Sadly only a few in the museum brain trust has recognized artists such as Bob Peak. Today museum curators seem to promote student-level artists while overlooking the brilliance of many commercial illustrators from the Golden Age of Illustration and Post Golden Age. This could be out of artistic ignorance or antipathy for art that was done on commercial assignments. In my opinion, the art world is upside down. If one put all the top tier, contemporary artists, in a room and pooled their aggregate talent into one super-artist, this super-artist could not paint or draw with the prowess of Bob Peak. Bob Peak can be considered the most important and innovative illustrator of the post-war era. He has reimagined illustration art with his trademark use of color and design and sound draftsmanship In this work of 1965, Peak uses a broad area of bright orange to symbolically illustrate a joyful and happy moment of three men laughing while having a drink.
The artwork lies somewhere between abstraction and figuration
The quick-fire approach with which he draws the figures is as impressive as his radical use of composition with a vertical element of an umbrella pole running through the composition. Color will vary from monitor to monitor. Work is best viewed with a top key light