LeRoy Neiman

(American, 1921 – 2012)

“The businessman says 'If I don't do it first, somebody else will.' The artist says 'If I don't do it first, nobody else will.'”
— LeRoy Neiman

American Impressionist Leroy Neiman taught us to cherish and memorialize the beauty in the fleeting moment. Known as the “Father of Sports Art,” and the “Chronicler of the Good Life” and the most widely recognized American sports and leisure artist in history, he had a journalistic sensibility that when combined with his artistic talent conveyed the essence of a moment. From the America’s Cup to the Super Bowl to the Kentucky Derby, to Muhammad Ali, to yachting on the French Riviera, Neiman not only painted it all, but painted it live. As journalist Joe Flower said in 1984, Neiman was always given “the best seat, with the best view, right up front with the owners, the movie stars, the high muckity-mucks. If that’s not good enough, he just wanders down to the dugouts, the benches on the sidelines, the dressing rooms.” Neiman’s energetic style vibrates with color. “His tones are vivid, jarring, and at times, gaudily biting; they explode in an effusion of reds, blues, pinks, greens, and yellows; they shimmer and dance across the surface plane,” wrote Malcom Lein of Neiman’s palette. The artist intended the areas of a painting to fit together only at a distance. Up close it is more fluid and abstract, and as one backs away it becomes more realistic and falls into focus. The artist compared this quality to the reality of contemporary society; humans casually observe most things but will often miss truths if they don’t take the time to be aware of their perspective. For the naturally talented artist, Playboy, sports, and live-action painting would become the pillars of his impressive career and create a lasting legacy.

Neiman was born to Charles Runquist, an unskilled laborer, and Lydia Runquist in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1921 of Turkish and Swedish descent. His father abandoned the family and his mother remarried twice, which is where he got his surname. He attended a Roman Catholic school and became a “street kid” as he put it. He was always expressing himself visually. He drew “tattoos” on his classmates’ arms and won a prize in a national art competition in sixth grade for a painting of a fish. As he grew bigger, he started making money painting window images for local grocers, and created posters for school athletic events and dances. After graduating high school, Neiman joined the Army and served in combat for two years, then spent four years until the war ended as a military chef. In the dining hall of the military kitchen, he painted pin-up girls to raise morale, which were widely appreciated. After his discharge, he took figure drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Institute was so pleased with him that when he graduated they hired him, and he would teach there for ten years, balancing it with his other creative endeavors.

Hugh Hefner and Neiman had met while they both worked at a Chicago department store, Hefner a copywriter and Neiman a freelance artist. Shortly after Hefner began publishing Playboy in late 1953, they had a chance meeting, Neiman showed him some of his work and Hefner sent the publication’s art director over to see them. The art director, Art Paul, immediately made a commission, which would earn the publication an award from the Chicago Art Directors Club in 1954, and so Neiman and Playboy began a lifetime friendship and partnership.

Neiman first started tasting success when he won first prize in oil painting at the 1953 Twin City show for his piece, Idle Boats, which was then purchased by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. That same year he had his first solo shows in Chicago and Lincoln, Illinois. Things started taking off and he received more attention, having work featured in Art in America in 1956, and the next year was included in the American 25th Biennial Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as the Chicago Art Exhibition where his piece won the prize for most popular painting. He also married Janet Byrne on June 22, 1957 with whom he would spend the rest of his life.

“Man at his Leisure,” was the Playboy feature given to Neiman in 1958, for which he sketched, painted, and wrote the text, and which he would appear in the magazine for the next 15 years. Playboy sent him all over the world to places like England, Paris, St. Tropez, Madrid, and Monaco. In his work for the publication, he attended competitions at the Grand National Steeplechase, Epsom Derby, Ascot, the Tour d’Argent, Maxim’s, the Lido, the Folies-Bergere, the Cannes Film Festival, the Fiesta de San Isidro bullfights and the Grand Prix auto race. The multitude of subjects that Neiman depicted for Playboy in later years include the Beatles and the Carnaby Street scene in London, Prince Philip playing polo at Windsor Castle, nudists relaxing on the Dalmatian Coast of Yugoslavia, the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, America’s Cup challenges, the Kirov and Bolshoi ballet troupes in the Soviet Union, and animals in Kenyan wildlife parks. Between 1960 and 1970, he produced a total of more than 100 paintings and two murals for 18 Playboy clubs. “Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings - not affluence and luxury, as such, but joie de vivre itself,” Neiman said. In 1961, Neiman rented a studio in Paris, winning a gold medal there the same year at the Salon d’Art Moderne. He then spent time in Italy, held solo shows in London and Paris in 1962, and then returned to the US, setting up a studio in New York City, where he continued to exhibit his work at the Hammer Galleries. This was his headquarters until his death five decades later.

Stylistically, Neiman was known for his kaleidoscopic color palette and active brushwork, although he actually painted mostly with a palette knife instead of a traditional brush in order to apply Impressionist-inspired chunks of color. He would sometimes use a combination of mediums including watercolor, ink, gouache, felt-tip marker, chalk, colored pencil, graphite, and charcoal. The artist picked up in inspiration in various ways from a variety of artists. “For spirit,” Neiman says he took from Leonardo da Vinci and Rubens, “for space,” Tintoretto, and “for feel,” Fragonard. Many others also influenced him, including the Romantic Realists, Post-Impressionists, and Fauvists, Eastern European Expressionists, the Ashcan School and Abstract Expressionists - the last of which, like Neiman, notably used action painting. Neiman discovered his signature style, according to him, in 1953, when he was exploring the use of some discarded cans of enamel being used for house work, which flowed freely, making fast-moving strokes and the impression of action possible. Neiman earned a reputation for painting live and was the official artist of the Olympics from 1972 to 2010, artist-in-residence for the New York Jets, and worked with CBS on Super Bowls. He was a fixture on the sideline of major events, including multiple Democratic National Conventions, capturing moments with live paint. Neiman the man was a hard worker, without hobbies, who took little time to himself to unwind. With his iconic handlebar mustache, slicked-back hair, and long cigar, he was both quiet and warm, and a flamboyant man-about-town. The artist felt drawn to investigate life’s social strata from the working class to the elite, particularly enjoying events where he would find the full range of social classes in one scene.

Neiman has had overwhelming success and recognition for his talent and hard work in the public eye, although some art critics have been dismissive of him despite his incredible achievements. Paintings, etchings, lithographs, silkscreen prints, and sculptures of what he called “the good life,” are in the permanent collections of public and private museums and other institutions worldwide. Many public and private institutions have works by him in their permanent collections, including the Hermitage Museum in Russia, which purchased 19 of his prints in 1973. Neiman has participated in many group exhibitions, and in a two-man show, with Andy Warhol, at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in 1981. Venues all over the world have held solo-exhibitions of his work, including the Minnesota Museum of Art in St. Paul, the University of Texas in El Paso, the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the Museo de Belles Arts, in Caracas, Casagrafica in Finland; and the New State Tretyakov Museum in Moscow. In 1988, a show of his toured four cities in Japan. Neiman was a member of the New York City Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs starting in 1995. He received four honorary degrees and, among other honors, an Award of Merit from the American Athletic Union in 1976, a Gold Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1977, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association in 1986. Also, in 1986, Neiman and his wife created the LeRoy Neiman Foundation to fund programs supporting and advancing arts education. Through the foundation, they created the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, the LeRoy Neiman Center for Study of American Culture and Society at UCLA, and a UCLA LeRoy Neiman scholarship. Over the years, he donated many of his works to charitable organizations, and in 1995, gave a gift of $6 million to create the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies the School of the Arts at Columbia University in New York City. Just as Neiman’s art was for all people a global audience that stretched far beyond the traditional art elite Neiman wanted his philanthropy to reach the disadvantaged. He began partnering with various arts education organizations to support young artists. His incredible ability to uniquely capture the energy of the moment in pulsating colors and brushwork has immortalized him in the art world and made him a highly desirable acquisition for museums and private collectors.

Neiman retired from his publisher in 2010, two years before passing away. American Fine Art was fortunate to purchase the remaining inventory from his publisher, and is now the ultimate destination for Neiman acquisitions.

American Fine Art, Inc. is proud to feature the original works and limited editions of LeRoy Neiman. Visit our 12,000 sq. ft. showroom in Scottsdale, Arizona or call today. Our website is offered only as a limited place to browse or refresh your memory and is not a reflection of our current inventory. To learn more about collecting, pricing, value, or any other art information, please contact one of our International Art Consultants. We look forward to giving you the one on one attention you deserve when building your fine art collection. We hope you find our website helpful and look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale soon.