Cityscape

Born in Russia, Abraham Walkowitz met Alfred Stieglitz in 1912 and exhibited in his first show at Stieglitz's gallery 291 that December. Martica Sawin writes that Walkowitz's semi-abstract cityscapes, including the present work, "were probably completed following his return from a second trip to Europe in the summer of 1914, since they are first mentioned in reviews of his 1915 show. The city drawings and watercolors are primarily composed of jagged sequences of vertical or diagonal lines with occasional serpentine swirls that lend a restless, dynamic character...In 1914, when Walkowitz was making these works, New York was not yet a conglomeration of skyscrapers. The dizzying upward thrust of buildings that Walkowitz drew had barely begun. During his 1914 trip to Italy he might have seen Futurist architectural drawings like those of Antonio Saint'Elia [1888-1916], which inspired his futuristic vision. The momentum in each of his city works seems to draw on a pervasive source of energy." ("Abraham Walkowitz: The Years at 291," The Scharf Collection: A History Revealed, New York, 2018, p. 78)