Skip Navigation

Improvisations of New York

Abraham Walkowitz

American Art

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.
MEDIUM Ink on cream, thin, smooth wove paper mounted to paper.
DATES 1914
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)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed in ink, lower left, on mount: "A. WALKOWITZ 1914"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 1996.157.31
CREDIT LINE Bequest of Mrs. Carl L. Selden
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
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). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Carl L. Selden, 1996.157.31 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1996.157.31_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 1996.157.31_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Orphaned work
After diligent research, the Museum is unable to locate contact information for the artist or artist's estate, or there are no known living heirs. Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.