Biography

Max Weber was a Russian-born Jewish-American painter best known for introducing Cubism to the United States. Weber’s abstracted depictions of interiors, landscapes, and portraits, were influenced by the works of Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse, and Paul Cézanne. “Art has a higher purpose than mere imitation of nature. It transcends the earthly and measurable,” he once mused. “It has its own scale and destiny. It is concerned with informing spirit that emanates only from spiritual and mystical realms, from the nether and the astral.” Born on April 18, 1881 in Bialystok, Russian Empire (present-day Poland), he and his family moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1891. The artist went on to study under Arthur Wesley Dow at the Pratt Institute before travelling to Paris in 1905. It was while he was in Europe that he met Rousseau, Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Later in life, Weber became increasingly interested in Hebrew mysticism, and often depicted Jewish families and rabbis. He died on October 4, 1961 in Great Neck, NY. Today, Weber’s works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, among others.