Collection
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American Art

Improvisations of New York

Abraham Walkowitz

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

Executed at a time when Abraham Walkowitz was experimenting with modernist abstraction, Improvisations of New York captures the frenetic energy of the city through the dynamic handling of the ink. Angled and squiggled lines evoke the vertical thrust of skyscrapers soaring above the crowded street, suggested by a denser concentration of strokes at the bottom of the composition.

Caption

Abraham Walkowitz (American, born Russia, 1878–1965). Improvisations of New York, 1914. Ink on cream, thin, smooth wove paper mounted to paper., Sheet (drawing): 10 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (26.7 x 18.4 cm) Sheet (backing paper): 10 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (27.3 x 19.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Carl L. Selden, 1996.157.31. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Improvisations of New York

Date

1914

Medium

Ink on cream, thin, smooth wove paper mounted to paper.

Classification

Drawing

Dimensions

Sheet (drawing): 10 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (26.7 x 18.4 cm) Sheet (backing paper): 10 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (27.3 x 19.1 cm)

Signatures

Signed in ink, lower left, on mount: "A. WALKOWITZ 1914"

Credit Line

Bequest of Mrs. Carl L. Selden

Accession Number

1996.157.31

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Artists and makers

Abraham Walkowitz

204 works in the collection