
Abraham Walkowitz Russian-American, 1878-1965
15.5 x 10 in
Entitled ‘Humanscape in Colour’, Walkowitz suggests with the title that he was intending to abstract the presence of a person. ‘Scape’ reveals that the artist is viewing the person like one might view nature. This is intensified by the softly shaded mounds that sit like small multi-coloured hills upon the page, which quickly takes on the appearance of a face. The three striking black dots hold the viewers’ attention and function as eyes, gazing back. The work is sensitively rendered with expressive yet gentle coloured pencil markings, in burnt orange, crimson, blue, green, grey and mauve. A truly special piece with close historic proximity to one of Walkowitzs career highlights, his feature in the ‘New York Armory show’ the same year. The show was the first large exhibition of modern art in America and offered U.S. audiences a visual introduction to emerging styles, including Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism which featured artists such as Matisse, Duchamp and Picasso.