Artist, poet, student, teacher, activist, Max Weber was all of these. Born in Russia in 1881, Weber emigrated to America in 1891. During his art studies in Europe, Weber became deeply involved with the European avant-garde, including Cezanne, Matisse, Rousseau, Picasso, Delaunay and many others. Upon his return to New York in 1909, Weber brought new concepts home to an America unprepared for the dynamism, abstraction, and emotion of modernist art. Weber's brief association with the revolutionary Alfred Stieglitz profoundly affected the direction and future of modern art in America. By relating the precepts of the modern artistic aesthetic to Stieglitz, Weber molded Stieglitz's ideas and understanding of art. Stieglitz would later exhibit Georgia O' Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and virtually all of the outstanding early American modernists at his galleries. Weber was also an avid lover of music and poetry and published essays on art and several books of poetry. As painter, poet, teacher, and activist, Weber was actively engaged till the end of his life in advancing the development, understanding, and expression of modern art in America. Max Weber died in 1961.

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