Freedom 1980

Peter Max made this painting, Freedom, with soft pastel colours, maybe with an airbrush or just a soft touch. Imagine him, in his studio with all those objects—guitars, posters, books, paint tubes, brushes—caught up in the feeling of the moment. It's a landscape or a memory, filtered through a very particular sensibility. Look at the surface. You can see the hand, the gesture. It feels like a sigh, a daydream. The birds, the sunrise, the green field—they're all clichés. I can see Max thinking, “How can I reclaim these things?” By embracing the soft focus, by making them feel so dreamy and out of reach. I wonder, did he make this after seeing a Bonnard? I’m thinking of Bonnard’s late landscapes where everything just glows. It's like Max is saying: painting can still be a place of freedom, even now. We can use it to transform what we see and feel. And maybe to escape.