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American Morning

Spirit of America: Peter Maxx on Campaign to Show His Heart Really is in His Art

Aired October 12, 2001 - 09:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You probably recognize that art. Peter Maxx's artwork spans about four generations, and he is perhaps one of the best-known contemporary American artists. Now Maxx is on a campaign that shows his heart really in his art with an exhibit "From Pop to Patriotism." That's what it's being called, and he joins us this morning.

Welcome. Congratulation.

PETER MAXX, ARTIST: Hi. Thank you. Thank you.

ZAHN: Tell us a little bit about what you try to accomplish, and then what I'd like to do is show everybody out there that's watching some of this artwork, so just a quick explanation of what you are attempting to do here.

MAXX: Paula, what happened is after the September 11th, I finally decided I've got to do something, and I decided I am going to design some posters, I am going to create some posters, and so after about two or three days, the first one came out, which is this one here.

ZAHN: Which is absolutely beautiful.

MAXX: Yes.

And I've got this one for instance earmarked for the September 11th fund. I spoke to the people yesterday. And it will be made available on my Web Site at the Wentworth Galleries, and then there's another poster. I've done seven posters all together. I think you have about six of them here, and these posters will be unveiled today, and the next few days at the Wentworth Galleries, with funds, with proceeds going to the September 11th fund, and then I'm going to do another poster like this, a similar poster, that will go to go to the Twin Tower fund, which is Mayor Giuliani's fund, and Mayor Giuliani is a good friend of mine and I'm really proud of the way he has come across. I've known Giuliani to be like this the last five or six years, and it's just tremendous. So there's another possibility for a poster.

ZAHN: Peter, you know what, I just want people to be able to revel in the beauty of this work, so before we get into more of the specifics about where the individual funds are going to go to, just walk us through this. This is just a striking image.

MAXX: This is another image. All of these have -- "America the Beautiful" and "My Love is America," and I have another one, "Home of the Brave, Land of the Free." And I've been doing the liberty flag images for the last five presidents. There in a bunch of presidential libraries. Every president in the United States since Ford, you know, Carter, Reagan, Bush , and of course President Clinton, and hopefully soon with George W. I am going to be doing more and more work. I've done maybe 60, 80 projects for them. And these are just some of the images that I gathered together.

ZAHN: Here, I love this one. This one is spectacular.

MAXX: Thank you. Thank you.

People will be able to buy these with all the proceeds going to the various funds. You know probably all that will be subtracted is shipping and handling, and the rest, that's where they go.

MAXX: These liberties were done in 1989. I did 89 liberties to commemorate a year where democracy was really flourishing all over the year, and so I picked some of the nicest of those.

This is another one, which I showed to my friend Gordon Bethune at Continental Airlines. He wants to put in on the cover. He's the one who hooked me up with the September Fund through the United Way.

And all these posters, Paula, will also be seen on all the Park West ships. There's about 70 cruise lines around the world that have an audience of almost 150,000 people a week. And these posters will be given and shown to all the people around the world, not just at sea through Park West, but also through the Wentworth Gallery, 30 galleries, and then through the Web site petermaxx.com, and various ads that are being done all over the country.

ZAHN: OK, Peter, even as we continue to talk, I am going to go back and show our viewers out there the posters again.

As you know, art can be incredibly intimidating. There are a lot of people in America who won't walk into an art gallery. Help them understand what they would need to spend to get a copy of one of these posters. Is it doable for most Americans?

MAXX: I think so. I'm going to will try to do them in three sizes. And, you know, Paula, you're the fist one, and this audience is the first one who has ever seen these posters. They were just mounted yesterday.

ZAHN: I'm honored.

MAXX: At Wentworth Gallery tonight, people will see them. I have a show in Washington, Baltimore, and Virginia. And these posters will probably go unsigned from $50 to $75, to $125 in larger sizes. I will probably also make them available signed and personalized for maybe $200 to $250. And as I said, all we well be subtracting is the shipping and handling. We will take no money for anything else. I would like to hopefully, if I could, raise many million of dollars, maybe $50 million to $100 million. If I get to sell a million posters, that's almost $100 million. And it's amazing what can be done with art.

And I'm also glad yesterday when I heard George Bush talk about children raising a dollar a piece, and to raise money for the children of -- the Afghan children. That will also be another fund I would like to do.

ZAHN: Yes. I guess you probably been as struck as I have by the generosity of the American spirit, particularly in the wake of this tremendous tragedy.

In closing this morning, I know you're goals are lofty and you'd love to raise $100 million. Just help people understand how the money would be divvied up. Who would decide which fund -- which funds these monies would go to?

MAXX: What I do now is designating for each poster a fund. Let's say if one poster will go to the Red Cross, all the money from -- of those posters to the red cross. If I do something for instance with Meg Whitman at eBay, who is trying to raise $100 million, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), then all the money will go to the fund that she's trying to put together. So there will be also Peter Maxx poster on eBay. With the September fund, we spoke to them yesterday, monies where the poster will have a little logo on the bottom of poster, that money will go to the September 11th fund. Twin Towers spoke to Jeffrey Hess (ph) yesterday, the monies raised there will go to that, and there will many other funds.

I may create another five or six more posters, and let this happen for the next year or two, and they'll be available from maybe $25 to $200 to $300, just as poster form, on the ships, on land, on Web sites, and eBay, through ads. The Gallatins are giving a bunch of ads to play with, from I understand "The New York Times," maybe "Sport Illustrated," "Fortune," and these full-page ads will be used for that.

ZAHN: That's fantastic. Well, we congratulate you. And it's nice to hear how inspired you are to produce more, and I think it's so good of you to make this art actually accessible. I mean, you know, a lot of folks in America, like I said, are very intimated by this stuff, and if the posters are $25 and $75, that's very doable in many cases.

Peter, good luck to you, and good luck at the opening tonight. And we are honored you chose to share your art with us here, first, on our morning show.

ZAHN: Take care.

MAXX: Thank you.

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