Walkowitz was among the traditionally trained American painters who turned toward abstraction after their introduction to such artists as Cézanne, Picasso and Kandinsky in Europe in the early years of the 20th century.

The watercolors that he did on vacation in Provincetown were more relaxed than his abstract oils of Manhattan, but even they strike a “modern note” as was said of the white-line woodcuts being produced in Provincetown at the same time.