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| Persistent
Evolution
As Max Weber constantly reevaluated his art,
he produced more and more inventive works. |
By
Lily Downing Burke |
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Max Weber, Still Life From Paris, 1907, oil
on canvas.
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Max Weber, Imaginative Still Life, 1918,
oil on canvas.
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Max Weber, Strewn Apples, 1923, oil on canvas.
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Max Weber, Still Life With Flower, circa
1940, oil on canvas.
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Max Weber, Abstract Still Life, 1914, pastel
on paper.
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| Max
Weber on Display |
May
8 - 26
Max Weber: Painting the Object –
Four Decades of Still-Life Painting
Gerald Peters Gallery, NYC
212.628.9760; www.gpgallery.com
May 12 - 17
The International Fine Art Fair
Seventh Regiment Armory, NYC
212.642.8572; www.haugton.com |
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Max
Weber (1881 - 1961) visited and revisited the genre of still-life
throughout his long and illustrious career.
Born in Bialystok, Russia, Weber immigrated to the U.S.
in 1891 at the age of ten. From 1898 to 1900, he studied
with Arthur Wesley Dow at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn,
and a short time later at the Academie Julian in Paris with
Jean-Paul Laurens. It was this trip to Paris that profoundly
influenced his career. Not only did he see the work of Cezanne,
but his involvement with Matisse at the Couvent des Oiseaux
was critical. Very few Americans had ever studied with Matisse,
and his influence on Weber was strong and long-lasting.
In addition, Weber befriended Henri Rousseau during this
trip, and the resulting relationship was lifelong and mutually
influential.
Weber’s Parisian still-lifes, of which Still Life
From Paris is a prime example, were painted during
the young artist’s first sojourn abroad, and are the
foundation for all of his still-life paintings. After Weber
returned from Paris in 1909, he had his first one-man show
in New York. In 1911, he showed with Alfred Stieglitz at
“291,” which was considered the most avant-garde
gallery in the United States. Stieglitz challenged his gallery
patrons with novel shows by Matisse, Picasso and Rousseau
– artists whose work had never before been seen in
America. In 1913, the Newark Museum mounted a one-man exhibition
of Weber’s art, which was the first show in any major
museum to feature the work of a contemporary American modernist.
Throughout the teens, Weber made numerous still-lifes, migrating
from the brightly painted canvases of his days in Paris
to a more tonally subdued cubist format. This format became
the cornerstone of his career and the subject matter by
which all the rest of his paintings would be judged. In
this period, Weber remade cubism into a unique American
genre, as in the painting Imaginative Still Life.
It was at this time that Weber’s career solidified,
and he has since been considered one of the American avant-garde,
a status that resulted in the sales of works to public and
private institutions and huge gains in critical acclaim.
The works of the 1920s are marvelous. In this period, Weber
married his cubist manner to the bright palette of his earlier
works. Immediately, as in Strewn Apples, one sees
the fusion of Cezanne, Matisse and cubism. This combination
is again uniquely Weber’s, and the result is both
pleasing and challenging to the eye. During this time, the
artist actively showed at galleries and participated in
annuals at numerous museums, including the Whitney Museum
of American Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts in Philadelphia.
Weber’s still-lifes – like his figural and landscape
works – are a consistent presence throughout his career,
albeit a presence in persistent evolution. Weber never isolated
himself. Like any good artist, he constantly reevaluated
his art in the context of his contemporaries’ work,
absorbed and rejected influences, and thereby consistently
produced new and inventive works of art. His work in the
1930s handsomely illustrates this process of self-reflection.
The 1930s are also important historically to Weber, as he
was then awarded his first retrospective at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York. It was also during this decade that
Holger Cahill published Max Weber. In 1934, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased Still Life.
The 1940s opened with an exhibition at the Associated American
Artists’ Galleries in New York. During this time he
received numerous medals and commendations. As in previous
decades, Weber was given a one-man museum show, this time
at the Baltimore Museum of Art. His 1940s still-lifes, like
those of previous decades, consist of objects placed on
a leaning tabletop; however, these works differ in that
they are refined and retiring – almost shy –
as Still Life With Flower illustrates. Produced
in a war decade, these works have a peacefulness and fragility
that must have been a calming influence to the artist.
The 1950s in New York were an explosion of new and innovative
work. Weber, who could be considered the father of American
abstraction, lived long enough to see the evolution of cubism
to pure abstraction, and must have been astonished. He did
not, however, isolate himself from the movement –
he grasped it. His 1950s works, while not often critiqued,
remain inventive and worthy of note. During the 1950s, Weber
exhibited extensively – at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, the Walker Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and the Museum of Modern Art – and was the subject
of several retrospectives.
Each decade of Weber’s career was extremely productive
and significant. Often, collectors and critics seek out
Weber in the teens and dismiss the other periods, which
are incredibly innovative. Max Weber is truly an artist
of the 20th century.
Lily Downing Burke is a director and vice-president at Gerald
Peters Gallery, New York. Gerald Peters Gallery represents
the estate of Max Weber and will be exhibiting his works,
among others, during May (see box to the right).
Images courtesy of Gerald Peters Gallery
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