Max Weber Prints and Multiples

Reclining Cubist Nude Woman Max Weber (April 18, 1881 – October 4, 1961) was a Jewish-American painter and one of the first American Cubist painters who, in later life, turned to more figurative Jewish themes in his art. He is best known today for Chinese Restaurant (1915), in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, "the finest canvas of his Cubist phase," in the words of art historian Avis Berman. Born in the Polish city of Białystok, then part of the Russian Empire, Weber emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn with his Orthodox Jewish parents at the age of ten. He studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn under Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow was a fortunate early influence on Weber as he was an "enlightened and vital teacher" in a time of conservative art instruction, a man who was interested in new approaches to creating art. Dow had met Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven, was a devoted student of Japanese art, and defended the advanced modernist painting and sculpture he saw at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. In 1905, after teaching in Virginia and Minnesota, Weber had saved enough money to travel to Europe, where he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and acquainted himself with the work of such modernists as Henri Rousseau (who became a good friend), Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and other members of the School of Paris. His friends among fellow Americans included some equally adventurous young painters, such as Abraham Walkowitz, H. Lyman Sayen, and Patrick Henry Bruce. Avant-garde France in the years immediately before World War I was fertile and welcoming territory for Weber, then in his early twenties. He arrived in Paris in time to see a major Cézanne exhibition, meet the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, frequent Gertrude Stein's salon, and enroll in classes in Matisse's private "Academie." Rousseau gave him some of his works; others, Weber purchased. He was responsible for Rousseau's first exhibition in the United States. In 1909 he returned to New York and helped to introduce Cubism to America. He is now considered one of the most significant early American Cubists, but the reception his work received in New York at the time was profoundly discouraging. Critical response to his paintings in a 1911 show at the 291 gallery, run by Alfred Stieglitz, was an occasion for "one of the most merciless critical whippings that any artist has received in America." The reviews were "of an almost hysterical violence." He was attacked for his "brutal, vulgar, and unnecessary art license." Even a critic who usually tried to be sympathetic to new art, James Gibbons Huneker, protested that the artist's clever technique had left viewers with no real picture and made use of the adage, "The operation was successful, but the patient died."[8] As art historian Sam Hunter wrote, "Weber's wistful, tentative Cubism provided the philistine press with their first solid target prior to the Armory Show." The Cellist...

Max Weber, 'Nude Woman with Arm Upraised', linoleum cut, 1930-32, edition proofs—this impression from the edition of 25 printed in 1956, Rubenstein 42. Signed in pencil. A fine impression, on cream Japan paper; the full sheet with wide margins (2 5/8 to 3 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 5 7/8 x 2 11/16 inches (149 x 68 mm); sheet size 12 1/2 x 9 inches (318 x 229 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Printed, at the artist’s request, by Joseph Blumenthal, The Spiral Press, New York. Included in the suite 'FIVE PRINTS BY MAX WEBER' published by Erhard Weyhe, director, Weyhe Gallery Inc., the renowned New York gallery established in 1919 to specialize in fine prints. Collections: Detroit Institute of Arts, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST "To fill eternity with the ripest and the sanest expression of our consciousness is the essence as well as the purpose of life.” —Max Weber Max Weber (1881-1961) was born in Bialystok, western Russia. When he was ten, his family came to America, settling in Brooklyn. While enrolled at nearby Pratt Institute from 1898 to 1900, he was a student of the modernist artist and influential teacher Arthur Wesley Dow who advocated for art as a means of self-expression rather than traditional ornament. Weber became an art teacher, first in the public schools in Lynchburg, Virginia, and beginning in 1903 at the Minnesota Normal School in Duluth. Inspired by Dow’s experience, Weber longed to continue his studies in Europe, and after years of prudent saving, he traveled to Paris in 1905. He became a devoted disciple of Paul Cézanne, met Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, Pablo Picasso, and Leo and Gertrude Stein, and became close friends with Henri Rousseau, later organizing the first exhibition of Rousseau’s work in the United States. A pupil of Matisse...

Max Weber, Untitled 'Primitive Figure', woodcut, 1921-25, edition proofs—this impression from the edition of 25 printed in 1956, Rubenstein 40. Signed in pencil. A fine impression, on cream Japan paper; the full sheet with wide margins (1 1/8 to 3 inches), in excellent condition. This work features prominently in the artist's woodcut oeuvre in its relatively large scale: image size 9 15/16 x 3 1/16 inches (252 x 78 mm); sheet size 12 1/2 x 9 inches (318 x 229 mm). Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Printed, at the artist’s request, by Joseph Blumenthal, The Spiral Press, New York. Included in the suite 'FIVE PRINTS BY MAX WEBER' published by Erhard Weyhe, director, Weyhe Gallery Inc., the renowned New York gallery established in 1919 to specialize in fine prints. Collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Arts, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art. ABOUT MAX WEBER'S RELIEF PRINTS "In summary, Weber’s relief prints cannot be called just primitives or cubist forms. No single stylistic term is a satisfactory label. Collectively they suggest some common denominators: independence from academic traditions, interest in the element of design rather optical realism, simplicity and unpretentiousness in execution, craftlike tradition underlying their formulation and the desire to eschew the exactitude and dryness of wood engraving for the imprecision and painterly of hand-blocked work. The work was not a conscious effort at naiveté or lack of sophistication; on the contrary it was an attempt to approach the origins of art. "In an age which has seen the machine take the feeling of material from the hands of man, these relief prints describe a spirit of craftsmanship and an originality of abstract design that is unique to Max Weber’s artistic oeuvre, to American art, and to the tradition of relief printing." — Daryl R. Rubenstein, 'Max Weber, A Catalogue Raisonné of His Graphic Work', The University of Chicago Press, 1980. ABOUT THE ARTIST "To fill eternity with the ripest and the sanest expression of our consciousness is the essence as well as the purpose of life.” —Max Weber Max Weber (1881-1961) was born in Bialystok, western Russia. When he was ten, his family came to America, settling in Brooklyn. While enrolled at nearby Pratt Institute from 1898 to 1900, he was a student of the modernist artist and influential teacher Arthur Wesley Dow who advocated for art as a means of self-expression rather than traditional ornament. Weber became an art teacher, first in the public schools in Lynchburg, Virginia, and beginning in 1903 at the Minnesota Normal School in Duluth. Inspired by Dow’s experience, Weber longed to continue his studies in Europe, and after years of prudent saving, he traveled to Paris in 1905. He became a devoted disciple of Paul Cézanne, met Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, Pablo Picasso, and Leo and Gertrude Stein, and became close friends with Henri Rousseau, later organizing the first exhibition of Rousseau’s work in the United States. A pupil of Matisse...

Nude with Upraised Arms Honeycomb-basswood relief print, 1919-1920 Unsigned as usual for this edition From: Woodcuts and Linoleum Blocks by Max Weber (32 plates) Unsigned individual ...

Max Weber (April 18, 1881 – October 4, 1961) was a Jewish-American painter and one of the first American Cubist painters who, in later life, turned to more figurative Jewish themes in his art. He is best known today for Chinese Restaurant (1915), in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, "the finest canvas of his Cubist phase," in the words of art historian Avis Berman. Born in the Polish city of Białystok, then part of the Russian Empire, Weber emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn with his Orthodox Jewish parents at the age of ten. He studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn under Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow was a fortunate early influence on Weber as he was an "enlightened and vital teacher" in a time of conservative art instruction, a man who was interested in new approaches to creating art. Dow had met Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven, was a devoted student of Japanese art, and defended the advanced modernist painting and sculpture he saw at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. In 1905, after teaching in Virginia and Minnesota, Weber had saved enough money to travel to Europe, where he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and acquainted himself with the work of such modernists as Henri Rousseau (who became a good friend), Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and other members of the School of Paris. His friends among fellow Americans included some equally adventurous young painters, such as Abraham Walkowitz, H. Lyman Sayen, and Patrick Henry Bruce...

From: Woodcuts and Linoleum Blocks by Max Weber (32 plates) Unsigned individual print(s), The book signed in ink on the limitation page (a photocopy included with purchase) Publishe...

From: Woodcuts and Linoleum Blocks by Max Weber (32 plates) Unsigned individual print(s), The book signed in ink on the limitation page (a photocopy included with purchase) Publisher: Weyhe Gallery, New York, 1956 Printer: The Spiral Press Edition: 225 From: Woodcuts and Linoleum Blocks by Max Weber (32 plates) Unsigned individual print(s), The book signed in ink on the limitation page (a photocopy included with purchase) Publisher: Weyhe Gallery, New York, 1956 Printer: The Spiral Press Edition: 225 Note: Many of the images are influenced by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and other important European artists of the time. He was a friend and advocate of Henri Rousseau, along with Picasso. He exhibited at Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery. Weber’s work was admired and collected by the famous photographers, Alvin Langdon...

Unsigned (as usual for this edition) From: Woodcuts and Linoleum Blocks by Max Weber (32 plates) Unsigned individual print(s), The book signed in ink on the limitation page (a photocopy included with purchase) Publisher: Weyhe Gallery, New York, 1956 Printer: The Spiral Press Edition: 225 Heavily inspired by Picasso, his friend and mentor Note: Many of the images are influenced by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and other important European artists of the time. He was a friend and advocate of Henri Rousseau, along with Picasso. He exhibited at Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery. Weber’s work was admired and collected by the famous photographers, Alvin Langdon Coburn...

Max Weber, 'Head', woodcut, 1919-1920, edition unknown, Rubenstein 21. Signed in pencil. A fine impression, on cream wove Japan paper, with wide margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches); slig...

Max Weber, 'Mother Love' (Madonna and Child), woodcut, 1920, edition unknown, Rubenstein 35. Signed in pencil. A fine, well-inked impression, on cream wov...