UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 3, Page 5
September 16, 1993
Major gift; Gallery given hundreds of abstract art pioneer's works

     More than 1,450 works of art by Abraham Walkowitz, pioneer of American
abstract and modern art, including oils, pastels, graphite sketches and
watercolors, now reside in the University Gallery, a recent major gift from
Virginia Zabriskie of the Zabriskie Gallery in New York and Paris.
     Highly regarded by his colleagues in the influential Alfred Stieglitz
circle prior to World War I, Walkowitz was a prolific and innovative
artist.
     Zabriskie knew the artist and has had several exhibitions of his works
in her gallery before and after his death. She purchased much of her
collection from Walkowitz' estate.
     According to William I. Homer, H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Art
History, who negociated the gift, Zabriskie is familiar with the
University's reputation as a leading institution in the field of art
history, particularly in early American modernism, and she decided to
donate a large part of the Walkowitz collection to Delaware. She has
visited the Newark campus in the past. and another link with the University
is graduate student Dee Minnite, who held an internship at the Zabriskie
Gallery while working toward her master's degree.
     Homer has written a critical essay about Walkowitz in his book, Alfred
Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde. Homer said, "It is gratifying that
Virginia Zabriskie selected the University to receive this collection of
art and archival material of an important artist who was ahead of his time.
This significant gift is an indication that the University is ideally
equipped to care for, study and preserve the collection."
     Belena Chapp, University Gallery director said, "We are thrilled by
this major gift to the gallery and the recognition that the University is
an appropriate repository for works by such a well-known and respected
American artist. The major thrust of the gallery collection is works on
paper, and this generous donation will greatly add to our holdings."
     Walkowitz was born in Siberia around 1880, immigrating to New York's
East Side in 1889 with his widowed mother and sisters. He studied art at
Cooper Union, at an East Side community house and at the National Academy
of Design in New York. While employed teaching art to children, he
continued creating his own realistic paintings and etchings of ordinary
people in New York and cityscapes along the Hudson River.
     In 1906, he traveled to Europe, an experience that profoundly affected
his future art, as he moved from realism to modernism, Homer said. First
visiting his boyhood friend, sculptor Jacob Epstein in England, he then
went to Paris to study art where he met Max Weber, and through him he was
introduced to modern art by such artists as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and
Rousseau.
     He also visited the salons of Gertrude Stein and her coterie of
intellectuals and artists while there.
     It was during this time that he met dancer Isadora Duncan and had an
opportunity to watch her perform at one of Stein's salons. According to
Homer, Duncan was the embodiment of the free spirit of the era before World
War I, and Walkowitz was captivated by her, calling her a "Muse," whose
"body was music." The artist produced over 5,000 drawings from memory of
the dancer. The University Gallery has been given 350 Isadora Duncan
sketches.
     His first show in January 1908, which the artist called the "first
modern exhibition held here of modern art," attracted visitors but no
buyers.
     Another important event in Walkowitz's life occurred around 1911, when
he was introduced to Alfred Stieglitz, the famed photographer. He was
associated with Stieglitz' gallery, 291, until it closed in 1917.
     During this period Walkowitz did some of his best-known work,
including his dynamic, abstract cityscapes of New York skyscrapers. He had
four exhibitions at 291 and also was included in the Armory Show in 1913
and the Forum Exhibition in 1916, both milestone events in modern art.
     After 1920, Walkowitz continued to paint and exhibit but was no longer
in the forefront of the modernist movement. He died in 1965.
     Gallery staff and students are currently involved in the process of
conserving and cataloging the collection-a project that will take several
years.
     Then, Chapp said, "We intend to have a major exhibition of the
Walkowitz collection to share this exciting art with the campus, the
community and the art world."
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure