U.S. Olympic Museum to Open With LeRoy Neiman Exhibit

Had 2020 gone as planned, on July 25, people all over the world would have tuned in to the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Tokyo. Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, fans will have to wait a year for the festivities to begin, but a highly anticipated monument to Olympians past will still open its doors in Colorado Springs this year.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum—housed in a futuristic building constructed by AD100 firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro—will begin to welcome visitors on July 30 (tickets go on sale July 22). The first exhibit will feature over 100 works by LeRoy Neiman, the official painter of the Olympic Games from 1972 to 2010.

Neiman’s brightly colored pieces feature subjects sports fans will surely recognize, including track-and-field stars Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner, and Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn); speed skater Bonnie Blair, wrestler Bruce Baumgartner, Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson, and more. Neiman, who died in 2012, often created his sketches and paintings as the sporting events were happening, and was shown on television as part of the Olympics coverage. “If the athletes can perform in front of that many people, I can paint in front of a live audience,” he said in a 1984 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a showcase and a challenge.”

To complement the exhibit, a 40-foot-tall LED wall in the museum will display Neiman’s artwork superimposed on photographs of modern athletes. The exhibition seems like a natural fit for the new venue. “LeRoy didn’t just paint a competition, he painted the buzz surrounding it,” says the museum’s CEO, Christopher Liedel. “He painted the stakes, and the grandeur of the moment. He painted the ways people come together.”