David Maxim (born 1945) is an American visual artist known for mixed media abstract compositions as well as figurative work in sculpture, painting and drawing. He lives and works in San Francisco.[2]
Education and Background
David Maxim was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, California. 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 California State University, Los Angeles for a year before taking a one year hiatus in South America and Mexico. He subsequently moved to Santa Barbara, and then to San Francisco in 1976 to pursue his art, while continuing to teach art history for the studio artist at the San Francisco Art Institute and California State University Hayward. Soon, however, he was devoting himself full-time to his studio art. He received an Artist Residency at the Dorland Mountain Colony in the 1980s, and a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant in the 1990s. His work is found in private collections, museums and universities and in the U.S. and Europe.[2][3]
Work
Maxim's early work included realist oil paintings of the Himalayan mountains.[4] In the later 1970s he created wood and fabric constructions that resembled sailing boats. These constructions were featured 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 some referred to as his trademark, of painting and building on the back side of the canvas.[6] 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]."[7] 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."[8]
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."[9] Baker and others describe Maxim's painting as "explosive" and "visceral", with "strong homoerotic content."[10][11]
Maxim creates smaller works using similar techniques, including the "face-to-wall" arrangement, layers of dripping paint and three-dimensional elements using other media. In the late 1990s and 2000s Maxim started creating works in series, including images of tornadoes and stars.[12][13] He also produces works on paper, e.g. drawings and watercolors.[9][14] Maxim's work combines elements of abstract expressionism with narrative themes, including mythology, mortality and nature.[15]
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