works in the Armory Show. Second exhibition at 291.
1914
Sails to Greece and Italy, returns to the US. in December.
1915
Third exhibition at 291. Friendship with John Weischel; active in founding the People’s Art Guild.
1916
One of seventeen artists selected for the Forum show at the Anderson Galleries. Fourth exhibition at 291.
1917
Moved to 12 Union Square studio. Shows in the first exhibition of the Independent Artists.
1918
Elected director of the Society of Independent Artists. Exhibited annually with the Society from 1917 to 1938.
1920 –28
Exhibited in the galleries of Societe Anonyme with Derain, Hartley, Kandinsky, Man Ray, and Stella; exhibited monotypes and etchings at Kraushaar Galleries and New Art Circle.
1929
Moves in with his sister in Brooklyn, where he lives for the rest of his life.
1930
Memorial exhibition of drawings of Isadora Duncan, Galeries Brummer, Paris.
1931
Travels to Europe and spends summer in Salzburg with Elizabeth Duncan.
1937
Memorial exhibition of drawings of Isadora Duncan, Park Art Galleries
1939-1941
Exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, New York Public Library.
1945
Four paperbound books of his work published by Haldeman-Julius.
1946-1955
Exhibited non-objective works, paintings, drawings, and monotypes at Chinese Gallery, Egan Gallery, The Jewish Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum, ACA Gallery.
1955
Eye operation failed to halt his increasing blindness.
1959
Exhibition of early works at Zabriskie Gallery.
1962
Annual award to a “distinguished elderly artist” presented to Walkowitz at the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1964
“Improvisations of New York”, exhibition at Zabriskie Gallery.
1965
Died on January 18.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1912 - 1917, “291”, New York
1924, 1928, Kraushaar Gallery, New York
1929, 1930, The Downtown Gallery, New York
1937, Park Gallery, New York
1939, 1949, The Brooklyn Museum, New York
1941, 1942, 1947, New York Public Library
1941, The Newark Museum, New Jersey
1944, Schacht Gallery, New York
1946, Chinese Gallery, New York
1949, The Jewish Museum, New York
1950, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
1952, 1955, ACA Gallery, New York
1959, 1964, 1966, 1968,
1970, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1983 Zabriskie Gallery, New York
1992, 1993 Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills
2000, Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago
Selected Public Collections
The Art Institute, Chicago
The Long Beach Museum
Princeton University Art Museum
Colorado Springs Fine Art Center
The Brooklyn Museum
Colombus Gallery of Fine Arts, OH
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Modern Art, NY
The Jewish Museum, New York
Skirball Museum, Los Angeles
Delaware Art Museum
The New Jersey State Museum
New York Public Library
The Newark Museum
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
University of Minnesota Gallery
The University of California Art Museum, Berkeley
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Vassar College Art Gallery
Whitney Museum of American Art
Williams College Museum of Art
Zanesville Art Center, Ohio
Selected Bibliography
Baur, John I.H., Revolution and Tradition in Modern American Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959.
Biddle, George. The Yes and No of Contemporary Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957.
Blesh, Rudi. Modern Art, USA. Men-Rebellion-Conquest, 1900-1956. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1956.
Brown, Milton W. American Painting: From the Armory Show to the Depression. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1955.
The Story of the Armory Show: New York, New York Graphic Society, 1963.
Cahill, Holger and Barr, Art in America, a Complete Survey. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1935.
Camera Work. Volumes XLI, XLIV, XLVIII, XLIX-L, 1912-17.
Cheney, Martha Chandler. Modern Art in America. New York: Whittlesey House, 1939.
Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters. New York: Mitchell Kannerly, 1916.
Frank, Waldo. American Art and Alfred Stieglitz. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1934.
Goodrich, Lloyd and Caur, John. American Art of Our Century. New York: The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1961.
Haftman, Werner. Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1960. Two volumes.
Hamilton, George. Collection of the Societe Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art, 1920. New Have, CT; Yale University Art Gallery, 1950.
Hartmann, Sadikichi. A History of American Art. Boston: LC Page and Co., 1932.
Hunter, Sam. American Art of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1972.
Janis, Sidney. Abstract and Surrealist Art in America. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1944.
Kopman, Benjamin. A. Walkowitz. Jewish Artist Series. Paris: Editions Le Triangle.
Lichtenstein, Isaac. Ghetto Motifs. New York: Machmadim Art Editions, Inc. 1946.
McCourbrey, John W. American Tradition in Painting. New York: George Brazillier, 1963.
Mellquist, Jerome. The Emergence of an American Art. New York: Charles Scribner Sons, 1942.
Norman, Dorothy. Alfred Stieglitz. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1960.
Walkowitz, Abraham. Art From Life to Life. Girard, Kansas. Hadelman-Julius Press, 1947.
Barnes and Coal Mines Around Girard, Kansas. Hadelman-Julius Press, 1947.
A Demonstration of Objective, Non-Objective, and Abstract Art. Girard, Kansas: Handelman-Julius Press, 1945.
Isadora Duncan in her Dances, Kansas: Handelman-Julius Press, 1945.
New York Improvisations, Kansas: Handelman-Julius Press, 1945.
Weinberg, Louis. Jewish Artists in America, The Amerian Hebrew, 1917.