Max Weber (1881-1961) From Primitives, Poems & Woodcuts NY The Spiral Press 1926 Wood Engraving on Paper 10.75"x12.75" framed, 2.5"x4.75" unframed Unsigned. Framed in a contemporary wood frame in a black finish using warm white 8-ply archival matting behind conservation clear glass. Excellent vintage condition. Stamped with Bassett collection estate stamp on back. From the estate of Edyth and Phillip Bassett. Max Weber was a Jewish-American painter and one of the first American cubist painters. Weber was born in Poland, the son of a poor Jewish tailor. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1891 and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After graduating from the Pratt Institute, where he had studied under Arthur Wesley Dow, Weber taught art at public schools in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Duluth, Minnesota. In 1905 Weber went to Paris, where he first studied at traditional ateliers such as the Académie Julian, the Académie Colarossi, and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He soon gravitated toward avant-garde circles, however, studying under Henri Matisse in 1907. However, around 1920 Weber abandoned cubist abstraction and began to paint in a more representational style that was influenced by German expressionism and fauvism. In 1924 the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris gave him a retrospective exhibition, and in 1929 he was included in Paintings by Nineteen Living Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, which also gave him a retrospective the following year. In the 1930s he painted mostly Old Testament subjects and scenes from Jewish life that harkened back to his upbringing in Bialystok. Solo shows of his work were held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1949, the Jewish Museum in 1956, and the Newark Museum of Art in 1959. Today, his work can be found globally, in nearly every major modern art institution. View The Legends of Modern Art Collection & Read the Bassett Family Story
