David Maxim
David Maxim | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1945[1] Los Angeles, CA |
| Education | M.A., Art History, University of California Los Angeles, 1968 B.A., Art History, University of California Los Angeles, 1966 |
| Occupation | Visual artist |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Website | davidmaximstudio |
David Maxim (born 1945) is an American visual artist known for mixed media abstraction and figurative work in sculpture and two dimensions. He lives and works in San Francisco.[2]
Education and Background
[edit]David Maxim was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, California.[3] After completing a Masters in Art History at the University of California Los Angeles in 1968, he taught art history for the studio artist at UCLA for about one year before devoting himself to his own studio art career. He moved to San Francisco in 1976 to pursue his studio art, while continuing to teach art history at the San Francisco Art Institute and California State University Hayward.[2]
Work
[edit]Maxim's early work focused on photorealist oil paintings of the Himalayas.[4] In the later 1970s he created wooden and fabric constructions that resembled sailing boats. These constructions were included in the New Images/Bay Area exhibition at the Oakland Museum, Maxim's first significant museum exposure.[5] In the 1980's Maxim began creating painting constructions using, what would become his trademark of painting and building on the back side of the canvas.[6] The paint is applied in large splashes and drips, at times using the materials that he has attached to the canvas structure to apply the paint.[7] Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote “What sets his objects apart from other paintings – in addition to their being turned to the wall – is the fact that he appears to hurl paint onto his monochromed surfaces with makeshift tools such as the rakes covered with paint soaked rags that hang from [the piece].”[8] Maxim often worked on a monumental scale. Jolene Thym of the Oakland Tribune describes works in a 1994 exhibition at the UC Berkeley Museums at Blackhawk: “Layer upon layer of color drips down the 10-by-15-foot canvases, coating hunks of netting, dangling ropes, wheels and 12-foot-long clubs made of wood and burlap.[7]
Baker and others describe Maxim's painting as "explosive" and "visceral", with "strong homoerotic content."[9][10] Baker writes, “Maxim’s big paintings have frequently incorporated near-life-size swaddled mannequins, ambiguously deployed like giant marionettes to evoke everything from eroticism and rescue to violence and mourning.”[11] His work combines elements of abstract expressionism with narrative themes, including mythology, mortality and nature.[12] In the late 1990s and 2000s Maxim created works in series, including drawings of tornadoes and stars.[13][14]
References
[edit]- ^ "Marin Museum of Contemporary Art: 2012 Exhibitions". Marin MOCA. 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
- ^ a b "2012 Exhibitions". Marin MOCA. 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "David Maxim". MMFA Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Albright, Thomas (February 23, 1983). "Maxim's New Paintings: Building From the Bare Bones". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. 56–57.
- ^ McDonald, Robert (2 June 1979). "New Images / Bay Area". Artweek. 10 (21): 8. Retrieved 4 April 2025 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Weeks, H.J. (24 November 1978). "Let your imagination sail with Maxim's ships". San Jose Mercury News. pp. 12E.
- ^ a b Thym, Jolene (February 12, 1994). "Maxims on Canvas". Oakland Tribune. pp. CUE-1, 5.
- ^ Baker, Kenneth (November 12, 1986). "Maxim's Stylized Violence Steals Show". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 51.
- ^ Roche, Mary (23 October 1996). "Critic's Choice: Art: Heroes and Giants". San Francisco Bay Guardian.
- ^ Baker, Kenneth (2 June 1995). "Taking Art into Their Own Hands". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. C1.
- ^ Baker, Kenneth (30 January 2010). "Maxim's splash of sophistication". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. E3.
- ^ Baker, Kenneth (15 December 2001). "Maxim's work at 743 melds painting, dolls". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Baker, Kenneth (11 December 1999). "Maxim's Whirlwind of Abstraction". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. B1.
- ^ Unknown (2 May 2013). "Critique of David Maxim - Tornado #19". Introduction to the Studio: Grinnell College Visual Art. Retrieved 6 April 2025.
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