New York #1

For his dynamic lithograph New York #1, Abraham Walkowitz rhythmically applied dots and dashes between straight and jagged lines to create a monumental multi-faceted tower, an accumulation of innumerable high-rise buildings. The colossal structure explodes upward like a volcano in the narrow, canyon-like space. At its base, a roiling stream flows from pipes and other unseen subterranean waterways. Walkowitz used a pictorial shorthand of squiggly lines and dots to represent this copiously streaming effluvia—the cumulative flushing away by an unseen populace. The spontaneous energy of his drawing on the lithograph stone exploits the directness of the medium to capture the excitement and power of the modern city as the artist experienced it.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, New York attracted the attention of many artists, from those working in more traditional styles to innovators seeking new pictorial forms of expression for a subject for which there was little artistic precedent. The powerful upward trajectory of New York's skyscrapers challenged artists to experiment with perspective, as did Samuel L. Margolies in his Man's Canyon (TF 1996.41), or to virtually dissolve the cityscape into energetic lines, as John Marin in his Woolworth Building, No. 2 (TF 1995.16). While these artists included recognizable landmark buildings in their depictions of New York, Walkowitz created a more symbolic representation of the massive, densely inhabited city, which was growing upward at an astonishing pace in the 1920s with a boom in skyscraper construction. Walkowitz was influenced by developments in European avant-garde art as he devised a new style to evoke the dynamism and energy of New York City, the epitome of a modern metropolis, in numerous drawings, watercolors, and prints.

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

 Paris-New York, aller-retour. Une Modernité américaine en formation, 1875–1940. Oeuvres des collections de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et des Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (Paris-New York, Roundtrip. American Modernism in the Making, 1875–1940. Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002. [exh. cat.]

In the Streets: Modern Life and Urban Experiences in the Art of the United States, 1893-1976 (Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893–1976). Terra Foundation for American Art and Pinacoteca de São Paulo (organizers). Venue: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, August 27, 2022–January 30, 2023. [exh. cat.]

 

Adams, Clinton. American Lithographers 1900–1960, The Artists and Their Printers. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1983. Pl. 45, p. 83.

Creation & Craft: Three Centuries of American Prints. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1990. No. 116, p. 108.

  Griffith, Bronwyn and Lee A. Vedder. Paris-New York, aller-retour (New York-Paris Round Trip). (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 35, 28 (French), 93 (English), 108 (checklist); fig. 15, p. 36 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

Piccoli, Valéria, Fernanda Pitta, and Taylor Poulin. Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893-1976. (exh. cat., Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Terra Foundation for American Art). São Paulo, Brazil: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, 2022. Pl. p. 46 (color).