Reception Held for Va. Congressman

The Washington Post/July 16, 1992

Artist Peter Max played host to a reception for Rep. Lewis F. Payne Jr. of Virginia last night in his studio near Central Park.

Max purchased 250 acres in Payne's district in rural Buckingham County, about 75 miles west of Richmond, a year and half ago. The property includes three-quarters of a mile of frontage on the James River and a seven-acre pond.

It also adjoins Yogaville, site of the Light of Truth Universal Shrine, a $ 2 million lotus flower-shaped temple, and a settlement inhabited by devotees of Sri Swami Satchidananda, whom Max brought to the United States in 1966.

Max said he plans to build a retreat soon on his land, with 20 or so small houses, for use by artists and writers who will participate in seminars to discuss "the creative experience" and try to answer "where it comes from."

Max, 54, became an international celebrity in the 1960s, when more than $ 250 million of his kaleidoscopic art, in the form of posters, watches, T-shirts, umbrellas and backpacks, was purchased by counterculture young people who made his pop art the symbol of a generation.

Max designed a poster for last year's Virginia Festival of American Film around his famous rendition of the Statue of Liberty, a copy of which hangs in a restroom at his studio.

Staff writers James Ragland, Richard Tapscott and Donald P. Baker contributed to this report.