Yaneff.com

Max’s imagery became wallpaper for the turn on, tune in, drop out generation. One of the most famous of all living artist's, Peter Max is also a pop culture icon. His bold colors, uplifting images and an uncommon artistic diversity have touched almost every phase of American culture and has inspired many generations.

"Psychedelic Surrealism... Max's 'Midget's Dream' collage of flopped images embellished with children's finger -paints, depicts a group of midgets in a parlor game, conjuring up a surrealistic vision reminiscent of the  works of Hieronymus Bosh of the middle Ages who also influenced Salavador Dali." (petermax.com)

Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Picture Collection
 
"Max’s colorful, psychedelic graphics and flower-child characters famously captured 1960s counterculture.  “I got interested in yoga and mysticism and it influenced my drawings,” Max said.  “My characters, like young hippies, began flying and levitating across Himalayan mountains (from my childhood impressions) and star-studded galaxies (from my fascination with space exploration).  I began making posters of the drawings and blended the colors on a two-color printing press.  And that’s how my Cosmic '60s style developed.

A licensing bonanza soon followed, and Max skyrocketed to stardom as the products of his imagination were turned into bedspreads, household products, package design and posters that covered dorm room walls and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury.  He appeared on magazine covers and talk shows, and The United States Postal Service commissioned him to create a 10-cent postage stamp to commemorate the Expo '74 World’s Fair.  Like Formica and polyester, his imagery became subconscious touchstones of American culture.” (tennessean.com)