Name: Joann Moser
Occupation: Senior curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Residence: Bethesda
What I want to tell you this piece: This is one my personal favorites. It was the first major work that I purchased for the museum when I came here 23 years ago. I think it’s a major work from a major artist, made at a really good time in his career.
Max Weber was one of the few American Modernists who really understood Cubism. He studied and worked in Paris around 1908; he saw Cubism being developed. This work also gives some indication of his understanding of Futurism. There are those repeated lines that indicate motion. He really was in touch with the most advanced movements of his time.
The Foundry is just a positive — almost spiritual — inspiring image. Weber had great faith in the future of America, and what industry would bring to America.
Another reason I love it is it’s just so beautifully executed. Those black marks are really just marks; they don’t represent anything. They do create some sense of shadow, but he’s not depicting anything. He’s just suggesting things. Pastel is such a luscious, sensual medium. Whereas some people felt abstraction was very cold and cerebral, this is an interesting combination of the intellectual aspect of Cubism and abstraction, but still a work that one might call beautiful and sensual at the same time.
If you go
“Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Part 1 of 3)”
Where: The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets NW
When: Through May 25
Info: Free; 202-633-1000; americanart.si.edu
