Max Weber Deconstructed
altered book
6 3/4 x 5 1/4 x 3/8 in.
2009
The book from which this work is constructed was a volume of paintings by Russian-born Jewish-American artist, Max Weber, an early and preeminent cubist in the United States and, later, a figurative expressionist. Made with a belt sander, this altered edition creates a visual tension between the familiar reproductions (in this case, Celadon Vase and Flowers, 1935) and the abstractions resulting from the carefully hollowed out potholes in the paper surfaces. The viewer’s eyes move frenetically across the tiny embedded ovals as these many “eyes” glare back—both startled and startling. The frayed shapes give the altered pages a tactile quality as well as an unsettling depth, metaphorically mimicking the emotional depth one might feel looking at Weber’s paintings.