Pop art artist Peter Max passed away last Monday in New York. This was announced by his son. Peter Max was 88; he died after a long illness.
Max became known in the 1960s for psychedelic, brightly colored works that became enormously popular worldwide and were sold in large numbers. His work became characteristic of the optimism of the hippie movement, the flower power.
He created large scenes of flowers and the cosmos and painted cartoon-like figures. He used bright colors such as orange, turquoise, and neon green.
His recognizable images appeared everywhere, on posters, mugs, dresses, and duvet covers, the covers of American magazines and the phone book the Yellow Pages, stamps, even on a Boeing 777 and a Norwegian cruise ship. He made art for the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl, and many other events.
He himself said about his work: "The colors are strong, sometimes screaming, sometimes raw, and sometimes harmonious, but always penetrating." He also said that he "always stood on the side of peaceful nature." "I do not deal with negative things in my paintings. I do not dwell on them in my thoughts nor on my canvases."
With his large black mustache, which he would wear his entire life, he was depicted as a wealthy artist on the cover of Life magazine in September 1969.
Commercial success
Peter Max was born in 1937 into a Jewish family in Berlin as Peter Max Finkelstein. The family fled the Nazis to Shanghai when he was a baby. Later they lived in Tibet, Israel, and Paris before settling in New York. Max was then 16. He was already "a big fan of American culture," such as comics, films, and jazz music.
He attended several renowned art academies and in 1961 opened The Daly & Max Studio for graphic design with his friend Tom Daly. The popularity of his unique, striking style brought him great commercial success. But as a result, he hardly had time left for painting. In the early 1970s, he stopped his commercial activities for a while to focus again on art.
After his return, he made several images of the Statue of Liberty, which he painted at the White House in 1981 at the invitation of First Lady Nancy Reagan. His work changed from pop art to a neo-fauvist style in the 1970s. In this, he in his own way referred back to painters from this poetic French school of the 1920s. An example of this is his painting Umbrella Man, which he painted over the years in different color schemes.
Celebrities
He painted hundreds of portraits of celebrities, with whom he was often friends, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, and Taylor Swift. He painted world leaders, including several American presidents, athletes, and also the Mona Lisa in thick brushstrokes and bright colors.
Max felt attracted to Eastern spirituality. He brought the Indian yoga guru Swami Satchidananda Saraswati to the US and helped him popularize yoga there.
In 2009, Peter Max spoke about his work on Larry King's TV show:
Peter Max came under scrutiny for tax fraud in 1997. He had failed to declare more than 1 million dollars in income, for which he was sentenced to two months in prison and a fine. While serving that sentence, he was allowed to work on his art during the day. Additionally, he had to perform 800 hours of community service by giving art lessons at schools in Harlem.
In 2015, his family life was also shaken. A conflict between his son Adam and Max's second wife Mary over money and ownership of Max's works was widely covered in the gossip press. Mary Max died by suicide in 2019, two weeks after The New York Times published an article about the legal battle over Max's work.
Despite all this, Max's work continued to radiate characteristic optimism. "I see everything through rainbow eyes," he said.
Max had exhibitions worldwide, and his paintings are displayed in various museums, including the MoMA in New York. His work is still for sale.