A Guilty Pleasure
My secret admiration for the art of Leroy Neiman
Sure, I usually talk about art instruction books on this site. But this month,
I'd like to tell you about one of my favorite artists. But keep this to yourself.
I don't want it getting out that I like this guy's work.
Ever heard of LeRoy Neiman? Maybe you have, especially if you were around in
the 1960s and 1970s. He was quite a famous artist, back in the days of disco.
This guy used to be on TV all the time and his paintings were in major magazines
and newspapers. But that was a long time ago. But he has not been as big of
a presence as he used to be. He's 84 now, and while he still paints, he is not
the hot topic he used to be back in the glory days of polyester and wide lapels.
OK, so why is paging through a book of LeRoy Neiman art such a guilty pleasure
for me?
As an artist, he has had an exceptionally successful career. He started doing
artwork for Playboy back in the 1950s, and went on to define himself as the
artist who painted "America at Leisure." He painted sporting events like the
Kentucky Derby, boxing matches at Madison Square Garden, as well as the Olympics
and Super Bowl. He liked to portray himself as the artist who was at home in
the casinos of Monte Carlo, on the plains of Africa, and the streets of Paris,
sketching, painting and observing.
Sure, he could draw, but he was best at drawing attention to himself. Often,
he could be found on TV, sketching the action of some big sporting event live
on the camera. His artwork decorated the Playboy Clubs, he hung around with
the likes of Clint Eastwood and Mohammed Ali, and all the while, he was careful
to maintain a suave, man-of-the-world public image.
LeRoy Neiman was as close to a rock star as an artist is likely to get.
And despite that success, or maybe because if it, he never received any real
critical acclaim. You won't find any Neimans hanging in major museums, and while
a lot of critical praise was lavished on other celebrity artists like Andy Warhol
and Peter Max, not much landed on LeRoy Neiman's shoulders. No, the art world
didn't care for him one bit.
And that's why books of his art are a guilty pleasure for me. Because if I
mention that I like his work to other artists, they just sort of snicker. He's
not a real artist. He's more like an...an...illustrator or something.
So I keep it to myself.
But I love his artwork. He paints in a heavy impasto style, with broad smears
of the palette knife, and thick brushstrokes of vibrant color. His style is
well suited to sports, because those smears of paint create a wonderful blurry,
fast moving effect.
And I like his artwork because it captures those hedonistic 1970s so well -
an era of excess and fun and kitsch. . Nobody thought smoking was bad for you,
three-martini lunches were normal, and the most ridiculous fashions were commonplace.
Ah, hair, the music, the vibe of the 1970s. What a trip.
So here are some of my favorite art books from LeRoy Neiman. None of these are art instruction books - they
are just big picturebooks of some of his most famous works. But you don't need an instruction book
to figure out how to create your own works in this style. Just have a whiskey, light up a cigar, and
start smearing paint over the canvas.
Cheers!
Chris York
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