Peter Max

German-American artist, a pop culture hero with his highly-personalized, exuberant and psychedelic style. He creates vibrant art drawn with crayon or felt pen for designs and posters and has done images of everything from bubble gum wrappers to phone book covers. His posters have hung in galleries around the world and he has created a billion dollar industry.

In the '90s, he did serious work on a series of paintings of expressionistic and figurative floral pieces. In 1992, he painted two 175-foot murals for the U.S. Pavilion for the Summer's World Fair in Seville, Spain. Being heavily into ecology and the movement to save the rain forests, in 1992 he also completed a series of 12 environmental stamps for the U.S. to raise awareness about the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Since age 30, Max's New York based business has been a success. Currently the business grosses over one million dollars a year and encompasses five other companies which employ over 30 artists.

On 2 June 1998 Max was sentenced to two months in prison, $30,000 fine and 800 hours of community service for cheating on his income taxes. He is scheduled to begin his sentence in August 1998.