Abstraction
Artist
Max Weber
(Polish/American, 1881 - 1961)
Date1913
MediumPastel, charcoal and collage element on paper
Dimensions24 1/2 x 18 3/4 in.
ClassificationsMixed Media
Credit LineCharles F. Smith Fund
Terms
Object number1953.04
DescriptionPart of an extended series created between 1911 and 1915, this abstract interpretation of the newly constructed Woolworth building reflects Weber's fascination with the growth of New York. Stimulated by Cubist and Futurist works he saw at "291" and at the 1913 Armory Show, Weber set this building-the city's tallest at the time-into motion. His juxtaposition of flat, angular, crystalline facets and diagonal "force" lines invests the structure with a spiraling sense of energy. It has been suggested that Weber was well aware of such Cubist-Futurist works as Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase No.2"(1912;Philadelphia Museum of Art) and Umberto Boccioni's "Development of a Bottle in Space"(1912; Museum of Modern Art, New York). (1) He was most likely also aware of John Marin's delicate dynamic watercolors of the Woolworth building exhibited at "291" in 1913. By introducing Cubist and Futurist principles into his work, Weber achieved a pictorial realization of his theories of the fourth dimension, which he had articulated as early as 1910 in Camera Work. He defined this "ideal dimension" of infinity as "the consciousness of a great and overwhelming sense of space-magnitude in all directions at one time . . . the space that envelops a tree, a tower, a mountain, or any solid." (2) In Abstraction, the fourth dimension is suggested by the energetic texturing of the background, as well as the building itself, "imbued with intensity or energy" and "reaching out into space." (3)
"Abstraction" is one of many pastels that Weber executed between 1912 and 1916. The impoverished young artist evidently reduced his expenses by working primarily in pastel, gouache, and watercolor. Weber's attraction to the medium may have been nurtured by his friendship with Arthur Dove, who had made his solo debut in 1912 at "291" with the Ten Commandments pastel series. Like other pastels of this period, "Abstraction" is characterized by vivid color harmonies, dynamic and decorative curves, and a variety of applications of the medium, from crisp lines or spirited staccato marks to dense rubbed passages, to light washlike sections, to areas where the paper support is visible.
Weber's reputation as a pioneering American modern rests on such youthful Cubist-Futurist works as Abstraction. One of his remarkable pastels based on Manhattan, "Abstraction" is a potent reminder of the burgeoning city's dynamic magnificence.
GS
Bibliography:
Holger Cahill, Max Weber, exhib. cat. (New York: Downtown Gallery, 1930); Alfred Werner, Max Weber (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1975); Percy North, Max Weber: American Modern, exhib. cat. (New York: Jewish Museum, 1982); Percy North, Max Weber: The Cubist Decade, 1910-1920, exhib. cat. (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1991).
Notes:
1 . Lisa Oliver, in Kermit Champa et al., Over Here: Modernism, the First Exile, 1914-1919, exhib. cat. (Providence, R.I.: David Winton Bell Gallery, List Center, Brown University, 1989), p. 197.
2. Max Weber, "The Fourth Dimension from a Plastic Point of View," Camera Work 31 (July 1910): 51.
3. Ibid.
On View
Not on view
