« These two American modernists, painter Abraham Walkowitz and dancer Isadora Duncan, born in the same year (1878), both artists influenced the development of modern art in the early twentieth century by blending figurative gesture with abstraction. Duncan grew up in a free-spirited and artistic household in California and then moved to Europe. Walkowitz immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was a child and lived most of his life in New York City, where he studied at Cooper Union School and the National Academy of Design.

Walkowitz and Duncan met in 1906 in Paris at the studio of the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Deeply impressed by Duncan’s musicality and expressivity, Abraham Walkowitz’s obsession with the celebrated modern dancer Isadora Duncan sets him apart from the others. Over his lifetime it is believed that he created five thousand images of her, dancing . Because Walkowitz’s renderings of Duncan were produced quickly, they carry an element of improvisational vitality that matches the dynamic energy of her presence onstage. In her introductory essay, author Ann Cooper Albright weaves literary theory, art criticism, and dance history into a fluid narrative to explore how Walkowitz’s drawings realize Duncan’s dancing on paper. Modern Gestures reproduces over fifty watercolors of this unique oeuvre, many of which have never before been published.«  From Ann Cooper Albright  « Modern Gestures: Abraham Walkowitz Draws Isadora Duncan Dancing  » . Ed° Wesleyan ,  2010 

Walkowitz explained, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music.” 

When Duncan saw an exhibition of the artist’s work in 1916, she commented: “Walkowitz, you have written my biography in lines without words.”

Abraham Walkowitz’s The studio 8 East 23rd Street New York; the picture was taken the year of 1908.(Uncredited)

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan, 3 colored crayon, watercolor, ink and graphite on paper, 1915

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan, Leaning Over Watercolor and pen and black ink over graphite on cream wove paper , Nd

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan, Leaning Right Watercolor and pen and black ink over graphite on off-white wove paper

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan Eight Watercolors each, watercolor, ink and pencil on paper

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan, Isadora Duncan Dancing, ink and watercolor on paper

Abraham Walkowitz- Isadora Duncan, Dancing, ink and watercolor on paper, © Reynolda House Museum of American Art © Abraham Walkowitz

Abraham Walkowitz – Isadora Duncan Dancing, ink and watercolor on paper

Abraham Walkowitz, Isadora Duncan , Nd pen and ink, watercolor and pencil on paper © American Art Museum,

Abraham Walkowitz, Isadora Duncan , Nd pen and ink, watercolor and pencil on paper © American Art Museum

Abraham Walkowitz, Isadora Duncan , 1909 pencil and pen and ink on paper © American Art Museum

Abraham Walkowitz, Isadora Duncan 1916 charcoal on paper © American Art Museum (2)

Lecture  : Modern Gestures: Abraham Walkowitz Draws Isadora Duncan Dancing