Max GinsburgRealism, Social Justice, and Telling the Truth: An Interview with Artist, Max Ginsburg

A Conversation with Max Ginsburg

When was the last time you saw a painting that really challenged you? How do you typically react to paintings that portray suffering or difficult political topic? It's an honor to bring you this Max Ginsburg podcast Interview. I am grateful for the opportunity I had for a long-ranging conversation in this episode with Max.

Max Ginsburg is a native New Yorker, many of his paintings center on people and places around New York City. He also draws on themes of peace and justice; deep outrage to war, injustice, and torture as they are conveyed in some of his paintings.

Max Ginsburg talks about some of the fascinating insights and lessons he has developed of the years - you also don’t want to miss images of Max’s paintings located at the end of this post.

Max talks about Political and painful paintings

In this episode with Max, I really wanted to get to the root of what energizes this passion for depicting pain, suffering, and torture in his artwork. Why paint such painful and evocative images - who wants to see these types of paintings?

It has always been Max’s desire to bring truth and reality into his paintings - sometimes that means a peace image of a couple on a walk and sometimes that means a painting of a man being tortured in a prison in Iraq. When you are so focused on painting reality and what you experience - you are going to get a mixture of the peaceful and the painful - such is life.

Are you drawn to Max’s style and approach? What do you think of his commitment to painting reality in all its glory - good and bad? When you look at Max’s artwork, you really get the sense that his compassion and heart shine through - what can you learn from Max’s story?

Time to teach

Never one to shy away from a challenge - Max has not only flexed his muscles as an artist, but he also has spent time as an art instructor. Much of Max’s passion for teaching stems from the way he views the art world from a macro perspective - he feels like there isn’t enough focus on realism. It was refreshing to hear that Max wasn’t willing to see realism take a hit - he got in the trenches and decided to teach!

Let me tell you - teaching isn’t for the faint of heart. You really have to have a passion and a well of patience to gently guide students toward the objective. I would have loved to learn from Max as a student and I hope you catch a bit of the valuable insights that he has to share!

Paint what you see, not what you know

Throughout this podcast episode with Max, he kept coming back to this phrase, “Paint what you see, not what you know.” It seems like this phrase isn’t just an empty platitude that Max picked up over the years - it is more of a theme that runs through all of his work as an artist and an instructor. You can almost hear Max chanting this phrase with each stroke of the brush on canvas. Do you have any phrases you live by? What have you picked up over the years that have become part of your approach as an artist?