Max Piar discovered very early on his passion for art history, painting and drawing and not least because of his Florentine family roots. He was especially fascinated with colour, brushwork, effects of light, moods, painting technique and the sophisticated image construction of the old master painters. Not only the old master paintings by Lukas Cranach, Hans Holbein, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Rafael and Michelangelo, but also Japanese and Chinese ink paintings where studied, admired, copied and reinterpreted. The artist sought on this basis his own style and eventually found it. He continues to work and ultimately develop his personal style. Already at the age of 14 he took a pre-qualification examination at an art college. In a school talent pool he acquainted important teachers, painters, graphic artists and calligraphers. He studied portrait- and nude painting, the human anatomy, the perspective image structure, calligraphy and, most importantly, the old masters techniques.

His paintings were initially on large-scale, hand-made paper and then later on large-format wood panels, similar to the panel paintings practiced by painters of Gothic and Renaissance in the 13th and 16th centuries which are also used by modern artists.

Similar to this he paints on multilayer chalk basis… lavish… layer upon layer… followed by watercolour, tempera and inks… glazed… bold… calligraphic…abstract.

Motion studies… nude paintings… artistic tension studies - realistic or abstracted –playing with light and shade – playing with lines, strokes, sweeps, movement, fine engravings – which are only found in copper-plate and stained glass – provide depth and body, playful detail, spatially defined perspective, drawing with flourish or restriction.

Calligraphic – similar to characters, defined with a few strokes harmoniously in the pictures, contrast and detailed, spatially and deep, exciting and aggressive, bizarre and soothing mysterious figures – Metamorphoses is like – dancers.

Let the pictures speak for themselves – feel, experience and see

Liechtenstein/Vaduz, 2012

„The attentive viewer is invited to take a “dive“ into the depths of the picture and follow the virtuoso brush and engraving technique. The paintings want to be studied, they communicate with the observer and want to be analysed. The imaginative observer will quickly start to play with the image and find elements which are hidden even from the artist.

Those who have time there is an impressive exhibition in store for them...”

Thomas A. Guenther, Deutschland/Gereuth, 2004