Peter Max: Father of Poster Art

Peter Max (1937 - )

Liberty Head 2000 by Peter Max Better World by Peter Max Love 2007 by Peter Max From visionary pop artist of the 1960s, to master of dynamic neo Expressionism, Peter Max and his vibrant colors have become part of the fabric of contemporary American culture. European-born and raised in Shanghai, Tibet, South Africa, Israel and France, Max's pan-cultural background has made his work rich in artistic diversity. From the calligraphy of the Buddhist monks to the Classical statuary in Parisian gardens, Max was inspired by the elegance of the line which gives birth to form. Ranging from American comic book art through the passionate brushstrokes of the European Expressionists and Fauves, Max learned about the magic of color and texture when applied with spontaneity; the brush being guided by the heart. In the 1960s Max rose to youthful prominence with his now famous Max style, a bold linear type of painting which employed shocking color juxtapositions and depicted transcendental themes. As the Beatles transformed the music of the decade, Peter Max did the same for art. As his expressionistic style evolved, becoming more sensuous and painterly, his unique symbolism and vibrant color palette have continued to inspire new generations of Americans throughout the decades. Peter Max is a passionate environmentalist and defender of human and animal rights. He has created a non-profit foundation called Global Works and often dedicates paintings and posters for these noteworthy causes. He has celebrated our nations principles of freedom and democracy with works that include his famous Liberty paintings and American Flags which he affectionately calls "Flag with a Heart" for a Country with a heart. In 1974 Max was commissioned to create the first "Preserve the Environment" Postage Stamp commemorating Expo 74 for the World's Fair in Spokane, Washington. In 1976 U.S. General Services selected Max to paint 235 Border Murals at entry points to Canada and Mexico. That same year, to celebrate the Bicentennial, Max created a painting of each of the 50 states, resulting in a book, Peter Max Paints America. On the same occasion Max also began a tradition of painting the Statue of Liberty. Every year since, he celebrates July 4th by painting additional interpretations of the Statue. In 1981 he was invited by President and Mrs. Reagan to paint six Liberty portraits at the White House. Max has painted for five U.S. Presidents - Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton. In 1989 Max paid homage to Mikhail Gorbachev with his installment, "Forty Gorbys," which was inspired by his trip to Moscow. This led to an important museum tour that started at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad in the Spring of 1991 and traveled throughout Russia and other Eastern bloc countries as well as Western Europe. In February 1990, Max had two huge sections of the Berlin Wall flown to America and placed on board the aircraft carrier Intrepid. He then carved out a concave dove of peace in the concrete wall and formed a three-dimensional dove in flight from the filings, thus symbolizing the emergence of freedom and hope. After having worked with the Inaugural Committee on the Presidential Inauguration, for which he created his now famous 100 Clintons' installation, Max was invited by the White House in 1993 to sketch the historic signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accord. Later that year, while Max was in Washington to open his Pop to Patriotism exhibition at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, President Clinton, who was in attendance, referred to Peter as a friend and true American Patriot. He has been called upon by many Governmental Institutions to illustrate special projects, including the giant murals which graced the courtyard of the U.S. Pavilion at the Seville World's Fair. The United Nations invited Peter to execute a body of work of twelve postage stamps which became their Official Stamp for the first Environmental Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In 1994 Max was designated Official Artist for World Cup USA '94 and was once again named the Official Artist for the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards in 1995, the latter honor being bestowed upon Peter for a record fifth time. Peter Max is especially in awe and admiration of America for its creativity in music, art and technology. In celebration of America's music, Max was the Official Artist for the 25th Anniversary of the New Orleans Jazz Festival and opened the Woodstock '94 Festival. Max pays tribute to another great American artist, Walt Disney, with a creative collaboration between Max and Disney resulting in paintings and limited edition serigraphs of Disney's most famous icons. Max merged art with technology through collaborations with Silicon Graphics (the company that created the computer technology for the special effects in Jurassic Park) and the Information Superhighway for which he has created the official symbol. The National Information Infrastructure (Info Highway) symbol was recently unveiled at a White House press conference by then Vice President Al Gore. Peter Max, the cosmic artist of the 60s, now has his sights set on the year 2000... and beyond. GALLERY M was proud to be the designated gallery for Peter Max's official release of his 2006 Team USA, Turin Olympic Winter Games poster. This event was held on Friday, October 14 2005 with 14 U.S. Olympians in attendance. Shortly after, Peter introduced his latest body of original works at GALLERY M's three day exhibition called "Colors of a Better World." The receptions saw almost 600 collectors and fans choose and collected his latest original and unique works. Contact GALLERY M for works that are available or to have a special commission created by Peter Max.

Thomas Kinkade: Father of Light

Thomas Kinkade is reportedly the most collected living artist in the world, yet I am compelled by both space and time constraints to list above only two of his larger coffee-table art books. A list of all the Kinkade collections, gallery catalogues, co-authored religious inspiration books, home décor spin-offs, architectural plans, etc., ad nauseum, would match the size and content of the Asheville phone directory.

As the work of an avowed Christian, Kinkade's art has been described as being dedicated to evoking an overwhelming longing for the peace, tranquility, and light-drenched orderliness of our pre-lapsarian existence. That his artistic and moral vision has inspired exclusive planned communities and pricey golf resorts seems to be an incidental�although to Kinkade, certainly not an undesirable�achievement.

Indeed, Kinkade-inspired galleries, limited-edition prints, and gift shop-related knockoffs constitute no mere cottage industry, although he does demonstrate a marked obsession for painting quaint Tudor-style cottages.

It is the pervasive acceptance of and clamor for the materialistic manifestations of Kinkade's rather limited artistic vision�the sanctification, if you will, of his penchant for depopulated and nonsensical rural scenery�that serves to only increase the hair-lifting horror that lurks beneath his sun-dappled streams and glowing rustic manses.

Yes, horror. Horror of the worst kind, the horror wrought from juxtaposing innocuous items or idyllic surroundings with sudden ghastly consequences. The kind of thought-erasing horror that comes from watching a huge cylindrical brush used in an automatic car wash smash through your windshield. The kind of throat-parching, temple-pounding, sweaty-knees horror that comes from watching the stitched simpleton's smile on a Raggedy Ann doll suddenly gape open into a bloody drooling leer.

Do not misunderstand me, here. Kinkade's art does not evoke Clown Fear, or Marionette Fear, or Dick Cheney Fear, or Disney Audio-Animatronic Fear�I'm talking about that Mother of All Fears: When Paradise Turns into Hell.

For this Halloween, if you want to scare the dickens out of discerning adults and impressionable children, forget about the works of Poe, King, or Koontz.

Just take a good look at the artwork of Thomas Kinkade.

Upon close examination, Kinkade's rural dystopias appear to possess the following common themes:

1) Hellish glow seen emanating from every closed window to every sealed-up cottage, clocktower, inn, horse barn, church, etc. All of Kinkade's structures seem consumed from within by raging infernos. What might be laughed off as artistic excess suddenly trickles icily down your spine when you realize that Kinkade's rustic incinerators are operating at full tilt regardless of the time of day, prevailing weather conditions, and the particular season depicted in the painting!

2) All of his structures bear multiple chimneys that are exhaling thin, vertically-stretched spires of exhaust smoke which are indicative of extremelyhot fires within, and of virtually no air movement without. Again, these chimneys are operating in all seasons and weather conditions. Why are the fires burning so hotly all the time? What's cooking? You don't want to know!

3) There is an inexplicable absence of people, despite the presence of livestock, abandoned agricultural implements, raging chimney fires, what have you. In Kinkade's peaceful landscapes, it seems as if a sort of aestheticically-directed neutron bomb had detonated, leaving standing only the charming buildings, bucolic beasts and majestic landscape

There is something terrible going on in these paintings.

Yet millions of consumers seem drawn, moth-like, to Kinkade's infernal little countrified scenes, nevertheless.

Of course, it is tempting to cast Kinkade, a/k/a `Painter of Light,� in a Lucifer-like role (remember, Lucifer in Latin means `light bringer�). Yet a more compelling explanation for the incongruous elements in his deceptively warm and fuzzy-feeling art is that Kinkade has placed them there deliberately, and that it is not Kinkade's evil that so many people are attracted to, but rather their own.

That is to say, then, that Thomas Kinkade's art might be completely misunderstood, and that the sheer audacity and brilliance of his cunningly-wrought moral didacticism has been completely ignored.

Kinkade could possibly be our Dante, with limited editions available now on eBay; our Brueghel, hidden in the back ofSouthern Living, experienced only while you are at the dentist's office, idly flipping through the magazines.

Like Hieronymous Bosch, Kinkade's religious fervor seems to revel in the hell-bound procession of contemporary sinners, but unlike the 15th century artist, Kinkade does not resort to fantastic monsters or gruesomely apocalyptic scenes to depict their perdition. Rather, Kinkade's genius lies in both his understanding and rendering of contemporary human frailty in terms of the lurid, irresistible appeal of idealized real estate. For Bosch, it was the bubble-bosomed, jewel-laden temptresses and the winged demons with fish eyes and spiked tails swinging mowing-scythes who represented the driving forces behind Renaissance depravity. For Kinkade, the ultimate context for modern evil is the seemingly static, wholly-controlled, wholly-contrived resort environment that attempts to evoke a pre-lapsarian perfection yet with all the amenities: a bed and breakfast Eden where NO OTHER PEOPLE can interfere with one's vacation. Kinkade traps us within our own vanity and illusions, and then begins burning down the quaint little houses. The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards would have sinners clenched fast in the hands of an angry god. Kinkade would have them locked inside thatched roof stone cottages, begging pyromaniac realtors and resort managers for mercy that never comes.

And in the comfy painting, the horses graze on, indifferent to the screams hurled against the stone walls and the rosy windows shut fast for eternity. Maybe those aren't even horses in Kinkade's `A Perfect Summer Day��they're Centaurs! And this time, Virgil the Caretaker isn't around to guide you safely through the pastoral Inferno that Thomas Kinkade, the `master of light,� has cleverly created.

Happy Halloween, folks!

Old Grendel subscribes to the "dinosaurs make everything better" theory. Of course it's not really theory anymore, is it?

Here comes Unkempt and his ostrich autopsy obsession.

Botero: The Father of Heavy Art

"Fernando Botero, Colombian painter. In 1948, he started work as an illustrator. In 1950, he went to Europe, where he attended the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, copied Velázquez and Goya in the Prado and admired the frescoes in Florence. He went on a long visit to Mexico in 1956-57 and the experience of Muralism significantly influenced his future direction. In his own work, he introduced inflated forms, puffing up to an exaggerated size human figures, natural features, and objects of all kinds, celebrating the life within them while mocking their role in the world. He combined the regional with the universal, constantly referring to his native Colombia and also creating elaborate parodies of works of art from the past - whether Dürer,Bonnard, Velázquez or David. Not without humour, the symbols of power and authority everywhere - presidents, soldiers and churchmen - are targeted in his attacks on a society still infantile in its behaviour."