REVIEW

Evarist Adam Weber was born in Aachen in 1887, the same year as August Macke. Both studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf and both shared an interest in the applied arts. But there were great differences in the way their respective lives developed. While August Macke achieved fame after his death (to some extent thanks to the efforts of his family) Weber's artistic estate was lost and the artist forgotten. The August Macke House Museum has undertaken a search for traces left by the artist. A great deal of his work is still in the hands of unknown owners. But what now can be presented in cooperation with the Evarist Adam Weber Archive reveals a highly interesting and wide-ranging artist.

Even before completing his studies, Weber traveled to Belgium and Paris where he wrestled with the ideas of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism. He consolidated his imagery, however, under the influence of the work of Paul Cézanne. With his strongly expressive graphic art, E. A. Weber participated after the First World War in the eruption of the Expressionist movement and can be counted among "the best of the newer graphic artists" (Paul Horn, 1928). Of special importance are his portfolios focusing on the First World War (Erster Weltkrieg), nudes (Akt), and passion (Passion). Weber was a member of the Young Rhineland group and presented his works there and with Munich's New Secession and at numerous exhibitions in Germany and Austria, winning several awards.

His oil paintings of the 1920s are characterized by a remarkably lively approach to composition. Many motifs are drawn from the artist's numerous visits to Switzerland, Southern France, and above all his repeated trips to Italy. The preferred mode of travel by the enthusiastic motorcyclist was his own machine. His fascination for sports and the mountains may be seen in motifs, which in the second half of the 1920s reveal a unique, expressive-objectivist structuring and design. As one of the few sports painters in those years, he artistically interpreted motorcycle and car racing, and the nordic sport of skijöring, while designing bronze medals for races.
In 1931 Weber's free-painting activities began to wane. After moving to Munich in 1910 he lived in Dießen on Lake Ammer. Together with his wife, Weber directed the Weber-Heubach art workshop. Top-class works, many of them prize-winners, were created here in a wide range of techniques - from batik scarves and wall hangings to leather and felt bags and on to enamel and elaborately inscribed glass objects.

The exhibition, curated by Dr. Ina Ewers-Schultz, was realized in cooperation with the Evarist Adam Weber Archive. It includes some 120 works – paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, and handicrafts. A copiously illustrated catalog accompanies the show.