Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts
Artist: Max Weber (American, 1881-1961)
Publisher: Spiral Press, New York, 1926
Printer: Joseph Blumenthal and A. George Hoffman, New York
Author: Max Weber (American, 1881-1961)
Date: 1926
Dimensions:
book: 10 3/8 x 6 1/4 in. (264 x 159mm)
page (untrimmed) A: 10 x 6 in. (254 x 153mm)
Page B: 9 3/4 x 12 in. (24.9 x 30.5 cm)
Medium: Original prints: 11 woodcuts in brown ink (incl. 1 repeated on inserted prospectus), 1 linoleum cut in color
Text: letterpress
Paper: cream wove paper
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 1979.44A-B
Label Text:Weber was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 10 years old, eventually studying art at the Pratt Institute and then in Paris. There, from 1905 to 1909, he encountered new developments in European art, like the birth of Cubism. During the 1920s his work often paid homage to such European artists as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Rousseau, as well as to tribal African art. These influences are seen in his expressive style that abstracts and simplifies the human figure, as in this book of poetry that Weber both wrote and illustrated. The volume is a notable early example of an American artist-illustrated book.
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In Collection(s)