Peter Max steps through the yawning glass doors of Gallery One at 158 Fillmore St just like anyone else. He pauses for a moment at the desk where patrons sign their names. Perhaps the young girl there does not immediately recognize him. Then, unceremoniously, unassumingly, perhaps even a bit hesitantly, he slips into the pulsing crowd that awaits his arrival.

Max's step over the gallery threshold becomes a step back in time for the throngs of people there to greet him. For them, he does not walk in alone but like the pied piper, bringing a parade of memories and ghosts. Jimmy, John, Janis, and Jerry trail behind him and all night they hover over the crowd, blending with the sounds of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

"When I was younger, so much younger than today...."

Peter Max captured the imagination of an entire generation in the 60s when he elevated graphic technique to art and put his colorful cosmic patterns on everything from ashtrays to buses. Then, his psychedelic stars and rainbows and kaleidoscopic designs, expressions of the mind-expanding experiences of the drug culture at the time, made him a one-man arts industry and a high profile millionaire hippie.

"We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine....

The man most people remember is the one on the cover of Life magazine in 1969, when Max was 29. That same year Newsweek ran a story about a project in which he had graced 60,000 public transit vehicles in ten major cities in the United States with his brilliant colored designs. "Transit art" he called it. Newsweek reported that in the first 18 months of his business his poster company printed 2.5 million copies and his designs were found on more than 40 products. Max saw himself as "bringing art to the people where the people are."

"In San Francisco we used to sell love beads in the park to the tourists that buses brought to see us."

Max has just come from Aspen where Paul Zuger, owner of Gallery One, held an opening in another gallery he owns there. The art being shown represents a cross-section from the artist's history. Most prominent are paintings reminiscent of Matisse and, perhaps, the Fauves. Max is often called an American Expressionist. Luscious primary colors flow into each other like tributaries of a river merging to form loosely shaped figures. A massive scarlet heart, an acrylic on canvas, hangs among a series on the Statue of Liberty. The figures can be identified, but shape seems secondary to color. His pieces from the more distant past, more delicate pastel etchings, hang towards the back of the gallery. In his newest work, a style he dubs Neo Pop, line and shape dominate the more flat, quiet color and imaginary shapes. These hang in a small room adjacent to where the crowd surrounds the artist.

While his art has changed over the years, he continues to produce enormous projects. Zuger introduces Max and asks him to tell us about some of his current projects. Holding up a mock-up of two he explains, "Last September I created a stage for Woodstock for my friend Michael Lang. This was the largest stage in the history of rock and roll." Holding a picture of it up he explains, "It's so large that from here to here is 850 feet. And it's eight stories tall."

Max had created a giant canvas exploding with his legendary colors and images. Shooting stars, rotating planets and flying figures done in the style of the decade in which the original Woodstock took place.

"Awesome. Cool."

About 300,000 people converged on Rome, NY, for this anniversary event. Max's original involvement began with the festival in 1969, when he convinced Swami Satchidananda to open the show with some words of wisdom. In 94 Max provided the opening inspiration.

"I'd trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday....

Max continues, "A month or two later, my friend, Gordon Bethune, the chairman of Continental Airlines, asked me to paint a plane." He has a picture of this as well. "It's a $160 million canvas. I finished this about four months ago and it's flying everywhere now -- from New York to Texas, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Milan." He created this 209-foot flying canvas to commemorate NYC 2000, the 18-month-long millennium celebration for the city of New York.

While the original drawing for the plane took only six minutes to draw, 30 people worked from 6AM to 6PM and 30 others from 6PM to 6AM for a period of seven days to complete the project. It cost Continental $5 million for the plane to be idle for that period of time. Max doesn't think small.

"I have a question," interjects a woman from the crowd. "Can you tell me how old this scarf is?"

Max knows immediately. "That was done in 1969."

"Will you sign it for me?

"Remember these Yes album covers you designed?" a man said waving his cassettes in the air. "I'm a big Yes fan. Will you sign these too?"

Those are practically new. "Those were from 94," Max remembers.

"I think I'm gonna be sad. I think it's today....

Many of those attending the show that evening brought kitsch souvenirs from the 60s for Max's signature. Joanne Kalish brought a scarf; Paco Campbell brought a pair of high-top sneakers he bought at Kinney's for $7. Someone brought a clock; Kahlie Pinello brought two ashtrays, which her mother received as gifts for turning 21.

"I'll bet those ashtrays never saw tobacco!"

There is another scarf, identical to the other but in a different palette, and a signed poster dated 1981 that a man just bought for $2.

Max informs him that it's worth at least $250. Max sees "stuff and thinks they need things." So he paints everything.

During the week following his two-day stay in Denver, Max will be entertaining the crowd that gathers each morning in Manhattan for "The Today Show." He will be painting a different cow sculpture each day. The cows then become part of a public art exhibit in which more than 500 life-sized fiberglass cows will be on display around the city and auctioned at the end of the summer. Some of the proceeds from these sales will benefit the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, the charity for which Katie Couric works.

Being in the presence of Peter Max feels as much like attending a "Happening" as an art show. Happenings, for those of you younger than 50, were staged multimedia theatrical events that paralleled the development of the use of everyday objects and consumer culture in art so prominent in the 60s. They sometimes took days to complete and involved the participation of the audience as well as the artist.

People wander in and out of the gallery that spills onto a mall where people congregate. Max attracts all sorts, from beards and berets to powder and pearls, from Greenwich Village to the Upper East Side. Max transforms the gallery into a room of enthusiastic nostalgia.

"I had a Peter Max coloring book when I was five years old."

If someone buys a painting during the two days that Max will be in Denver, they also buy the privilege of being photographed with the artist and having him sign and draw another sketch on the back of the painting they buy. Gene, a man always poised at Max's side to help him, choreographs this series of steps, a dance that begins from the moment Max finishes his introduction and ends when the crowd goes home. Paintings leap off the walls like the figures that are in them. Gene holds the painting facing the wall, exposing the brown paper backing to Max's black magic marker. A quick drawing, some conversation with the patron and then flash, flash, flash. People take pictures of people taking pictures. He is as much a showman and a celebrity as an artist. The crowd loves him.

"I am he and you are he as you are me and we are all together....

Peter Max is us. He is America. His body of work consists of graphics that include the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl, Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR car, the covers of Playboy, Newsweek, Time, Life and People, portraits of Michael Jordan and presidents Truman, Reagan and Clinton, special celebrations for the United Nations and a wide variety of charities.

He is American. Not as American as mom and apple pie but as American as Nike and General Motors. In addition to his large, highly visible projects, his work shows in 150 galleries. When Zuger holds an opening for him, as he does every year, Max commands a six-figure guarantee and all expenses paid for his entourage. In Denver he has a suite at the Brown Palace. The gallery owner is also responsible for framing the art and publicity.

While he has mastered the American art of the entrepreneur he, in fact, was not born in this country. He was born in Germany and raised in Shanghai, China, where he lived in a pagoda-style house situated amidst a Buddhist monastery and a Sikh temple. At the age of ten, Max and his parents traveled across the vast expanse of China to a Tibetan mountain camp at the foothills of the Himalayas. Forced to leave this mountain retreat because of political upheaval, they then traveled to Israel and arrived there just after Israel won her independence, in 1948. In 1953, Max's family emigrated to the United States where he attended the Art Student's League in New York City and developed into a realist painter. It was only after this period that he developed an interest in new trends in graphic arts that offered him a vehicle to develop his personal brand of design.

"With tangerine trees and marmalade skies...

"You know I was born on the day Kent State took place."

In fact, personally, Max resembles his childhood history more than his artistic one. He is a contrast to his bold, vibrating art except, perhaps, in his intensity. His bearing is more a blend of Europe and the Far East. Dressed in neutral colors and natural fibers, he contrasts with the butterscotch skies and blueberry faces of the art for which he has become so well known. He chats willingly with people, responds politely and graciously, poses for pictures, and draws and draws. His mood seems subdued although his hand never stops moving.

"Say hello to Mr. Max, sweetie."

A man interrupts the patron ritual and introduces a young child to the artist. Max immediately stops what he is doing and then, touching him gently, bends down to the boy's level and speaks to him for a while. Quietly, he resumes his drawing, which he punctuates with his famous signature, each one mimick-ing the others. The "M" is a simple three turned on its side and the line that connects the two legs of the "A" also crosses the "X." MAX.

"I don't care too much for money, cause money can't buy me love....

Zuger explains, "When he paints brushes and paint fly, but personally he keeps a low profile. He meditates frequently and enjoys peace and tranquility. He used to be a strict vegetarian."

"I've got a good reason for taking the easy way out....

In 1971, Max tired of the life that had grown around him and went into retreat, where he immersed himself in his art in earnest. During this period many of the public art projects he did were patriotic in nature: a piece of art commemorating the historic signing of the peace accord between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and PLO chairman Yassar Arafat; a 10-cent US postage stamp commemorating the World's Fair in Spokane, Washington; and a book of paintings entitled Peter Max Paints America.

"Beatnik. I just love that word. You know my father used to call me a beatnik all the time."

The 80s saw his return to a more public life. In 1981 President and Mrs. Reagan invited him to paint the Statue of Liberty in the Rose Garden at the White House. Max had become instrumental in providing the momentum to restore the statue and has done a series of paintings of her, many of which are prominent in this show.

"Listen. Do you want to know a secret?

This success and his high visibility has made him a favorite of the federal government as well. In June, 1996, Max was charged with failure to report $1.1 million in art sales to the Internal Revenue Service. A federal grand jury in Manhattan also indicted Max on charges that he bartered his paintings as partial payment for homes in Woodstock, NY, Southampton, Long Island, and St. John in the US Virgin Islands. He was sentenced to two months in prison, 800 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and all taxes and penalties for tax evasion and conspiracy.

"I am the taxman. Koo koo ka choo."

"Bang Bang Maxwell's silver hammer came down on her head..."

The Zuger and Max team has two more openings this year. In May a show will open in California, in the Silicon Valley, where Yahoo! plans to sponsor a pre-opening-night party. In August Max will show in Zuger's gallery in Santa Fe. The show in Denver, which continues until the end of March, did well as Max's shows usually do. Zuger reported that 80% of the art shown sold. Whether or not people regard Max as stale news or a fresh breeze, he draws people, and makes memories and money.