By Bill Beggs Jr.
Peter Max marches to the beat of his own drummers. Of late, he’s been painting with “Bonzo”—John Bonham and Led Zeppelin, who have been integral to the soundtrack for his work.
Max is omnivorous when it comes to pop culture, which he has been a major force in shaping since the 1960s.
This issue marks the third consecutive December that the modern art icon has created a cover for Commerce Magazine. In 2006 was a more “painterly” rendering of the skyline from the east; last year was a view from the west in his inimitable cosmic style, all vivid colors and out-of-this-world imagery. The Gateway Arch figures prominently in both pieces.
When Max finds a subject that inspires him, he will paint it over and over. Since the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, Max has set out to produce a new painting of Lady Liberty every year, on the Fourth of July.
But this non-native New Yorker—Max grew up in Shanghai, and also lived in Israel and France before coming to America as a young man—is anything but predictable. He may be able to pick the soundtrack to his creations, but the paintings pick themselves.
“When the bristles touch the canvas, the brush wants to go a certain way and I follow it,” Max said in a telephone interview from his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “It’s all done instinctively, at the
speed of light.
“Any day, my influence is something else. It could come from a previous work, a reaction to it. It may come from music. You can play the same chord, or something complementary.”
Max knew Warhol and Lichtenstein personally, and admired the work of both. He also was moved by the work of Chagall, Miro, Picasso and was intrigued by Norman Rockwell’s ultra-realistic ability to capture the essence of everyday American life. But he emulated none, even though he started out as a realist painter upon graduation from The Art Student’s League, a traditional academy across from Carnegie Hall.
While at school, Max knew he had something different: “There were always 10 to 15 people gathered behind me at the easel.
I just created great colors.”
Then it all happened in a cosmic flash. Max’s work was on the cover of Life, which gave him an eight-page inside spread when the magazine went to full-color. Meanwhile, TV was going color, too; Max was on Ed Sullivan numerous times. John Lennon asked him to animate “Yellow Submarine,” but Max declined due to the travel it would entail. The job fell to Heinz Edelman, a German whose vivid colors and loose-limbed style featured a similar whimsy.
Max barely had time to catch a breath. In retrospect, he recalls the late ’60s and early ’70s as the most difficult of his life. Much of the frenzy stemmed from licensing his images, something he doesn’t do anymore. More than 100 products featured Peter Max artwork.
“I don’t think we did a toaster,” he said with a chuckle.
Max takes about two dozen trips a year, and has been to St. Louis for gallery shows several times in the last few years. He will be returning to St. Louis in June of 2009.
Check the schedule at www.petermax.com for updates. Or, you can send a greeting
card featuring one of his famous images.
All it costs is a smile.
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