Baterbys Art Auction Gallery

Press Upcoming Live Auctions Past Live Auctions Online Auctions Charity Partners Benefit Events Service Offerings Art Lectures Art Consignment Art Appraisals Auctioneer Services Masters Publications Artists Art Terms Art Blog
		Leroy Neiman Have you ever wanted to capture the color and movement of an event? Contemporary artist LeRoy Neiman does exactly that. Neiman is best known for capturing sporting events and leisure activities such as the 1972 Olympic sketches. He was the official artist at five Olympiads. Millions of people have watched him at work: on ABC TV coverage of the Olympics, as CBS Superbowl computer artist, and at other major competitions, televised on location with his sketchbook and drawing materials, producing split-second records and highly developed images of what he is witnessing. " In the Christian Science Monitor (May 2, 1972), Nick Seitz wrote that Neiman, who has been labeled an American Impressionist, "has the journalistic talent, as well as the artistic ability, to convey the essence of a game or contestant with great impact, from the Kentucky Derby to Wilt Chamberlain, from the America's Cup to Muhammad Ali, from the Super Bowl to Bobby Hull."

Neiman was also a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for 10 years. He gained wide recognition as contributing artist for Playboy, in the 1950s when he met Hugh Heffner. "Whether one approves of Neiman's work or not... one must agree that he is a work of art himself," Stan Isaacs declared in New York Newsday (March 27, 1968), in a reference to Neiman's colorful public persona. "I guess I created LeRoy Neiman," the artist once said. "Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I'm a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work."

Before his rich success as a popular artist Neiman's life began on June 8, 1921 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended a Roman Catholic primary school, where, he told Max Millard for the New York City Westside TV Shopper (January 27-February 2, 1979), he "was always drawing pictures and getting special treatment... showing off, copping out of other things." During recess periods he would inscribe pen-and-ink tattoos on his classmates' arms. A painting of a fish that he made in sixth grade won a prize in a national art competition and as a high school student he created posters for school dances and athletic events. In 1942, Neiman quit school and enlisted in the United States Army. While serving as a cook for four years, with two years of combat in Europe, he painted sexually suggestive murals in military kitchens and dining halls that reportedly generated enthusiastic responses from women as well as men.

"Freely flowing paint makes possible fast-moving strokes. With fast-moving strokes, one can render the impression of fast-moving action." "That was when I hit my stride," Neiman has been quoted as saying. He experimented with house paints and his work Idle Boats, one of his earliest works in that medium, won first prize in oil painting at the 1953 Twin City Show. That same year it was bought by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and thus became the first of his paintings to be purchased by a museum. Also in 1953, Neiman had his first solo shows, at galleries in Chicago and Lincoln, Illinois. This was the beginning of a road to success for Neiman; the widespread success he is known for.

LeRoy Neiman's art has a unique perspective, incorporating the art world and the world of sports. At Baterby's Art Auction Gallery we display this uniqueness with the rest of our fine art portraits. We make room for the contemporary displays of artists such as LeRoy Neiman.

LeRoy Neiman's works are available for sale. Please contact us to view the artworks for sale.