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This new selection offers some very recent work including studies for more complex ink drawings or paintings. They perfectly demonstrate Maxon's unique approach; at once playful and profound. His works offer provocative insight into a powerful, but not very prolific, artist.

What's New with Maxon

Maxon is very pleased with Reading the Cosmic Wheel, his first archival pigment print (aka: gicleè) both with how beautifully it turned out and with the enthusiastic public response to it. The art print is an exact, though slightly smaller (20" vs. 28" square), rendition on Maxon's original oil painting.

Because Maxon's paintings are so rare, and because this particular composition is so fantastically complex (it took over six months to complete) and evocative, it was a natural to make available to a broader audience in a limited edition. It's the sort of work that the more you study it the more you see, every time. This may be the beginning of a very exciting series.

Meanwhile, Maxon is on to another painting, some writing, his usual walk in the country, and occasional meditating on the street. He's back at the latter, he says, because it helps to get away from the intensity of his creativity and keep in touch with people.

photo by Jamie Stanek
Maxon Crumb on Market Street, San Francisco 2007

Born in 1945, Maxon Crumb is the youngest brother of Charles (deceased) and Robert Crumb. Although Maxon has been drawing, painting, and writing for over 25 years (early work appeared in Weirdo, Liquidator, and his self-published Crumb's Brother's Magazine), it is only since the publication of Maxon's Poe (Word•Play, 1997) and HardCore Mother (CityZen Books, 2001) his first novel, that his artistry has been accessible to a wide audience.

From 1997 Maxon has earned his living solely through art sales, book royalties, and private commissions. Despite his busy schedule he still takes time to enjoy long walks in the country and explore his inner self. He still meditates a few hours a week on the streets of San Franicsco. He works in the same resident hotel room in the city that he has rented for the past two decades.

Maxon's worldview is in his art. He is well versed in classic art and literature, as seen in his references to European masters and exotic images of Aztecan/Mayan architecture and sacrificial rituals. Suppressed sexual tension and curiosity are expressed in searching, sometimes graphically violent, compositions. Throughout his work runs a current of sophisticated, subliminal social commentary.

Maxon is a quiet genius; eccentric, perhaps, but practical aplenty (he's very computer savvy, for instance) to balance his creative gifts.

Word•Play is proud to offer the art of Maxon Crumb.