Head
1920
Medium
color linocut on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 9.84 × 6.83 cm (3 7/8 × 2 11/16 in.) sheet: 18.42 × 14.29 cm (7 1/4 × 5 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jack and Margrit Vanderryn
Accession Number
2015.114.60
Art Historical Context
Max Weber's *Head* (1920) is a striking color linocut on paper, measuring a intimate 9.84 × 6.83 cm for the image and 18.42 × 14.29 cm for the sheet Created during a pivotal moment in American modernism, this print captures Weber's evolution as a Russian-born artist who bridged European avant-garde influences with the burgeoning New York art scene. By 1920, post-World War I energies fueled experimentation, and Weber—known for his Cubist-inspired paintings and fascination with African and Jewish motifs—turned to printmaking to distill human forms into bold, abstracted geometries. Linocut, a re...
About the Artist
Max Weber
Max Weber (1881–1961), born in Białystok in the Russian Empire (now Poland) to Orthodox Jewish parents, immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, at age ten with his family, joining his tailor father.) There, he pursued art studies at the Pratt Institute under Arthur Wesley Dow, an innovative teacher who emphasized expression and form over traditional narrative, drawing from Japanese art and Paul Gauguin....