The Art of Peter Max

I spent quite a few sublime hours of my Vegas trip last year looking at amazing art. I was stupid enough to not note down any of the artists' names for future reference, but in my defence, I was too mesmerised (by the art as well as the casino interiors themselves) to think of anything that mundane.


Caesar's Palace (Interior)

9 months on, I only remember one useful motif that can aid me in my search for those lost (to me) artists showcased in Vegas: the Umbrella Man. I remember we were in the Caesar's Palace (one of the casinos) shopping complexes when we came across a gallery showcasing bright, vibrant, spectacular paintings by a guy whose name I did not note down.


Caesar's Palace Forum Shops

A recurring motif in a number of these paintings was the Umbrella Man, a usually headless figure in an old-fashioned hat (hat, but no head, heh), holding an umbrella. In one painting, an Umbrella Man with a head turned away from us watches a woman in a black evening gown dance in the sunshine that comes after a rain, stepping in puddles onthe ground. The man's umbrella is furled up into a stick, and clutched in one hand. This one was my favourite. Beautiful, beautiful work.

I remembered the Umbrella Man today for some reason, and looked for the artist on the internet. His name, it turns out, is Peter Max, and he is considered one of the iconic painters of America.


The Peter Max Gallery in Caesar's Palace Forum Shops

One of the gallery people told me and Saurabh that the painter was a very, very famous American artist (making me feel quite stupid), and very sweetly took the time to show us a painting in a small display room, even though we obviously didn't look like people who would shell out $50,000 for it. It was an Umbrella Man painting on acrylic that Saurabh particularly liked, one of the headless ones, this time 'facing' a sunset done in brilliant reds and oranges(not the one below). In the display room, the gallery guy turned the lights down, and then slowly up again... and the colours in the painting changed and grew and did amazing things that left our jaws hanging.

Just... wow.


One of the Umbrella Man paintings