44 Obamas

This is a piece from Peter Max called 44 Obamas.   He created the piece to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama in January of 2009.  I have seen this artwork several times throughout Obama’s presidency on the news and at various websites.  I also read an article about Peter Max and his pride in our President and our country.   Max is a pop artist who started painting during the 1960’s psychedelic period and has continued his career through the present.  In the article, he discussed his creative process and how he created this specific piece.  He started with two different pictures of Obama, picked up his brush, asked his DJ to turn up the music, and started painting.  He created each individual picture independently and assembled them into the montage which is 15 feet x 6 feet (4 rows by 11 columns).  There is no typography in the piece but the artwork is amazing.  The idea of alternating two different pictures makes the montage very dynamic.  The colors are bright and contrasting in some of the pictures and somewhat muted and monotone in others adding to the dynamic nature of the piece.  I was initially attracted to the brightness of the composition and the positive image that it creates of President Obama.  Upon further inspection, I see that each individual picture is a work of art in itself and that the total is even bigger than the sum of its parts due to the dynamic nature of the design.