Nelson Mandela 1 2001

This portrait of Nelson Mandela by Peter Max is like a supernova of color against a dark void. Just imagine the artist mixing those vibrant hues – oranges, yellows, blues – and then laying them down in these broad, almost smeared strokes. I can imagine Max thinking about Warhol, maybe, and the power of the repeated image, but here, it’s like he’s trying to capture the essence of Mandela's spirit. The paint's not too thick, but you can feel the movement, right? The way the colors blend and bleed into each other gives it this kind of energy, like a living aura. Look at that single stroke of purple defining the suit. It's so simple, but it grounds the whole image. I think about other portrait painters like Alice Neel, how they could capture a person's whole being with just a few confident lines. It’s all part of this ongoing conversation among artists, this attempt to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.