By Bill Beggs Jr.
If the Beatles were the soundtrack
to the Sixties, Peter Max was the art director.
It might not have been. He could very
well have been an astronomer toiling in anonymity, instead of
becoming an icon of what was to be tagged “pop” art.
“Right after high school, I had no clue what I would do as an
artist,” Max recalled in a mid-October telephone interview from
his studios in New York.
Having set out as a realist painter upon graduating from The
Art Student’s League (a traditional academy across from Carnegie
Hall in Manhattan) for awhile, Max struggled to find his style.
Compare the subdued cover he did for a Meade Lux Lewis album
early in his career to his vibrant, cosmic explosion of color
during the mid to late 1960s.
“I don’t paint with ochre and burnt umber much,” he admitted,
with a chuckle.
In the vanguard of the pop art movement, Max was on the cover
of Life Magazine, with an eight-page spread inside. The
editor “was making an announcement that we’re going to full
color,” Max recalled. “At the same time, TV was going to color.”
Ed Sullivan had him as a guest on his show several times.
During the national agony of Vietnam and the turbulent cultural
change of civil rights and women’s lib, Max led the procession,
his brushes making the broadest strokes in a transcendental
movement, evoking hope and peace.
“I was originally a nervous young artist, but then all the art
directors started loving what I had.” It all came together in
a kind of epiphany, and Max remains grateful, and amazed, to
this day: “Omigod… it really happened!” he exclaimed.
Back in the psychedelic days, an artist famously quoted as saying
that everyone is famous for 15 minutes was flabbergasted at
how Max had rocketed to success practically overnight.
“Andy Warhol said to me, ‘You’re a household name’,” Max recalled.
His fame was such that he still is widely believed to have animated
the Beatles’ movie “Yellow Submarine.” He didn’t. During a stroll
through New York’s Central Park, John Lennon had mentioned to
Max that the film would be perfect in his style. But the artist
wasn’t hip to all the travel it would involve, so the task fell
to Heinz Edelman, the “German Peter Max.”
Max has illustrated two versions of the St. Louis skyline for
the cover of St. Louis Commerce Magazine. A year ago,
he rendered a view to the west in a more “painterly” style.
The current magazine is adorned with a view to the east in the
bold, bright palette beloved by baby boomers and admired by
anyone of any generation who feels to their core that “All You
Need Is Love.” The Gateway Arch figures prominently in both
images.
During a westward trek decades ago, Max was so enthralled by
the Arch that he had to stop the car. Of all the symbols of
America, he is most fond of the Statue of Liberty, of which
he has completed a painting on the Fourth of July every year
since the Bicentennial in 1976.
Lady Liberty holds a special place in his creative heart. He
grew up in Shanghai, China, and also lived in Israel and France
before reaching his goal as a young man: coming to America.
On our December Commerce cover, the whimsical character
in flight across the parabola of The Arch, the stars, planets
and spaceship represent a wildly colorful imagination, limited
only by the universe. If art hadn’t worked out, Max is certain
he would have become an astronomer. His sense of wonder at the
vast expanse of space, as well as the world within the atom,
has not waned. He is as fascinated with numbers and mathematics,
as he is with visual phenomena. Max never tires of learning
more about the great beyond.
“The word ‘enormous’ isn’t big enough, there are ‘Big Bangs’
going on out there all the time,” he said, in awe. “You can
wake me up in the middle of the night if there’s something to
see in the sky.”
Or if there’s something new to hear. Music is essential to his
creative spirit. In the fall, his soundtrack was Led Zeppelin—for
weeks he’d been listening to the same dozen songs he’d culled
from their vast output.
“I love to discover new music and rediscover old music. Lately,
I rediscovered Robert Plant.”
Led Zep’s legendary vocalist just released “Raising Sand,” an
album with bluegrass wünderkind, Alison Krauss. Meanwhile, Max
tried deciphering lyrics to “The Crunge,” an early-1970s tune,
but couldn’t. Not that there was anything mystical about it,
Max realized.
“Plant made it up as he went.”
His eclectic taste in music, like his fascination with space,
is limitless. Max and his staff are busy recomposing snippets
of nearly 6,000 European dance tunes. He traded a piece of art
for the mp3 files. Max apparently collects iPods, like the kids
in his generation collected 45-RPM records.
But there is a method to the madness. Max is “dabbling around”
to assemble the soundtrack for an animated film. As for the
story line and characters, a few months ago, he may have been
keeping details close to the vest, or the muse may have been
yet to strike. Could have been the latter.
“I go into the studio, put on my apron and pick up my brushes,
and have no idea what I’m going to do.”
Where would we be were Max to include all the music he’d like
for the project?
“I’d probably do a 200-hour film.”
It will be worth the wait. Max, among the likes of Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein and Keith Haring, is one of the greatest influences
on contemporary pop art. He’s painted portraits of other artists,
among them Warhol and Toulouse-Lautrec. His world leaders include
many recent U.S. presidents (Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush),
the Dalai Lama and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Max has been the designated artist for the Grammys, the 25th
Anniversary of the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Woodstock
Music Festival, and just weeks ago, did the cover of Newsweek.
He’s been artist for five Super Bowls, The World Cup USA, The
U.S. Tennis Open and the NHL All-Star Game.
His
social conscience has led him to create art pro bono, including
an effort to raise $1 million for the Pentagon 9-11 memorial
fund and an initiative for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Max shared his “Colors of a Better World” exhibit during his
last swing through the Gateway City in May, and is slated to
visit St. Louis again in May 2008. At press time, details of
the event were not final.
What next? Much more music and art, definitely. In any event,
Max remains humbled by the creative process.
“The painting will do what it wants to do,” said Peter Max.
“I’m just assisting it.”
