A Passion Induced By Humanity

9 Pages 2299 Words

for the moment. Later on, I was asked to make a large painting [of it], and it late found itself there at the same stadium for an auction. It was amazing” (Knubley). This is one example of how passionate Peter Max is with his works. His life is filled with inspiring instances that provoke his inner creativity.
Peter has been influenced by modern-day comic books, classical Western art, European Expressionism, American jazz, and the ancient traditional culture of China (Kaplan). Referring mostly to jazz, Max says, “Music has been always the backbeat of everything I do” (Knubley). Also, his creativity was boosted for a lot of his earlier works in the sixties because of a meeting with an Indian Yoga master who taught him meditation and the spiritual teachings of the East (“Peter’s Biography”). “While his artwork may seem exotic and flamboyant, his background seems just as unusual, and it has obviously influenced his painting style” (Karkabi).
Peter was born in Berlin, Germany in 1937 during the Nazi years (“Artwork”). His father was part Russian and part Jewish and had a prosperous import/export business (Karkabi). His family eventually moved to Shanghai, China where Peter spent most of his childhood. Peter is said to have had a “childhood filled with magic and adventure, an odyssey the likes of which few people have had, artists included” (“Peter’s Biography”). Peter speaks very well of his days in China stating, “I can tell you that Chinese people are one of the most beautiful races on earth.” Peter explains that it was a very colorful world. Every day there would be a parade three or four blocks long with dragons and thousands of people (Karkabi).
When he was ten years old his family left Shanghai and “traveled across the vast expansion of China to Tibetan Mountain camp at the foothills of the Himalayas. Then they journeyed 9,000 feet up to a beautiful, white-turreted hotel in a mo...