Generally, I’m not keen on Peter Max. I get it, he’s nailed some iconic images, and I firmly acknowledge the pioneering aesthetic. But, it’s just so wacka-wacka – the Billy Joel of psychedelic art is surely cruel – he’s far less hateful – but that’s what comes to mind (especially compared to the sexy sci fi kaleidoscope cool of someone like Michael English or Hapshash and the Coloured Coat.)
But these paper airplanes are splendid. They were published in a small format paperback in 1971, exhorting readers to “get your message across with a paper airplane in cosmic colors” It could be the geometric restraints on the the design, or just the small throwaway nature of the subject, but these panels are note-perfect. Even the chirpy lines like “I’m A Bird,” “I love the Earth don’t feed me to the streets,” are, like the artwork, genuinely endearing rather than cloying. Wright-on Wright Brothers, indeed!