Leroy Neiman: Five Decades

I had been aware of LeRoy Neiman since the late Fifties when I first saw his work in Playboy. I knew that there were books of his work available over the years but I had not bothered with them because I thought they were too specific in their subject matter. With this gorgeous book, which has just over 330 color pictures (in more than 200 dpi) beautiful printed and designed and in a large size edition it's just what I've been waiting for. After his early appearance in Playboy an art critic at the time, Frank Getlein, said in the magazine: "All of this is painted in what looks at first like a very slapdash manner. It's anything but that. At ten feet, everything falls into flawless perspective". The apparent casualness of Neiman's style is quite fascinating, it does look so easy yet within the paintings very precise detail is achieved using dazzling colors and careful brushstrokes. In 'Toots Shor Bar' (1969) you can see the names of many famous brands within the kaleidoscope of color, 'Manhattan' (1998) reveals famous buildings with the merest touch of the brush, 'Vladimir Horowitz' (1968) looks like Mr Horowitz despite having his face made up of at least twelve flat colors. In Richard Brilliant's short essay Neiman is discussed and nicely there are some drawings: a 1956 crayon sketch of some nudes to a 1985 felt-pen on paper drawing of Red Skelton, to show what a great draftsman he is but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't some sort of description of Neiman's brush technique and color usage included in the essay. Brilliant also raises the interesting point that art critics and historians have not paid serious attention to Neiman (or for that matter Norman Rockwell) both artists are skilled technically and popular, I put this down to the subject matter both explored, Neiman paints sports events, celebrities and wealthy folk having fun while Rockwell covered middle America. Just not Fine Art it seems. (Incidentally you can read a short, very succinct explanation of the 'fine art' scene by New York gallery owner Louis Meisel on page fifteen of his book 'Photorealism since 1980'). If, like me, you are a fan of LeRoy Neiman you will enjoy this gorgeous coffee-table book, a beautiful survey of a colorful American artist. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click on 'customer images' under the cover.