by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor
The 1960s and ’70s were all about color. Peter Max Color. Bright, fluid, fantastical, and full of enlightenment. This artist burst on the scene in the beginning of what would become an age of counterculture, taking the previous staid, straight lines and figures used in art and advertising and bringing them into the future with vibrancy and love.
A Life of Movement
Sponsored
Max’s Art Redefined in New York City
Peter Max was always drawing and was strongly encouraged by his family to create art in whatever form he chose to explore – drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. Max was taught realistic drawing and painting during his formal education. After he arrived in New York City, his creative brain became saturated with color and more color, influencing his art as it became more symbolic—and American—in nature. The Statue of Liberty, the billboards and large signs, the bright lights, Broadway, and the Brooklyn Bridge all seemed to symbolize the forward-moving culture of the U.S., and Max took it all in with a strong sense of wonder.
by Peter Max
In 1956, Max began studying at the Art Students League & School of Visual Arts and continued to focus on realism. Later, he began to add a more “avant-garde” slant to his work when he changed schools to the progressive School of Visual Arts (SVA). Max was now thinking about how he wanted to make a more organic form of art that came from his ideas and newly formed American ideals. While at SVA, he met artist Tom Daly with whom he opened a small gallery in Manhattan.
From this point, things really take off. According to his website biography, “Max combines his realism and abstraction skills in a painting of blues pianist Meade Lux Lewis, for a Riverside Records album cover. It wins a Gold Medal at the Society of Illustrators annual exhibitions. … the Manhattan arts studio won a number of awards for book cover illustrations and graphic design.”
Drugs or Yoga?
Often, the “scene,” as reflected by artists, musicians, and young Americans to the older generations, was felt to have been strongly drug-induced in order to achieve the works by the new artists coming to the forefront at this time. Warhol, de Kooning, Lichtenstein, Stella, and many more produced art that somehow seemed unfathomable to the older generations without being in some kind of “altered state.”
Yet it is true, people tried to “access new realms of consciousness” or “break from conventional thinking” by experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and use of these methods spread quickly. How else could all these colors, groovy music, and “out there” psychedelic art have come about? Well, there is more than just drugs to feed the masses.
Peter Max admits he experimented with drugs early on, but in 1966 he found his way into the cosmos. According to Park West Gallery, “Filmmaker Conrad Rooks commissioned Max for his creative input on a film called Chappaqua. Max traveled to Paris to work on the film, and it was here Rooks introduced Max to a man known as Swami Satchidananda (a name founded in Sanskrit — sat [existence], chid [knowledge] and ananda [bliss]).” The spiritual jolt felt by Max had a profound effect on his psyche and he invited the Swami to New York, helping him to start the Integral Yoga Institute. Peter Max brought Yoga to America.
A lifetime of dedication to Yoga and deep meditation fulfilled Peter Max’s desire to stay in touch with his inner emotions and ideas. As he stated in a recent interview with Observer.com, “Drugs were a period we all went through, but yoga is what I got into. … If I wasn’t an artist I’d be a swami right now with a full-blown beard.”
A Note on the elephant in the room
So often when people think of the art made by Peter Max they think of The Yellow Submarine. Max was not the illustrator.
According to Park West Gallery, “While his cosmic artwork is definitely a spiritual cousin to the film’s iconic aesthetic, he only did early consulting work for the project. In an interview with Westchester Magazine, Max noted that John Lennon called the artist personally to ask him to work on Yellow Submarine. ‘I was very, very close friends with The Beatles, and they were going to make a movie,’ Max said. ‘I remember getting a call from John, saying they wanted me to do it. … And then I flew to Europe and found out that they wanted me to stay in Europe for seventeen months and make the whole film.’
“However, Max didn’t want to be separated from his family for the film’s long production schedule. Instead, Max recommended artist Heinz Edelmann, who, at the time, had business cards introducing himself as ‘The German Peter Max.’”
Outer Space
“Out of this world!” would not be something uncommon to hear while looking at the breadth of Peter Max’s portfolio.
He was fascinated by astronomy so it is only natural that when the first man landed on the moon Max was inspired to make a series of posters in celebration – not only for this event, but for many missions completed by NASA over the years.
The 1960s and ’70s: Time to get to work!
Over the next 25 years, Peter Max became a political and environmental activist, a Master Yogi, a prolific painter of multiple series of paintings, a pop icon, and a lover of all things American. He worked for presidents, counterculture organizations, and corporations, utilizing his incredible art background in realism to manifest his unique style that represented a new reality based on peace, love, and living in a time of idealistic treatment for all.
These were the times when Peter Max established himself as an artist. The younger generation found its mission in establishing a new world based on love and acceptance by promoting peace and sister/brotherhood. Peter Max’s art quickly struck a chord with them and he quickly became the go-to artist used to represent their ideals. For his own mission, he completed many public works that sometimes were used, yet sometimes not. Here are a few examples.
1967: The Summer of Love: Be In by Peter Max. This poster shows the only type font designed by Max. According to the artist’s website, the Be In poster inspires several hundred thousand “hippies” to gather in New York City’s Central Park, and immortalize the Summer of Love.” The event was organized by Jim Fouratt, Paul Williams, Susan Hartnett, and Claudio Badal. With a budget of $250, they printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Peter Max and distributed them around the city.
Over 10,000 people participated in the event.
Sponsored
Its design introduced Max’s “Cosmic Jumper” which was incarnated on many future posters and pieces of art. Peter Max was considered to be an outspoken environmentalist. Over 135,000,000 were printed.
1976: Lady Liberty Gets a Makeover In a bio of Peter Max presented by Park West Gallery, the story of his role in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty is shared: “Max completed his paintings on six eight-foot-tall canvases at the White House. Only after finishing the project did Max learn of the statue’s deteriorating condition – studies had concluded that structural failure was looming due to corrosion and wind damage. A few days later, Max received a thank-you call from Nancy Reagan, which gave him the opportunity to bring up the idea of restoring the statue. The First Lady said the White House couldn’t fund the project, so the restoration would have to be funded privately.
“Max and [an advertising] agency president realized they could present the project to the late Lee Iacocca, chairman of Chrysler Corporation, who was looking for new public relations opportunities. Iacocca loved the idea.
“In May 1982, President Reagan formed the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission, led by Iacocca. The commission raised more than $350 million in donations to restore the statue, with Max remaining deeply involved in the process.”
After four years of work, the renovated statue—including a new torch covered in 24-carat gold—reopened to the public in 1986. The weekend of July 3-6, 1986 was declared “Liberty Weekend,” with President Reagan presiding over a re-dedication ceremony for the statue.
1976: A Bicentennial Welcome Poster Series The 1976 Bicentennial came with another commission from the General Services Administration for the creation of a series of seven bi-lingual “Welcome to the United States” works to be shared in French/English (at the Canadian border) and Spanish/English (at the Mexican border). These would be the nation’s first bilingual welcome signs. According to an article from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website (www.cbp.gov), “The commission called for the [screen-printed wooden] signs to stand for 20 years. Estimates projected that 5.5 billion people would pass by and see the signs. Yet it would be several years before Max’s designs would be seen by anyone entering the U.S.”
The LA Times/Washington Post Wires wrote that Kent Slepica, the former director of special projects for GSA who was responsible for the Welcome signs said, “Customs felt the signs were contrary to the image they wanted to portray about drug control. They were of the opinion that it signified drugs – psychedelic colors and images became synonymous with drugs during the ‘60s.” On top of that, “There are seven Max paintings from which the 200 murals were made, some with technical alterations – masses of lavender in the paintings were changed to blue, for example.”
The Customs officials found the floaty, smiley figures “inappropriate” and felt they “presented a poor first impression to people coming to the U.S. The project was sidelined and the artwork was put in storage.
According to the CBP, “In 1977 [Peter} Max’s friend Jimmy Carter was elected President, and the project was revived. In October 1977, two of Max’s signs were installed at Alexandria Bay, New York, and Highgate Springs, Vermont. It was reported that as soon as the signs went up, motorists began stopping to take pictures of them in the picture to prove they were there.
“In 1984, a survey was taken of the signs by the Customs Service and found them in poor condition, and over time, they were replaced with more conventional signage. Today, two of Max’s welcome signs are maintained by CBP headquarters in Washington, D.C. while many others are safeguarded by the local CBP offices in which they were originally placed.”
etc, etc
Peter Max was nothing if not prolific. His work was commissioned to promote everything from 7-Up to General Electic Clocks to Continental Airlines and cruise ships. Max’s art work was first associated with the counter culture, neo-expressionism, neo-fauvism, and psychedelic movements in graphic design during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is known for using bursts of color, often containing much or all of the visible spectrum. In 1970, Max published his first book, Poster Book, containing a collection of his artworks in the form of posters, including a portrait of Toulouse Lautrec using his signature printing style, a poster for Apollo 11, and a portrait of Bob Dylan.[22] The book was such a success that Max quickly released a follow-up in 1971 called Superposter Book. Both are now collector items.
Related posts: