By Peter Max (October 19, 1937 – September 14, 2026), “Cosmic Music City,” designed as a tribute to Nashville. The artist passed away earlier this week. #arthistory #popart #psychedelicart
From Matt Schudel: “If any artist was responsible for defining the visual vocabulary of the 1960s, it was Peter Max, whose vividly fluorescent paintings, posters and graphic imagery were ubiquitous during the era of flower children and the Age of Aquarius.
Countless college dorm rooms of the late ’60s and early ’70s had a Peter Max poster on the wall, next to the burning incense. Through savvy marketing, his pulsating colors and images adorned hundreds of objects — from buses and subways to pantyhose and the soles of sneakers that imprinted his name in the earth and sand.
Mr. Max’s color-saturated, almost hallucinatory depictions of stars, sun rays and people in profile showed up on walls and coffee mugs, on clothing, clocks, stationery, and even airplanes and cruise ships. In some ways, Mr. Max created the graphic equivalent of the rock-and-roll revolution in music.” ~ Matt Schudel, “Peter Max, whose psychedelic art came to symbolize the ’60s, dies at 88,” The Washington Post, September 16, 2026.
