Max Weber (artist)

Max Weber (artist), American painter, born in Białystok, Russia (now in Poland), and taken to the United States in 1891. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, and in Europe (1905-1908), where he was influenced by Paul Cézanne and was part of the avant-garde circles of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Weber's early cubist and expressionist works, such as Chinese Restaurant (1915, Whitney Museum, New York City), were disliked by conservative critics of the day, but with the growing acceptance of modern art, his work won increasing favor. After 1917 Weber's paintings became representational; his later style tended to be abstract and expressionist, with stress on brilliant color and violent distortions charged with emotion. His subjects were still lifes, landscapes, nudes, and especially scenes of Hasidic Jewish life, such as Adoration of the Moon (1944, Whitney Museum). Weber also experimented with nonobjective sculpture. He wrote Cubist Poems (1914), Essays on Art (1916), and Primitives (1937).