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Exhibition
Information
Peter
Max is a multi-dimensional creative artist. He has
worked with oils, acrylics, water colors, finger paints,
dyes, pastels, charcoal, pen, multi-colored pencils,
etchings, engravings, animation cells, lithographs,
serigraphs, silk screens, ceramics, sculpture, collage,
video and computer graphics. He loves all media,
including mass media as a "canvas" for his creative
expression.
As
in his prolific creative output, Max is as passionate
in his creative input. He loves to hear amazing facts
about the universe and is as fascinated with numbers
and mathematics as he is with visual phenomena.
"If
I didn't choose art, I would have become an astronomer,"
states Max, who became fascinated with astronomy while
living in Israel, following a ten-year upbringing
in Shanghai, China. "I became fascinated with the
vast distances in space as well as the vast world
within the atom," says Max.
Peter's
early childhood impressions had a profound influence
on his psyche, weaving the fabric that was to become
the tapestry of his full creative expression.
It was a childhood filled with magic and adventure,
an odyssey the likes of which few people have had,
artists included.
European
born, Peter was raised in Shanghai, China, where he
spent his first ten years. He lived in a pagoda-style
house situated amidst a Buddhist monastery, a Sikh
temple and a Viennese cafe. And yet, with all that
richness and diversity of culture, he still had a
dream of an adventure yet to come in a far-off land
called America.
From
American comic books, radio broadcasts and cinema
shows, young Peter formed an impression of the land
of Captain Marvel, Flash Gordon, swing jazz, swashbucklers,
freedom and creativity.
But
the American adventure was far in the future. In the
decade to follow, Peter would discover many other
fascinating worlds that fanned the fires of his imagination.
At
the age of ten, Peter and his parents traveled across
the vast expanse of China to a Tibetan mountain camp
at the foothills of the Himalayas. Then they journeyed
9,000 feet up to a beautiful, white-turreted hotel
in a mountain paradise that seemed like Shangri-La.
After
their return to Shanghai, the family left on another
voyage of discovery, around India, the continent of
Africa, and Israel, where Peter studied art with a
Viennese fauve painter. It was in Israel that young
Peter also developed a love and fascination for astronomy.
In 1953,
Peter's family emigrated to America after a six-month
visit to Paris. Though it was a relatively short
stay, Peter enrolled in an art school and absorbed
the culture and art heritage of Paris. At the age
of sixteen, Peter realized his childhood vision and
arrived in America.
After completing high school, he continued his art
studies at The Art Student's League, a renowned, traditional
academy across from Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. Here,
Peter learned the rigid disciplines of realism and
developed into a realist painter.
When
he left art school, Max had become fascinated with
new trends in commercial illustration and graphic
arts, from America as well as Europe and Japan. He
decided to try his hand at it and within a short time,
he won awards for album covers and book jackets, which
combined his own brand of realism with graphic art
techniques.
Max also admired the work of contemporary photographers
such as Bert Stern, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn,
which led to his photo collage period, in which he
had captured the psychedelic era of the mid '60s.
As
the '60s progressed, the photo collages gave way,
to his famous "Cosmic '60s" style, with its distinctive
line work and bold color combinations.
This
new style developed as a spontaneous creative urge,
following Max's meeting with Swami Satchidananda,
an Indian Yoga master who taught him meditation and
the spiritual teachings of the East.
Max's Cosmic '60s art, with its transcendental imagery
captured the imagination of the entire generation
and catapulted the young artist to fame and fortune.
Max was suddenly on numerous magazine covers, including
Life Magazine, and appeared on national TV. Max's
visual impact on the '60s has often been compared
to the influence the Beatles had with their music.
In the 1970s, Max gave up his commercial pursuits
and went into retreat to begin painting in earnest.
He submersed himself in his art for several years,
and was only induced to come out of retreat on occasion
through special commissions by the Federal government
agencies: the U.S. Border murals, the first 10¢ U.S.
postage stamp, and projects for the Federal Energy
Commission.
For
July 4, 1976, Max created a special installation and
art book, Peter Max Paints America, to commemorate
America's bicentennial. It was the year Max also
began his annual July 4th tradition of painting the
Statue of Liberty. In 1982, Max painted six Liberties
on the White House lawn, and then personally helped
to actualize the statue's restoration, which was completed
in 1986.
In the years that followed, Max developed his new
atelier, with a primary focus on paintings, mixed
media works and limited graphic editions. Of the
thousands of requests that came in for posters, Max
was drawn to those that synchronized with his own
concerns: environmental, human, and animal rights.
He began a series of works called the Better World
series, and created a painting called "I love the
World," depicting an angel embracing the planet, inspired
by his backstage experience at the Live Aid concert.
In 1989, for the 20th anniversary of Woodstock, Max
was asked to create world's largest rock-and-roll
stage for the Moscow Music Peace Festival. Soon after
the festival, in October, 1989, Max unveiled his "40
Gorbys," a colorful homage to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Prophetically,
a few weeks later, communism fell in Eastern Europe
and Max was selected to receive a 7,000-pound section
of the Berlin Wall, which was installed on the Aircraft
Carrier U.S.S. Intrepid Museum. Using a hammer and
chisel, Max carved a dove from within the stone and
placed it on top of the wall to set it free.
In 1991, Max's one-man retrospective show at the Hermitage
Museum in St. Petersberg drew the largest turnout
for any artist in Russian history. Over 14,500 people
attended!
As
a painter for four former U.S. Presidents (Carter,
Ford, Bush and Reagan) in 1993, Max was approached
by the inaugural committee to create posters for Bill
Clinton's inauguration. He was later invited to the
White House to paint the signing of the Peace Accord.
Max has always been ready to apply his creative talent
to important global events and has produced posters
for many such events, including Summit of the Americas,
Gorbachev's State of the World Forum, and the United
Nations Earth Summit, for which he had designed a
series of twelve stamps that became the best-selling
stamps in U.N. history. For the U.N.'s 50th anniversary,
Max produced an installation of fifty paintings in
different color combinations of the landmark United
Nations Building.
A
lover of music, Max has been designated Official Artist
for the Grammys, The 25th Anniversary of the New Orleans
Jazz Festival and the Woodstock Music Festival.
In the sports arena, Max has been the Official Artist
for five Super Bowls, The World Cup USA, The U.S.
Tennis Open and the NHL All-Star Game.
Always an optimist, Max sees a fabulous new age for
the new millennium, filled with enormous possibilities.
He also sees a need for a greater responsibility to
our planet, and he is ever ready to serve as the "Global
Artist."
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