A message from EA President Susan Wagner
On Monday, legendary artist and American Pop Culture icon Peter Max passed away at the age of 88. As tributes continue to pour in from across the globe, those of us who had the pleasure of meeting him, and others who knew him well, have their special memories of him to cherish and share.
I first met Peter Max when I was invited to visit his amazing art studio in Manhattan back in 2010. It was a fun place and the first of several visits there that I shall never forget. His huge studio, filled with works of his colorful art, was a remarkable gathering place for all kinds of fascinating people and events that he held often, including for those of us involved with animal protection issues. Peter Max was a great animal advocate. He had heard about the group effort we were involved with to rescue former New York City carriage horse Bobby II Freedom from slaughter earlier that year. Bobby’s dramatic rescue story went viral. After expediting his rescue, Bobby came to live at our horse sanctuary in Chatham, NY, where he spent the next 12 years of his life until his passing in 2022 at the age of 32.
Peter Max generously volunteered to paint several portraits of Bobby to be auctioned off to help raise much-needed funds to rescue horses. He called his first portrait, shown here, “Bobby Wild and Free.” He said to me at the time, “I am so thankful that my art could be used in saving even one horse from any kind of cruelty.”
In a 2011 New York Daily News article about Bobby, entitled “Horse Ponies Up to the Max,” Peter Max told writer Samuel Goldsmith about the origin of his animal activism. Quoting from the article, he said, “I have a history of saving animals. It started years ago with a cow… People have their cats and dogs, and kids have rabbits, but I fell in love with a cow…” He explained that he had saved a cow who had escaped from a slaughterhouse in Ohio.
On behalf of all of us at Equine Advocates, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Peter Max, whose influence and impact on our culture, starting in the 1960s, will always be remembered. In addition, he will never be forgotten by countless animal advocates and animal lovers for his dedicated support of animal rescue and the prevention of animal abuse. I, personally, will never forget his kindness and generosity in volunteering his immense talent and recognition as an artist to immortalize Bobby II Freedom in portraits not only to help Equine Advocates, but also to expose the cruelty of the urban carriage horse trade and the horror of the horse slaughter pipeline where many of those carriage horses end up. Peter Max will be remembered by the world for his great and unique art, but to so many others, me included, his remarkable legacy also includes his tireless work and advocacy for animals.