Cubism, widely regarded as the most influential style to emerge at the
advent of modernism, had a home in New York and a leading figure in Max
Weber.
Max Weber studied under Matisse, associated with influential figures
including Apollinaire, Picasso, and Delaunay, and is credited with
bringing firsthand knowledge of the Parisian avant-garde to Alfred
Stieglitz's modernist circle in New York, inspiring a generation of
artists. While his works are in important collections, they have not yet
received the close study of the artist's peers, such as Picasso, Braque,
and Leger.
William C. Agee, a veteran museum curator and renowned scholar of
twentieth-century American art, and scholar Pamela N. Koob take up the
challenge in a lavishly illustrated volume, gathering together a
selection of Max Weber's best cubist works. Close readings of Weber's
paintings open the most complete survey to date of American cubism, with
entries on key cubist works by Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Hans
Hofmann, Charles Sheeler, Morgan Russell, Stanton Macdonald-Wright,
Alice Trumbull Mason, and David Smith, among many others. Filling in a
missing piece of one of the twentieth century's most influential
movements, this critical reevaluation is long overdue.
