MAX WEBER 1881-1961 BLUE NEW YORK Measurements: 34.25 by 22in. Alternate Measurements: (87 by 55.9 cm) signed Max Weber and dated 1912, l.r.; also inscribed Blue New York 1912 on an old label on the reverse oil on canvas Provenance: Estate of the artist The Downtown Gallery, New York Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1964 Exhibited: Newark, New Jersey, The Newark Museum, Max Weber, 1959, pp. 8, 19, illustrated p. 8 Boston, Massachusetts, University Art Gallery, Max Weber, 1962, no. 12, p. 25 New York, The Downtown Gallery, Abstract Painting in America 1903-1923, 1962, no. 56 Literature and References: Herbert Read, Kindlers Malerei-Lexicon V, Zurich, 1968, p. 736, illustrated Note: After spending three years in France studying the works of Cezanne, Picasso, Braque and Matisse, Max Weber returned to New York in 1909 'more informed about French Art and aesthetics than anyone else in America' (Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-1950, New York, 1999, p. 95). This proximity to the French masters led Weber to develop his own style, a unique composite of Cubism and Futurism. In March of 1910, Weber's paintings were included in the landmark exhibition Younger American Painters, which also featured the works of Arthur B. Carles, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer, John Marin and Edward Steichen. Organized by Alfred Stieglitz at his 291 Gallery, this exhibition revealed to the public for the first time the revolutionary nature of these American modernist painters. Percy North writes, 'Weber's inclusion in Younger American Painters established him as a renegade artist with an unusually innovative vision. When Weber's work did not appear at the Independents exhibition organized by the realists in March of 1910, Arthur Hoeber wrote: 'They are independent enough but we miss the name Max Weber, even more independent than any of the foregoing, and we wonder why he is left out of the group. Perhaps he would make the rest look conventional. We opine he would. At any rate, no true Independent show would be complete without him''' (Max Weber: The Cubist Decade 1910-1920, 1991, Atlanta, Georgia, p. 22 . New York after the turn of the century was bustling with constant change and the dynamism of the city had a profound impact on a number of artists. Lively cafes, Vaudeville theaters, and newly released moving pictures were visible sources of inspiration for many during this period. Beginning around 1911, Weber began to paint pictures inspired by the newness of 20th century America, particularly New York and he shifted away from the still lives and nudes which had previously preoccupied him. Henry McBride wrote, 'At last we have an artist who is not afraid of this big great city of New York' (Max Weber, New York, 1975, p. 46). In Blue New York, executed in 1912, Weber juxtaposes dramatic skyscrapers with crowded cityscapes, aptly conveying the energy and motion of the city. While still relying on the cubist compositional devices which he learned from his European contemporaries, Weber also incorporated many of the futurist elements he had encountered. The sharp angles and vertical forms of the buildings are enlivened by curvilinear lines. The essentially primary color scheme further energizes and emboldens Blue New York. Alfred Werner writes that what Weber and his futurist compatriots 'sought to capture was constant change, ceaseless movement in broad spaces, as on the thoroughfares of great cities. Instead of solid, static bodies, they saw forms broken up by light and motion. Hence their works show a brave new world as it appeared to the young, unprejudiced eye--with all forms dislocated, all concreteness destroyed by the splintering of large masses into kaleidoscopic, crystal-like shards'Weber was most interested in conveying the maddening unrest and visual diversity by means of a fuguelike composition in which fierce visuals Alternate with vigorous diagonals. He was fascinated not only by the commotion but also by the myriads of lights, New York having become by then the world's most brilliantly illuminated city' (Max Weber, p. 46-7).