Close your eyes and imagine the 1960s. Imagine the art of the ‘60s, especially the rich colors of psychedelic-inspired posters and murals and paintings.
Chances are what you just imagined was the work of renowned artist Peter Max.
Max was born in Germany in 1937, but over the next 16 years his family moved first to China, Been Israel, a brief stop in Paris, and finally to New York City.
Young Peter was a creative sponge, absorbing cultural and aesthetic influences from every place he lived to enhance his natural talent.
He opened his first small art studio in Manhattan in 1962, and as the ‘60s progressed his interest in astronomy and counterculture coalesced in his art.
By 1970 Peter Max was already a cultural icon, that’s only published his first book. But shortly after that he went on a long hiatus, and many even thought he had ended his career.
He had not, of course, and In 2002 he was ready to publish a long retrospective of his work, a big coffee table book called The Art of Peter Max.
I met him when he was on a tour promoting the book in the fall of 2002. And what an incredible creative mind he has. Be sure and listen in the second half of this interview when he describes exactly how he creates a work of art.
So here now, from 2002, Peter Max.
Peter Max will be 88 next month. Doctors say he has Advanced dementia. He lives in New York.