Max Band

The Litvak painter Max Band (Maksas Bándas) was born in 1900 in Naumiestis (Šakiai district, Lithuania, now Kudirkos Naumiestis) and died in 1974 in Hollywood, USA.

Until 1920, he lived in Marijampolė. He learned painting independently by creating advertising signs for Jewish shops in Marijampolė, and from 1920 to 1923, he studied at a private art academy in Berlin. From 1925, he lived in Paris (where his work was greatly influenced by Cézanne and Picasso), and from 1940, in the United States. He painted figurative compositions and, in 1934, received a commission to paint a portrait of President Roosevelt and illustrated the Bible (1964). He held exhibitions in Kaunas (1925, 1932), Berlin (1924, 1929, 1931), Paris (1926, 1929, 1932, 1936, 1939), New York (1927, 1930, 1934), Stendahl Gallery in Los Angeles (1941), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1943), California Art Club (several times in the 1950s), and California Palace of the Legion of Honor (1956).

Max Band was one of the finest artists of interwar Lithuania, achieving international recognition in Paris and the USA. The artist painted small landscapes, cityscapes, and portraits, filled with deep symbolic meaning and melancholy. He did not like to talk about his works and sources of inspiration. His work predominantly features scenes of Jewish life, imbued with sorrow, loneliness, and, at the same time, a belief in humanity and life. Especially impressive are his paintings depicting children and Holocaust victims.

His works are part of collections at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, San Diego Museum of Art (California), Spertus Museum (Michigan, Chicago), Musée de Luxembourg, Petit Palais (Paris), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Riverside Museum, as well as private collections in the USA, Israel, and Lithuania.