Max Weber's Influence On American Culture

Throughout history art has been a representation of culture, serving as a record of the human experience. The contributions of Jewish American artists to art history has not only impacted the breadth of art in the United States, but has also documented the experience of Jews in American culture. A prominent example of this is Max Weber, a modernist painter. Weber was a pioneer of the modernist movement in America. He spent a portion of his career frequenting the Paris Salon among artists such as Gauguin and Cezanne and visiting the studios of Picasso and Matisse. Inspired, Weber’s style incorporated techniques developed by several renowned European modernists. He brought the ideas he learned in Paris back to America with him and diffused European modernist developments such as Cubism and Fauvism throughout the American art world. Weber’s career was characterized by change and he experimented with many styles within the modernist movement.
The thesis of this research project will evaluate how Max Weber’s background as a Jewish immigrant in New York City influenced his work throughout his career despite his ever-changing style. The argument will break down three common

It will include the importance of studying Weber’s work in a cultural context. Following this will be the body of the essay beginning with describing Weber’s life. A biographical paragraph will provide context for the following paragraphs on how it impacted his art. Analysis of Weber’s art will be broken into three sections: immigrant minorities, industrialized cities, and Jewish congregations. Each topic will include a paragraph visually analyzing paintings that apply to the subject and a paragraph connecting the subject to the artist’s life. Finally, the essay will conclude by relating the issues of the past that are displayed in the subject matter of Weber’s work to anti-Semitism