The kaleidoscopic vision of this umbrella cover is the trademark style of Peter Max (b. 1937), New York's East Village illustrator who gave the hippie generation its far-out graphics for Central Park "Be-Ins" and Woodstock-era rock 'n' roll concerts. Influenced by early-twentieth-century Fauvist artists—particularly Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954)—as well as his childhood comic books, Max designed this chromatic burst of twenty-two human faces and figures morphing into another. Stars and moons circle in a kinetic rhythm of psychedelic colors titled "Astrological Astroplane," attesting to the artist's deep interest in astrophysics. In reference to this era, Max wrote: "My Cosmic period of the late sixties was a visual translation of the euphoria and expansion I experienced during those times. It seemed that art was no longer something I did, but something that happened to me."1
Umbrella
c. 1968-70
Peter Max, Illustrator
Museum Purchase
2007.5.11