Peter Max
Bright colors, freedom and gratitude.
I was an interior design major in college at Kansas State, and I was smack dab in the middle of the psychedelic and pop art cultural movements of the 1960’s. I remember a new furnishings and design store on the second floor of an old building in Aggieville (a shopping and dining district next to the campus). I loved going in there and seeing what was new. And new it was - plastic furniture, sculptural shapes, blow-up chairs and bright colors. I used the ideas that I saw there in my interior projects, as did most of the students in my classes.
One particular artist stood out as a representative of the pop art scene. His name was Peter Max, now 89 years old and living in the US. He was born in Berlin and his family moved a few times within a period of time in Paris where he was influenced by Fauvism. The artists working in this style of painting emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of Les Fauves, a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over classical realism.
He was the first rockstar-scale artist and was the go-to artist for the leading rock bands in the heyday of the Woodstock era. His career exploded worldwide due to being named the official artist for the Grammys, the U.S. 2006 Winter Olympics team, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, the Super Bowl and portraits for six sitting presidents and other world leaders.
Coming to America and seeing the Statue of Liberty influenced a lifelong tribute to the flag, the statue and other patriotic themes.
Early on, I remember falling in love with his work, and I purchased (I wish I could remember where) one of his cookie jars in 1989. The face on the piece is also one of the recurring themes of his work. Since I don’t bake cookies, the cookie jar ended up in my basement and finally into a vacation house in Arkansas. My husband and I sold the house recently, and I discovered that a piece of newspaper tucked inside the cookie jar. It changed how I thought about the jar. I had cut out a New York Times article about charming cookie jars and there written in 2015 listed the Peter Max Zero Cookie Jar from RoGallery.com for $650.00! I don’t know what I paid for it, but I know it was a lot less than listed in the NY Times.
