Peter Max, Pop Artist Who Captured the Psychedelic Sixties, Dies at 88

Peter Max, the pop artist whose dreamlike, vividly coloured works became a visual shorthand for the 1960s counterculture in the United States, died on Monday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 88.

A family spokesperson confirmed the death on Wednesday. Max is survived by his daughter, Libra, and his son, Adam.

Max's imagery — cosmic landscapes and starbursts, doves and floating peace symbols, kaleidoscopic butterflies, puffy clouds and other flower-power motifs — was ubiquitous in the 1960s and 1970s. Often shaped by his fascination with astronomy, his art became almost as intertwined with the era's youth culture as sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, resembling artistic renderings of an acid trip.

His subjects included rock stars who were also his friends, among them the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger. President Ronald Reagan was a fan, and Max donated a painting of the Statue of Liberty to the Reagan Presidential Library.

Critics took note of his ambitions as well as his appeal. A 1967 critique in The Village Voice described his decorative posters as the work of a visionary preoccupied with time, space and evolution, and imagined a psychedelic skyline in which skyscrapers might serve as temples and the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center might be used for meditation.

In a statement, his daughter remembered him as her best friend. "I feel incredibly blessed to have been so deeply loved and to be his daughter," she said. "I hope that alongside his remarkable artistic legacy, people will remember his kindness, his gentleness, and how much he genuinely cherished putting joy into the world."