Max Raphael (1889–1952) was a fierce and original voice in 20th-century art history. His 1911 essay Der Expressionismus was the first to name and theorize the then-emerging movement of Expressionism, and his Von Monet zu Picasso (1913) laid the foundations for how we understand modern art.

Refusing academic conventions, Raphael fused philosophy, politics, and aesthetics into what he called an “empirical theory of art.” Long neglected, his groundbreaking early writings return to light in The Invention of Expressionism (November Editions), translated and introduced by Patrick Healy, restoring Raphael to his place as one of the great critics of modernity.

The Max Raphael Project, an initiative of Patrick Healy and Jules Schoonman, is making Raphael’s work newly accessible through translations, digital editions, and the publication of his lost autobiography. It shows how radical—and how urgent—Raphael’s vision remains for understanding art, creativity, and society today.