Nude with Upraised Arm
1919-1920
Medium
woodcut in black on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 10.8 × 5.08 cm (4 1/4 × 2 in.) sheet: 25.72 × 16.51 cm (10 1/8 × 6 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jack and Margrit Vanderryn
Accession Number
2015.114.25
Art Historical Context
**Nude with Upraised Arm a striking woodcut created by Max Weber between 1919 and 1920, captures the modernist spirit of the early 20th century., a Russian-born American pivotal in New York's avant-garde scene, drew from Cubism and Expressionism, blending geometric abstraction with emotional intensity. This intimate print depicts a nude figure with anraised arm, rendered in bold black lines on laid paper, emphasizing and movement through simplified contours. Woodcuts, as a relief printing technique, allow for crisp, high-contrast images carved directly into wood blocks—a method Weber employed...
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....