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Max Hayslette was born in Rupert, West Virginia,
in 1930. He completed his studies at the Art
Institute of Chicago in 1952, where he studied
with Alexander Archipenko and Egon Weiner.
Max considers himself a romantic artist, one
who seeks to give his work a warm and gentle,
spiritual quality. His dreamy landscapes evoke
sentiments of warmth, comfort and familiarity as
they transport the viewer to numerous exotic
destinations in the far corners of the world.
Mr. Hayslette likes to work on-site for his paintings
whenever possible. He takes photos, tenders
sketches and creates color notes. He takes
particular care in recording atmospheric color
temperatures. Mr. Hayslette feels that different
areas of the world have very distinct color
temperatures.
Mr. Hayslette's quest to see the landscape as a
flat composition of light and dark stems from his
love of Asian woodcuts. He believes that the
Asian artist is able to reduce a subject to its
simplest abstract form. His strongest attribute as
a painter is his ability to see the abstract in his
subject. The skeleton of each of his paintings is
black and white, two-dimensional abstracts.
This gives him the composition, the weights and
balances on which he later hangs the more
traditional elements of the subject. After the
composition is formed and the painting divided
into its planes, foreground, middleground and
background, then a color palette is considered
that will further enhance the storytelling of the
painting.
Mr. Hayslette lists Franz Kline and Richard
Diebenkorn as two artists he admires. He sees
Diebenkom's paintings as abstracted
landscapes, flat design rendered on several
planes, with strong Asian influences. He studied
and admired great works of Asian masters in
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Kyoto.
The artist has been greatly influenced by these
travels.
Hayslette is represented in over 300 private,
corporate, and public collections, most notably
The Rockefeller Foundations, Stanford University,
and Wells Fargo Bank.
A very abridged list of his exhibitions includes:
Art Institute of Chicago, Seattle Art Museum,
The Feragil Gallery of New York City, The Findlay
Gallery of Chicago, Christopher Clark Gallery
of San Francisco, Ken Behm Gallery of Seattle,
and Hanson Gallery of Carmel.
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