Early Abstract and Modernist Painting
Max Weber (1881–1961)
Construction, 1915
A modernist painter, printmaker, sculptor, and writer, the Russian-born Jewish-American artist Max Weber lived and worked in New York City for most of his career. From 1905 to 1909 he was in Paris, where he associated with European avant-garde artists and intellectuals. Produced after his return to the United States, Construction is an abstract composition of intersecting planes and lines. Roughly applied strokes of mottled, neutral colors suggest three dimensional forms that resolve and dissolve. Like many of his contemporaries, Weber was interested in the idea of a fourth dimension, famously articulated by the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859–1941) in his conception of a dynamic, everchanging universe. Weber regarded the city as the quintessential manifestation of the relentless flux that characterized modernity. While not a depiction of a specific setting, Construction reflects the chaos and vitality of urban America.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
Early Abstract and Modernist Painting
Joseph Stella (1877–1946)
Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917
Max Weber (1881–1961)
Construction, 1915
Patrick Henry Bruce (1881–1936)
Peinture, 1917–18
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943)
Painting No. 50, 1914–15
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees, 1911–12
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Sails, 1911–12
Charles Demuth (1883–1935)
Welcome to Our City, 1921
Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1880–1953)
Boy with Cow, 1921
Stuart Davis (1892–1964)
Super Table, 1925
Helen Torr (1886–1967)
Purple and Green Leaves, 1927
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929
John Graham (1881–1961)
The Green Chair, 1928
John Storrs (1885–1956)
Politics, 1931
Ernest Lawson (1873–1939)
Brooklyn Bridge, 1917–20
John Marin (1870–1953)
Sailboat, Brooklyn Bridge, New York Skyline, 1934
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986)
Red Amaryllis, 1937
Albert Eugene Gallatin (1881–1952)
Room Space, 1937–38
Milton Avery (1885–1965)
Adolescence, 1947
George Tooker (1920–2011)
Highway, 1953
Ed Paschke (1939–2004)
Topcat Boy, 1970
Beauford Delaney (1901–1979)
Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948
Philip Evergood (1901–1973)
Passing Show, 1951
Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946)
Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986