SEPTEMBER 05 - NOVEMBER 02, 2002
American Modernist
Artist Painting (the Artist in his Studio)
WBE-023-OC
Hackett-Freedman proudly presents a selection of work by a pioneer of American Modernism, Max Weber, September 5–November 2, 2002.
In the catalogue essay, art historian Celeste Connor states that "Max Weber, the artist best known for bringing European Modernism to America, is equally significant for his invention of a unique mode of representation synthesized from European and American avant-garde ideas," and that "Weber re-envisioned Modernist form and subject matter through an idiosyncratic and peculiarly American lens."
This exhibition includes paintings and works on paper from all phases of Weber’s long and varied career: Fauvist works from his early years in Paris, cubist paintings, expressionistic religious works, and figurative compositions and explorations of Jewish themes from his later years.
Although Weber was the first American Modernist to be given a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1930), his oeuvre was overshadowed in the intervening years by the popularity of abstract expressionism. A recent resurgence of interest in Weber has sparked a reappraisal of his art and a reexamination of his significance in American art history.
Born in Russia, Weber immigrated to New York at the age of ten. His formative years were spent in Paris, where he met and studied under such notables as Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, and Henri Rousseau.
During this time he was exposed to groundbreaking ideas and theories on art that transformed the way he represented visual reality. While in Paris, he adopted Matisse’s bright palette, which he employed to dramatic effect in My Studio in Paris (1907).
In addition to Matisse, Weber was also profoundly influenced by Cézanne and his theories regarding the visual relationship of forms, flattened space, and depicting traditional subject matter in a modern way.
In Abstract Still Life (1914), Weber employs cubist fracturing and spatial theories adopted from Cézanne to create a dizzying composition of objects that appear to float and move in space, recessing and advancing as the eye travels around the picture plane.
In 1910, after four years of study in Paris, Weber brought European Modernism to America and made it his own. By injecting wild, Fauvist color into cubism, he created a distinct new form.
Weber's writings, particularly Essays on Art (1916), inspired generations of American artists and were instrumental in spreading Modern aesthetic theory. Weber quickly became a highly visible and active member of the New York art scene, and remained so for the rest of his life.