(b Braila, 26 Oct 1895; d Bucharest, 19 July 1971). Romanian painter. He studied first in Bucharest (1913–15) under Camil Ressu and Iosif Iser, then in Berlin (1922) under Arthur Segal. In Berlin he exhibited with the Novembergruppe. Such works as Diagonal Construction (1922; priv. col., see exh. cat., no. 12) show Maxy’s complete assimilation of late Cubism and his awareness of wider currents of abstraction. On his return to Romania he became one of the leading members of the avant-garde, introducing Cubism and organizing with Marcel Janco, Victor Brauner and Corneliu Michailescu the exhibitions of the Contimporanul group in 1924, 1930 and 1935, in which the work of Romanian artists was shown with that of major figures in the European avant-garde, such as Klee. At the same time Maxy was editor of Integral and the organizer of the Group of New Art (Grupul de Arta Noua). In 1924 he co-founded the Academy of Modern Decorative Arts in Bucharest, which was intended as a Romanian version of the Bauhaus and which continued until 1928; despite its short existence, it gave Maxy an opportunity to establish himself as a designer and to exhibit his work at the Official Salon of Architecture and Decorative Arts (1931). His best-known paintings date from the 1930s and are in a Cubist style. After World War II he was director of the Museum of Art in Bucharest. In his late works he made thematic and stylistic concessions to artistic demands of the Communist regime (e.g. Refinery at Brazi, 1963; Simu, Mus. A.).

• Maxy, Max Herman
  • Romania, §III, 4: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, after c 1890
  • Romania, §V: Ceramics and glass