Peter Max, psychedelic pop artist who epitomized flower power, dies aged 88 — SkimNews
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- Peter Max died Monday at 88, his son Adam announced Wednesday; no cause was given.
- Born Peter Max Finkelstein in 1937 in Berlin to a Jewish family, Max fled Nazi Germany to Shanghai as a baby and later lived in Tibet, Israel, and Paris before settling in New York at 16.
- Max served as official artist for the Olympics, Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500, World Cup, and World Series, and his designs appeared on a Boeing 777, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, and 70 product lines including mugs, bedsheets, and ties.
- Max pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 1997 after the IRS alleged he concealed over $1 million in income; he served two months in a work-release program, paid back taxes plus a $30,000 fine, and completed 800 hours of community service teaching art in Harlem schools.
- In 2015, family disputes became tabloid fare when Adam Max and a guardian alleged Mary Max, his second wife, had depleted his finances and browbeat him; Mary Max died in 2019.
- Max helped bring "Swami" Satchidananda Saraswati to the US and popularized yoga; the Beatles' Yellow Submarine art is officially credited to the late Heinz Edelmann, not Max, despite frequent misattribution.
Why it matters: Max's career crystallized a tension the obituaries gloss over: his art reached more Americans than nearly any of his peers — appearing on 70 product lines, a Boeing 777, cruise ships, and major sporting events — yet as the NYT headline frames it, he achieved "commercial success, without the museum," a divide Max himself acknowledged when he said his work was "almost exploited."
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