THE PETER MAX CASE

WILL PETER MAX TRANSCEND TIME SUCH AS THE GREAT MASTERS?

     With this post,  I intend to clarify some questions that always lurk around my mind, and I am sharing them  with my visitors in order to obtain different points of view that might enlighten me.

• How can a 74 year old artist from the Sixties, still generate so much business? Admirable.
• Will his popularity increase, level or decrease when Baby Boomers fade away?
• Will the next generations embrace his art?
• Will he become another Warhol, Lichenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns,etc,?
• When he retires, will his pieces of art maintain, decrease or increase its price considering  his current Marketing strategy?
• Is a collector of his items not allocating funds wisely or is he hanging to a Depreciation proof asset?
• Why is his website not at par of his name (this I cannot understand!).
• With so many Peter Max original canvases and Mixed Media Papers, on the market, can this continuous production sustain the current  price range or will prices fall eventually as a result of the market natural flow of offer and demand?
• Should the MAX studio consider decreasing it's production in order to preserve MAX's health  and maintain the prices?. 
• Finally: Is MAX a Pop artist, neo-expressionist, Fauvist, or a mixed media artist himself? 

     A few days ago I read that when a client in a gallery was asked why was he buying a PETER MAX piece, the answer was very blunt yet uplifting: " because his colors make me happy". They have the same effect on me, hence, this could reduce it all to buying MAX just for personal pleasure and not as a business opportunity.

      I for one, opines that his series lithographs between 1970 through 1979 are the best period of his creativity and technique.

The Max Collector.

PETER MAX IN THE NEWS - Very exclusive

It's simply beyond comprehension how PETER has been able to be so important in the art world and for so long! these few news published in a variety of media papers is living proof.

Sarasota Journal, 1969

 South East Missourian, 1969

Sarasota Herald Tribune 1970

Harlan Daily Enterprise 1970

THE CASE ISLAND MURAL

      A few days ago, I bumped into a Youtube video of this rare mural in Flint, Michigan. The concept was so interesting that I contacted Case Glass, and I wanted to post the spirit of the exact reply I received by Charlie Boike, one of the artists that did this superb Graffiti promoted to mural, and also son of Suellen J. Parker, owner of the company. Enjoy the text and watched the nice video Cahrlie and his buddies uploaded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3Ok85BnmA&feature=player_embedded


Dear Mr. (Max Collector),

      My name is Charles Boike, and I am the son of Suellen J. Parker of Case Island Glass. I am also one of the artists who completed the Peter Max mural. The mural is still up. It has become a local landmark where kids, families, and individuals can take head shots and photos using the mural as their backdrop.

Details of Production
The mural was commissioned by Case Island Glass (Suellen J.Parker) in late June of 2009. The first mural ideas included Andy Warhol's "Mohammad Ali" and "Jackie Kennedy", but Suellen picked Peter Max overall. The supplies cost $600, which bought five gallons of white primer, 80 cans of spray paint, gloves, towels, and a few other things. The mural was started on July 8 and finished on July 9. It was painted with in 48 hours by Kevin Burdick and myself. Kevin and I represent a modern art collective and production company called Deserving. While we where painting, people from the neighborhood would just stop and watch. ABC 12 news came on the scene and interviewed Kevin and I. They aired the interview a few times.

 
Credits to Include
Paid for by Case Island Glass
Picture is Gateway to the World by Peter Max  (my note: It's a LIBERTY HEAD)
Painted by Charles Boike and Kevin Burdick
Video shot, edited, and made by Charles Boike

 
Special Anecdote
When ABC 12 News came up and interviewed us we where super excited. We did not know how they heard about the mural. The camera man told us that some neighborhood lady called in to the station and was going off about how cool this mural was. She mentioned that the kids where painting it with spray paint and how positive it was for the community. I then called my mom to tell her about the news. She let me do my whole story and then she said, "Who do you think the neighborhood lady was?" I laughed and said it wasn't you was it? She said yes. I laughed again, and then Kevin and I said thanks for the media exposure.

PS: Thanks Charlie,  Eddy G.

A 200 YEAR YOUNG NATION HOMAGE BOOK

1976,  the year of the 200th anniversary of the founding of America, PETER MAX dedicates the book called "PETER MAX paints America" to his family and friends and to posterity.

This amazing book, has the character and feel of the real hardcover of the Seventies, heavy stock matte pages, decorated with semi-gloss unique images expressly made by PETER for this occasion, along with a few very exclusive personal black and white images that recall part of his life. Published by ACOROPOLIS BOOKS LTD at the Colortone Building in Washington DC, has the Library of Congress Catalog Number 76-10934 and for those loose bookworms, the ISBN 87491-042-0.

The book is based on works of art commissioned in  1976 by ASEA, the huge Swedish industrial company that in 1988 merged with another industrial colossus, Brown & Boveri to create ABB, and the book was "a sincere recognition of the historic bonds of friendship between the people of Sweden and the United States, recalling that Sweden was one of the first countries to extend its hand in friendship to the new nation".

In his introduction, Peter recall part of his past mostly spent travelling between his birth city, Berlin, and China part of Africa, Israel and finally ending in America. Since he was a small boy he always had a fascination for America, its music, the comic books and the films that had a collage of images mixed with experiences from ancient cultures and different styles of life. He then manifests his love for astronomy and what he called "different environs and fantasies of the future" and the privilege of living in what he defined as the Greatest time in history. He selected a specific theme for each of the fifty state, whereas he explains that "the purpose is to express an aspect or quality of each state in spontaneous and sometimes random imagery, rather than literal portrayal", very PETER MAX, I should add. 

The cover artwork, could not be more appropriate than by using George Washington famous image fully intervened by the artist, while the back cover contains one of the seven Border Murals that eventually received millions of visitors passing by the Canadian and Mexican Borders. This cover also mentions that the book is one of the first works that PETER did after his 1973 retreat, and concludes with a MAX quote: " What a beautiful world we may have in the year 2000 if we, here in America, utilized our incredible resources to benefit not only America, but all mankind".

Information complied from the book PETER MAX PAINTS AMERICA, 1976.

THE NEW ORIGINAL CANVAS COLLECTION 2011

Just arrived the new acrylic on canvas original 

paintings by Peter Max.

FRIENDS  30 x 40 

HEART  30 x 40

 LIBERTY HEAD  30 x 40

LOVE  30 x 40

UMBRELLA MAN  48 x 36

ARRIVALS - FEBRUARY 19TH

 COMING SOON:  www.theMaxSpace.com

 

LADY THROUGH WINDOW

Rare lithoghraph dated 2009

Series 283/300. I framed it with UV glass... it's too nice.

Signed in 1992 beautiful artwork poster

Make every day, earth day.

It has some Love and peace objects, that I doubt

were attached by PETER, it's not his style.

Common Taylor Swift poster, the latest 2010 PM creation.

SAM LEA´S HOMAGE TO PETER MAX AND THE COLLECTOR

SAM LEA, excellent new age,  Green,  expressionist artist,  has created a PETER MAX homage called the MAX COLLECTOR. I thank him for this superb and historic proposal that I feature below.

Check out SAM´s websites full of relevant info: 

http://samlea.tumblr.com/

http://www.leaart.com

FACEBOOK

eco Pop Artist™. Expression of nature thru pop art.

NEW ARRIVALS JANUARY 2011

 THE THREE LIBERTIES

Suite of three lithos 96/300, year 1980

THE MAGICAL MOMENT

 Exquisite representation of the Seventies MAX's signed papers

A 67/100 autographed year 1971. A real beauty. My favorite period.

THE YELLOW ZERO MAN

Hard to find, strange artwork, very unusual for MAX, this image

dated 1984 is a cherished piece of the collection. Numbered 8/200

dated circa 1984 and stamped with the STUDIO MAX seal.

ELECTRIC FUTURE MAN

A very exclusive litho by Peter

 

 It's good to have nice business acquaintances that provide

such important items as this one. This is perhaps one of my collection's

rare PETER MAX items.numbered 137/280, was done in 1979, 

period I consider one ofthe best of this AMERICAN artist.

GUARDIAN Ver.II

Front

1992 beautifully hand made with crayons and pencil, portrays a 
Sage with a Pyramid in the backdrop.

Back

PETER signed the paper in the back of this framed artwork, I took apart 
and updated it into an Acid free plexi backing and a Museum Glass frame.

MORE PROOF THAT PETER MAX IS A LIVING LEGEND

     PETER MAX is perhaps one of the very few living American artists that shares his name along with the worldwide renowned ones such as Picasso and Dali, Chagall, Miro, etc. Every auction of seized assets of the wealthy, greedy and then delinquent personalities that eventually is auctioned, has Peter Max art included in the list, which clearly shows that both investment and collecting is directly related to generally well known artists and their work.

     PETER is per se an unfathomable commercial  phenomenon that keeps on feeding on his exceptional talent, but that nowadays is somehow baffling  given his prolific but slightly repetitive output of pieces. Creations such as the LIBERTY HEAD, THE BLUSHING LADY, THE UMBRELLA MAN, THE HEART FLAG, THE VAN GOGH PORTRAIT, THE LOVE and and a handful of other themes seem to never end in continuous sequence to the point that I question myself if 24 hours a day of continuous work of any man could generate such quantities. Perhaps this is why the real collector cherishes more everything important generated by Max from 1962 to 1980 that the current Neo-Expressionist style.

     At this point, an art investor or a lover of PETER's works might be thinking ( and fearing)  if any time soon, prices of his artwork will decrease due to the natural market's laws or if it will simply saturate the visual necessities of the clients and his fame slowly fade into history. I certainly hope none of these scenarios takes place for the good of the thousand of owners of PM items.

     One thing is for sure, the Marketing target of PETER MAX is fundamentally located in the Baby Boomers generation that at this point have 55 to 65 years old, and that perhaps have already passed the psychedelic/Popish nostalgia or prefer to have a more unique Dali, Picasso or conventionally historic artist, rather than an image that can be seen in a similar version in hundreds of American galleries and homes simultaneously.

     If I were PETER's manager  (Gene)  or PR agent, I would have a few important suggestions to make such as either slow a bit the commercial production and be more selective in the distribution, re-invent himself by working on a new original set of themes, and  Go Cosmic again with a year 2011 twist.

No matter what, PM already will remain in the annals of history as one of the great American artists.

The Max Collector.

RETURNED ITEMS FOR AUHTENTICITY VERIFICATION

SELF PORTRAIT OF VAN GOGH by PETER MAX
Mixed media on Canvas, 30 x 40 inches (unfraned), 2010

UMBRELLA MAN

acrylic on canvas, 16 X 20 inches (unframed), 2010

THE LOUISVILLE HORSE

This equestrian figure is a great example of the range in art that PETER MAX covers. Named after the 1885 Kentucky Derby winner, JOE COTTON, it's shown in Louisville, intersection of Bardstown and Taylorsville rd, KENTUCKY.

Image courtesy of Barry Lovvorn, Sept 2004.

THE GIBSON FIREBIRD By RUDOLPH KOHN

This is truly a fantastic piece of art an music. I decided to turn over some of my collection items in order to increase other sections of it.

Artist RUDOLPH KOHN  custom made it for me, and besides being a gorgeous piece of art, it palys like a Goddess! Its a real Gibson Firebird re-issue, only played by me at home.

$ 5.500.oo  (pay with pay pal) 

contact me for additional details and more high resolution images.

 

 FRONT                           BACK

 DETAILS OF THE NECK

DETAILS OF THE BODY

KISSES & ART FROM PAUL STANLEY

Just found out that Paul also does some POP art.  He is not only the real front man from legendary KISS, but has a mojo running also for art.

BIO FROM WIKIPEDIA: Stanley Harvey Eisen (born January 20, 1952), better known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American hard rock guitarist, singer, musician, painter and songwriter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and primary lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's highest-charting hits.

Paul Stanley: Rock ‘n’ roll all night, paint every day

Posted on March 19, 2010 Art, Music

By Joanie Cox  -  Contact Joanie Cox at jcox@citylinkmagazine.com.

Excerpt:

Best-known as the face-painting, groupie-bedding frontman of the rock band Kiss, Paul Stanley has spent the past five years building a career as an abstract painter. Stanley’s vivid, colorful works include paintings of hearts, stars and even the Statue of Liberty, hardly subject matter you’d expect from the man who co-wrote “Lick It Up” and “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

"I discovered I wanted to paint about 10 years ago. Whether or not somebody can paint is really subjective. I started painting because I wanted another outlet and another way to express myself. I didn’t do it with the expectations of showing it to anybody. I was doing it purely for myself. When people saw some of the pieces in my house, they wanted to know who did them. Ultimately, I ended up doing a show. Besides being really gratifying, it was also really successful, so that started the ball rolling. I’ve done about 20 shows since then".

A flair of PETER MAX is in the air.

Links

LINK:  http://www.paulstanley.com/?module=news&news_item_id=1755

LINK:  http://www.paulstanley.com/index.php?module=paintings&gallery_id=1

Videos

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGugY_SkAIg

VIDEO:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um02DNcKu_E&feature=related

SAM LEA, a young POPIST

SAM LEA's IPAD SPLASH 1

I define Sam as a creator of a  new art tendency I called Techno-Popism,

a melange of involuntary input from Peter Max , Haring and Wyland meet Apple.

His own brief biography:

I am 38 years old.

I am known as Green Pop Artist.

I have been painting since the age of 9. I love nature and pop art so this "Green Pop Art" is a natural evolution. I love incorporating my passion for nature and paint about things that reflect current trends and ideas.

I hope to connect with as many people as possible through this medium and bring joy to the world.

Eddy G.

THE JAVA JOHN story

 

This is a very rare participation of MAX along with a fellow artist.

It all started from an interview on Public Radio Brevard, Melbourne Florida.

Dated April 15th, 2007, this was the first of three interviews John Goldacker had with PM.

On John´s own words, they had such a nice time that a projected 20 minutes

Interview, turned out to be one hour. Story short, PETER was so happy

that made a personalized image of John. Later on John returned the courtesy

and made a portrait of Peter, including the background a small version of John's.

The Max Collector now has a copy of this unique poster autographed.

I do need MAX's signature now!

This is a first version that PETER signed for John's son Dylan at the

Wentworth Gallery in Boca Raton.

JAVA JOHN'S BLOG 

RARE STAMPS & CACHETS

DIFFERENT PRESENTATIONS OF THE 1974 EXPO STAMP

Preserve the environment campaign

SPOKANE, USA

This is a full original sheet of EXPO 74 MAX stamps

It also has an original face design and the signature made in 1974

 

WORLD FAIR 74 promo pack of half stamp sheet, a nice cachet

envelope and a flyer explaining the "Preserve the Environment"

story. It would safe to say it was the beginning of the green era.

 A framed selection of my favorite covers, one of them

bottom left corner, was signed by PETER.

First day of issue

Pin specially made of the EXPO 74 stamp.

Studio 25 perhaps has a set of stamps that recovers in

plastic and attaches a pin on the back. Size aprox 1 1/2 ins.

Postcard with the EXPO 74 stamp

  

 Used envelope from the first day of issue of the Expo 74 stamp,

it included a Preserve the Environment image.

Individual pairs  and full sheet of United Nations sheet of stamps 

distributed in 2002 duringan environmental

summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

UNITED NATIONS stamp collection 1997

It includes two sets of Peter Max artwork stamps,

shown in the image to the right

 

EARTH SUMMIT 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL

special collector's pocket

 

 Special Flag envelope April 2008 with a US flag forever stamp

Spokane 1974 stamp, first day of issue cachet.

Preserve the Environment theme

 

Angel with hear PM image with Love 1996 Love Stamp 

Very rare PETER MAX album of cachets & stamps

Unique black booklet with PM face engraved in gold!