Peter Max

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Peter Max
Born October 19, 1937(1937-10-19)
Berlin, Germany
Nationality American (United States)
Field Painting, Pop Art
Training Art Students League of New York
Movement Pop Art
Works LOVE (1968),
One of Peter Max's art galleries, at The Forum Shops at Caesars
One of Peter Max's art galleries, at The Forum Shops at Caesars

Peter Max born Peter Max Finkelstein, (October 19th, 1937) in Berlin, Germany, and was raised in Shanghai, China, and in Israel before his family settled in the United States of America in 1953. Max is an american artist first known for his pop iconography of the 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] The 1960s

In 1962 Max started a small Manhattan arts studio with friend Tom Daly. Max is commissioned by Riverside Records to create cover art for Meade Lux Lewis. The album art won a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1962. With the use of photographic images as elements of collage, Max organized the Bettman Panopticon exhibition utilizing the antique photo content of the Bettman archives. It was considered one of the most avant-garde exhibitions of the New York graphic arts scene. His interest in Astronomy led to his Cosmic 60s period by way of poster art, many of which were featured at his appearance on the Tonight Show, 1968. He appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine on 9-5-1969. Max's 1968 LOVE poster was in the vanguard of late 60s counter-culture iconography, though by 1970 sporting an accessory designed by Max marked one as pseudo-hippy.

[edit] The 1970s

In 1970, many of Max's products and posters were featured in the exhibition "The World of Peter Max" which opened at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The US Postal Service commissions Max to create the first 10¢ postage stamp to commemorate Expo 74 World's Fair in Spokane, Washington. July 4th, 1976, Max begins his Statue of Liberty series leading to his efforts with Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to help spearhead the restoration of the statue.

[edit] The 1980s to Present

Official artist for many major events including Grammy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Super Bowl and others.

[edit] Work

Continental Airline's "Peter Max", a Boeing 777, on the apron at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.
Continental Airline's "Peter Max", a Boeing 777, on the apron at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.

Max's art work was a part of the psychedelic movement in graphic design. His work was influential and much imitated in advertising design in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Although he did not participate in the project, The Yellow Submarine, a 1968 animated film involved Beatles music, may have been influenced by his work, although the origins of the style are controversial.

Peter Max later evolved from a pop artist of the 1960s to neo-expressionism.

He works with multiple media, including oil, acrylics, water colors, fingerpaints, dyes, pastels, charcoal, pen, multi-colored pencils, etchings, engravings, animation cels, lithographs, serigraphs, ceramics, sculpture, collage, video, xerox, fax, and computer graphics. He also includes mass media as a "canvas" for his creative expression.

Max often uses American symbols in his artwork and has done paintings and projects for Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Recently he created his 100 Clintons, a multiple portrait installation whose images were used through the four days of the Presidential inauguration. More recently, Max completed his fourth Grammy-Award poster, redesigned NBC television's symbolic peacock, was appointed as the official artist for the World Cup USA 1994 and created a "Peace Accord" painting for the White House to commemorate a historic signing.

One of Continental Airlines' Boeing 777 aircraft (registered N77014) sported a special livery designed by Max. The livery was removed in the winter of 2007-2008.[1]

His artwork is currently on the walls of CBS's morning show, "The Early Show."

[edit] Personal life

Max owns a collection of 36 Chevrolet Corvettes, dating from 1956 to 1989, one for each year.

Peter Max is an environmentalist and defender of human and animal rights.

Peter Max was in the news in 2002 when he offered to provide a life of green fields for Cinci Freedom, a cow that escaped from an Ohio slaughterhouse.[2] The cow leapt over a six-foot fence while the slaughterhouse workers were on break and eluded capture for eleven days. "This little girl's will—facing the end of her life, being so frightened, then taking the risk of all risks to live, to be free—touched me so deeply," Max was quoted as saying, "It was so inspiring. I knew I had to try to preserve that wonderful spirit." Max donated $180,000 worth of his art to benefit the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, to ensure her a long life of peace at a New York Farm Sanctuary.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Photos: Boeing 777-224/ER Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
  2. ^ CiC - Peter Max - Award Winner 2002

[edit] References

[edit] External links