ML - Michigan Avenue

2014 - Issue 4 - Summer

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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from Tibet to Israel to Paris—each destination influencing his art. Eventually, Max settled in New York, where, at age 76, he continues to produce a dizzying array of works, including the cover of this issue of Michigan Avenue, one of a col- lection of 10 covers created exclusively for Niche Media publications, which includes Los Angeles Confidential, Gotham, Hamptons, Aspen Peak, Boston Common, Vegas, Capitol File, Philadelphia Style, and Ocean Drive. The original paintings will be auctioned on Charitybuzz starting this month to benefit The Humane Society of the US. "I loved creating this cover art for Michigan Avenue," says Max. "I've made many friends in Chicago and had many gallery shows in this great city. My cover art for Michigan Avenue features landmarks of the Magnificent Mile—the iconic buildings reaching into the clouds, the tulips blossoming in vibrant color after a long winter, and a sailboat catching the wind on Lake Michigan. It's a homage to this beautiful 'City in a Garden.'" In his studio—two full-f loor lofts near New York's Lincoln Center—Max has galleries' worth of his work: a towering portrait of the Statue of Liberty he painted on the White House lawn for President Ronald Reagan in 1981; a multicolored Baldwin piano signed by his pal Ringo Starr; rows of Lucite sculptures taken from his "Angel" series; a painted guitar originally made for Bon Jovi; and portraits of everyone from Marilyn Monroe to John F. Kennedy, all done in Max's distinctive style. "When you're a singer and you have a really great voice, it's not like you create a voice—it's just there. My art is just there," says Max. "I just put the brush on paper and I don't even know what I'm doing, but I know it's going to come out great. Twenty-four seven, creativity, creativity, creativity—it's all I do. I draw on airplanes, I draw in limousines, I draw when I wake up in the morning, and in taxicabs." Beyond the studio, Max is a longtime vegetarian and practices yoga and meditation daily—a part of his routine for more than 40 years. He also gives freely of his time, money, and art to benefit animal charities such as The Humane Society of the US and the equine rescue organization Wild for Life Foundation. By his side in all of it is his wife of 17 years, Mary Max, whom the artist calls "one of my greatest inspirations." "When I met her, it fueled me, and she still fuels me today, quite a few years later," he says of his wife, whom he spot- ted one day while out for coffee and declared he would marry at first sight. "We donate money left and right, we have events up [in the studio] all the time, and we have six rescue animals of our own at the house." At present, Max also has seven fea- ture film and animation projects in the works, including one for the estate of Frank Sinatra. Here, in celebration of Max's 50 years of commercial success and his collection of city renderings exclusively for Niche Media, the artist opens up to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about his unparal- leled career, his spirituality, his philanthropy, and the famous friends who have helped inf luence his work. Behind the Brushstrokes JOE AND MIKA: Many artists will agree that it's a struggle to gain recognition, but to keep it and have it last 50 years is staggering. What do you think is the key to your success? PETER MAX: It's just being present, letting creativity come through. I'm also really lucky because we live in an age of media. It used to be, when I was on the cover of Life magazine 45 years ago, there were only three mag- azines—Time, Life, and Fortune. My art got to be on two of those covers. Today there are thousands of magazines out there, and my work has been on 2,000 to 3,000 covers. Early in your career, you studied many of the masters, from Rembrandt to Sargent. So how did you develop your cosmic style? I always used to draw never even thinking that drawing is something you could do [as a career] once you became an adult. In China, I studied with the 6 -year-old daughter of a street artist. Then in Israel, my mother hooked me up with a famous art professor from Austria. After we left Israel and moved to Paris, my mother signed me up for the classes for kids at the Louvre. And when we came to America, I found a private teacher, Frank Reilly [at the Art Students League of New York]; after high school I used to go into the city and study with him. Frank Reilly went to that school 30 "TwenTy-fourseven, creaTiviTy,creaTiviTy, creaTiviTy—iT'sall ido.idrawwheni wakeupinThe morning,idrawon airplanes,idrawin limousines…" —peter max photography by eric ryan anderson (max); ron galella/wireimage.com (lauper); opposite page: santi visalli/getty images left: Peter Max creating the cover for michiganavenue. below: Max and Cyndi Lauper during a screening of the concert video Thewallin 1990. 118 michiganavemag.com

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