In what has become a colorful winter tradition at the height of the visitor season, Key West Gallery will host the art of Peter Max again this February in the heart of Key West at 601 Duval Street. Max provided the Weekly’s bold, iconic cover art this week, Jan. 31.
The Key West Gallery show will open with an Art Uncrating Party, where guests can preview the art works for sale first, on Friday, Feb. 1, and the show will run through Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.
2019 is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, and fans and collectors are looking forward to reliving memories and capturing a piece of the Woodstock era at this show. Many of Max’s iconic ’60s works will be on exhibit and for sale at the show, including his famous “Love” and “Cosmic Runner” paintings.
Key West Gallery will host receptions from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily from Sunday, Feb. 3 through Thursday, Feb. 14, to accommodate fans and collectors. Max’s iconic “Heart” and “Vase of Flowers” paintings will be on exhibit and available for sale at the show for Valentine’s Day.
Acclaimed for his colorful, expressionist paintings that he creates to this day, including portraits and celebrity commissions, Max has been the official artist for five Super Bowls, World Cup USA, six Grammy Awards, the NHL All-Star Game, the U.S. Winter Olympics, the Indy 500, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, NBC’s “The Voice,” as well as other notable events in sports, global initiatives and music. His art sails the seas on the hull of Norwegian Cruise Line’s Breakaway ship and flew on the body of a Boeing 777 super jet for Continental Airlines. It also covered the 600-foot stage for the Woodstock ’99 Music Festival.
Peter Max captured the psychedelic ’60s youth movement with his cosmic paintings, posters, serigraphs and popular licensed products — GE art clocks, bed sheets, Wrangler clothing, stockings and high-top sneakers, greeting cards and notebooks, bringing his art from museum and gallery walls directly to the people in the pop-art era. Over his five-decades-long career, with gallery and museum shows around the world, the now 81-year-old Max is an icon of pop art and neo-expressionism.
Max is often called “America’s Painter Laureate,” having painted Statue of Liberty portraits since America’s Bicentennial and helping to spearhead the centennial Statue of Liberty renovation in the early ’80s with Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca and President Ronald Reagan. His American “Flag with Heart” paintings are displayed at presidential libraries and consulates. Max has been invited to paint at the White House for presidents Jimmy Carter, Reagan, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. After the September 11 attacks, he created a series of art posters featuring the Statue of Liberty and the American flag to benefit Sept. 11 charities. He also painted a portrait of each of the firefighters who lost their lives at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that day and gave the portraits to their families.
Max’s portraits have honored presidents, foreign dignitaries, rock stars and jazz musicians, movie stars and sports icons. He also is an active environmentalist and defender of animal and human rights, and helped bring yoga to the United States by co-founding the Integral Yoga Institute in 1966 with Swami Satchidananda. Integral Yoga Institute is now the largest yoga institute in the world with centers on six continents.
—Contributed
The Art of Peter Max Exhibition and Show
Gallery Receptions
Sunday, Feb. 3- Thursday, Feb. 14
10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Art Uncrating Preview Party
Friday, Feb. 1, 6 to 10 p.m.
Key West Gallery
601 Duval St.
RSVP: 305-292-9339 or
sharon@keywestgallery.com
