LEROY NEIMAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT
LEROY NEIMAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT
FRANKLIN BOWLES GALLERIES SAN FRANCISCO / NEW YORK
Perhaps the most important lesson that Neiman took from both Impressionism and the Ashcan School was a near journalistic drive to document the otherwise fleeting moment.
Blind Brook Polo (detail) 1965 acrylic and enamel on board 24 x 12 in.
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LEROY NEIMAN: IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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n a career spanning over half a century, LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012) worked in every conceivable genre. He made portraits, landscapes, and still lifes in a staggering variety of themes, including celebrities, pinup girls, sports stars, musicians, cityscapes, leisure activities, and animals. Neiman unabashedly embraced visual pleasure, in terms of both form and content. His subjects reflected the lifestyle of a bon vivant, a decadence that is echoed stylistically in sumptuous brushwork and lush, saturated colors. In relation to Art History, Neiman is
often situated within the legacy of Impressionism, based on his penchant for urban leisure scenes and his loose, rapid brushwork. However, his palette owes more to Fauvism, and the borderline hallucinatory colors in Neiman’s cityscapes recall the vibrant hues of the French painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). Discussed less frequently than the Impressionist influence is that of the American Ashcan School, which was arguably more formative for Neiman. Founded around the turn of the century in New York by Robert Henri, the Ashcan artists rejected academic subject matter in favor of gritty cityscapes populated by working class, often immigrant New Yorkers. As an artist who was no less intrigued by anonymous workers than celebrities, this democratic mode of looking resonated with Neiman, who referred to the Ashcan artists reverently as “those masters of American lowlife.” Perhaps the most important lesson that Neiman took from both Impressionism and the Ashcan School was a near journalistic drive to document the otherwise fleeting moment. Time is everything in Neiman’s work: his images are datable by virtue of recognizable subjects, from Fred Astaire, to Prince, to LeBron James. The works are also fundamentally about duration in that they feature movement. Neiman’s images are full of action, with bodies in motion, muscles flexed, heads turning, mouths open in speech. In an implicit rejection of traditionalist ideas that art transcends time and place, it is not unusual to find Neiman’s scrawled notes about the time and location of the subject on the surface of the work. Never interested in creating timeless, iconic portraits, Neiman instead gives us tantalizingly brief snippets of larger narratives. Neiman’s substantial body of work devoted to sports and athletes is exemplary of this documentarian impulse in his art. Like the sports stars that he painted, including an extraordinary body of work that developed out of his friendship with Muhammad Ali, Neiman was a performer. A fixture at a variety of sporting events, including boxing, horse racing, and baseball, Neiman was widely known for making live sketches to document the action as it transpired. Neiman became part of the spectacle: in July of 1972, television
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viewers tuned in to watch Bobby Fischer compete against Boris Spassky in a live broadcast of the world champion chess tournament, but they also watched LeRoy Neiman sketching the match. Later that year in Munich, Neiman served as official artist for the Olympic Games on the first of several occasions. In the tradition of an artist like Andy Warhol, who became as famous as the celebrities in his silkscreen portraits, in the arena Neiman was an attraction in his own right. Sporting his signature handlebar moustache and smoking a cigar, the artist was unmistakable. Indeed, LeRoy enjoyed being in the spotlight as much as many of the people he portrayed. But Neiman diverged from Warhol and countless other contemporaries in that he eschewed assistants, owing to his insistent privileging of the artist’s own hand in the creative process. Neiman’s routine, public performances of technical virtuosity worked against the grain of an art world in which conceptual ideation often supplanted artisanal craftsmanship. In light of Neiman’s interest in the physical process of rapid sketching, it’s only natural that he gravitated toward subjects whose craft required a similarly high level of physical and technical mastery. In this respect, Neiman’s treatment of athletes is no different from his representations of singers, dancers, or musicians; whether playing an instrument, swinging a club, or dribbling a basketball, these were figures with which Neiman likely identified, in that their acclaim relied on high stakes public performance. Neiman vividly captured moments in time as experienced by subjects from all walks of life, practices that reflect an extensive knowledge of art historical precedents, from Impressionism to the Ashcan school. But Neiman was not only looking to what came before, he also anticipated art world styles that would define the latter half of the 20th century. Bucking art world trends, Neiman made figural paintings when both realism and the medium of painting were declared moribund, and in that way he anticipated the triumphant return of painting and the figure in the 1980s, with Neo-Expressionism and New Image Painting practiced by the likes of David Salle, Julian Schnabel, and Susan Rothenberg. Neiman would likely have never called himself a realist, however: like Rothenberg, also coincidentally a painter of horses, Neiman’s painterly brushwork suggests that he never thought abstraction and figuration were diametrically opposed. Red Dancer (detail)
Indeed, Neiman paid little attention to boundaries. From the beginning of his career in the 1950s, Neiman eradicated all distinctions between high art and popular culture, a confusion of categories that would be fundamental to Pop art in the 1960s and to strategies of appropriation in the 1980s. Neiman’s most infamous transgression of boundaries between the worlds of fine and commercial art was in his role as illustrator for Playboy magazine. Neiman’s friendship with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is well known; the two men met in 1954, and the following year Neiman devised 4
the scantily clad Femlin character (a “female gremlin”) for the party jokes page in the magazine. Recounting a 1965 interview that he gave to the New York Journal-American, Neiman recalls making a prediction: “I forecasted that porno art would one day hang on the walls of art galleries and in museums. And that has come true as much as anyone could have imagined, with the explicitly sexual paintings of David Salle and artwork made by Jeff Koons with porn star… Ilona Staller. La Cicciolina (her stage name) also appeared nude in various editions of Playboy.”1 Indeed, one could add Allen Jones, Carroll Dunham, and Vanessa Beecroft, among others, to the ever growing list of artists from the 20th and 21st centuries who have drawn from the conventions of pornography in their art, to various ends. Neiman acknowledged that his connection to Playboy may have hindered his ability to accrue serious art
Sunbather with Hat (detail)
world recognition, although he harbored no regrets: “I’d rather be a folk hero to forty million Playboy readers, any day, than an icon among the airless elite.” 2 Had Neiman’s career begun thirty years later, perhaps these identities would not have been mutually exclusive. The Femlin that Neiman created for Playboy was a coy, voluptuous brunette who appeared in heels, thigh-high stockings, opera gloves, and little else: she was pure male fantasy. But she is only a small part of Neiman’s work devoted to women, who appear up close and from afar, resplendent in gowns, scantily clad, languishing on the beach, perched elegantly on bar stools, or in some cases playing sports, as Neiman’s images of athletes were not exclusively men. In general, the women in Neiman’s compositions appear more expressive than their stoic and often inscrutable male counterparts, perhaps perpetuating a conventional assumption that women show more emotion than men. Regardless of his motivation, the women in Neiman’s oeuvre are rich in psychological texture. Their expressions and body positions convey a canny awareness; they are in command of their sexual desirability, aware of both their susceptibility to objectification and to the simultaneous power that they hold over a potential suitor.
Portrait of a Woman (detail)
Like the women that he paints, Neiman’s work is seductive. He often pictures a life of decadence and fleeting pleasures, but not without acknowledging labor and physical exertion. In nearly all cases, Neiman’s art is about spectacle: women put their bodies on erotic display, athletes compete in public for accolades, celebrities preen for an audience, and perhaps most notably, there is Neiman’s own virtuoso performance in the role of artist. Paula Burleigh Art Historian, New York 1 LeRoy Neiman, All Told: My Art and Life Among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies and Provocateurs. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2012. p.119. 2
Ibid., 121.
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Equestrian Carousel Horses 1954 pen on paper 5 x 7.75 in.
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Jockey and Horse at Rest 1966 mixed media on paper 12 x 16.75 in.
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Brunello (Horse Race Collage) n.d. mixed media on paper 14 x 12.75 in.
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Cadre Noir Cavalry School of Saumur 1973 ink on paper 9 x 8.25 in.
General Pershing 1978 mixed media on paper 17 x 11 in.
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Cadmium Horse 1955 mixed media on paper 5 x 6.75 in.
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Huntsman and Hounds 1967 acrylic and enamel on board 14.5 x 6 in.
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Untitled 1962 acrylic and enamel on board 12 x 6 in.
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World Equestrian Games, Sketch 2010 mixed media on paper 23 x 35 in.
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Newspaper Readers at Longchamp, Grand Prix de Paris 1960 ink on paper 9 x 13 in.
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Seattle Slew with Owner, Trainer and Jockey 1977 mixed media on paper 14.75 x 11.75 in.
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Pesniar (Arabian Horse) 1985 mixed media on panel 48 x 72 in.
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War Horses 1977 mixed media on paper 23 x 36.5 in.
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Equestriennes n.d. pen on paper 11.75 x 11.5 in.
Dresser in Nymphenburg at the Munich Olympics 1972 mixed media on paper 14.75 x 12 in.
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Connemara Pony Foal 1979 mixed media on paper 6.75 x 4.75 in.
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The Horse Called LeRoy Neiman 1977-78 mixed media on paper 15.5 x 12 in.
Seattle Slew at Belmont, Barn 27 1977 mixed media on paper 11.5 x 15 in.
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Sports
(facing page) A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi 1989 mixed media on paper 22.25 x 20.25 in. Jimmy Vasser, Chip Ganassi, Alex Zanardi and Joe Montana 1996 mixed media on paper 13.5 x 14.5 in.
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Handlebars at the Tour de France 1964 mixed media on paper 13.25 x 14.75 in.
(facing page) Cyclists 1984 mixed media on paper 30 x 22 in.
Female Cyclist n.d. mixed media on paper 15 x 7.25 in.
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Superbowl XXIII 1989 acrylic and enamel on board 24 x 44 in.
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Harry Carson 1988 mixed media on paper 13 x 15.25 in.
Bake Turner 1968 mixed media on paper 22 x 17 in.
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Talamini, Before Super Bowl 1969 mixed media on paper 16.25 x 13.75 in.
Coach Shula 1973 mixed media on paper 10.5 x 14 in.
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Joe Namath 1969 mixed media on paper 22.25 x 17.75 in.
George Blanda 1967 mixed media on paper 15.5 x 14.75 in.
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LA Ram Helmet n.d. mixed media on paper 12 x 15 in.
William Perry 1985 mixed media on paper 15.25 x 13.25 in.
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Boxing Match Buster Mathis 1966 acrylic and enamel on board 24 x 30 in.
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Celebrities Napoleon 1988 mixed media on paper 31.5 x 41 in.
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Fidel Castro and Aide 2002 Charcoal on Paper 17.75 x 23.5 in.
Woody Allen 1970 Charcoal on Paper 24 x 18 in.
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F.S. Fitzgerald 1955 marker on paper 10.75 x 8.25 in.
T.C. Buffalo Rider 1988 mixed media on paper 12.75 x 15 in.
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Marlon Brando as the Godfather 2009 mixed media on paper 26 x 36.5 in.
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Self-Portrait 1995 mixed media on paper 14.75 x 13.25 in.
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Playboy Bunny Christmas Card Design 1991 mixed media on paper 26 x 18 in.
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Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome 1967 mixed media on paper 25 x 19 in.
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Sinatra Opening at the Fontainebleau 1967 mixed media on paper 18.25 x 24.5 in.
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Bobby Short at CafĂŠ Carlyle in NYC 1995 mixed media on paper 9.75 x 7.75 in.
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Prince with Cigar n.d. ink on paper 14 x 10.5 in.
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Charles Mingus in Chicago 1954 mixed media on paper 16 x 13.75 in.
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Nightlife Close Dancers 2006 mixed media on paper 25.75 x 30.75 in.
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(facing page) The Sommelier 1965 acrylic and enamel on board 48 x 36 in.
Couple in Booth 1965 acrylic and enamel on board 36 x 24 in.
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Chez Bardet 1980 mixed media on paper 15 x 21 in.
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Les Ambassadeurs Club 1960 mixed media on paper 14.5 x 10 in.
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Green Derby 1984 mixed media on paper 12.75 x 9 in.
Salt and Pepper 1974 mixed media on paper 14 x 12 in.
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Tucano Champagne Bucket 1982 mixed media on paper 14.75 x 9.75 in.
Uncorking the Bottle 1958 ink on paper 15.25 x 12.25 in.
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Pump Room 1955 mixed media on paper 10.5 x 15 in.
(facing page) Tossed Salad 1965 acrylic and enamel on board 48 x 36 in.
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Vladimir Horowitz 1968 acrylic and enamel on board 22 x 25.5 in.
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Jazz Sax 1960 acrylic and enamel on board 30 x 11.5 in.
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The Pickwick Club 1966 acrylic and enamel on board 35 x 24 in.
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Trattoria Terrazza 1966 acrylic and enamel on board 35 x 24 in.
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Travels Paris
Place de la Concorde 1970 acrylic and enamel on board 48 x 60 in.
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CafĂŠ les Deux Magots 1993 mixed media on paper 9.75 x 13.5 in.
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“View from my studio in Paris, Eiffel Towers� 1961 mixed media on paper 6 pieces various sizes 21 x 30 in. (all including mat)
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Sotheby’s London I n.d. mixed media on paper 20 x 26 in.
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London
Sotheby’s London II n.d. mixed media on paper 20 x 26 in.
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Savoy Theatre 1960 mixed media on paper 9.5 x 14 in.
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Janet in a London Park n.d. mixed media on paper 40 x 36 in. (all pieces assembled)
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Venice Gondolas 1995 mixed media on paper 18 x 24 in.
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Venice/Verona
Venetian Waterway 1960 mixed media on paper 20.25 x 26 in.
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Piazza delle Erbe 1996 ink on paper 15 x 13.5 in. (facing page) Homage to the Marriage at Cana after Veronese 2011 mixed media on paper 14 x 12.75 in.
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Chicago
Belmont Harbor 1955 acrylic and enamel on board 36 x 48 in.
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Women Maiko Lee 1973 mixed media on paper 26.25 x 40.25 in.
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Folies Bergère Nudes 1987 mixed media on paper 16.75 x 13 in.
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Reclining Nude on Beach 2001 mixed media on paper 17.5 x 35 in.
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Sunbather with Hat 1982 Conte on paper 9 x 15 in.
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Red Dancer n.d. mixed media on paper 28.5 x 22.5 in.
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Mother and Daughter in Nice 1988 charcoal on paper 18 x 28 in.
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Westhampton Rolls 1972 mixed media on paper 9 x 19.75 in.
Fast Car Femme and Suitor in Rome 1960 mixed media on paper 20 x 30 in. with mat
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Murder Scene Escape 1984 ink on paper 17.5 x 13.5 in.
Murder Mystery 1985 ink on paper 15.5 x 13.5 in.
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Woman in Italian Interior n.d. mixed media on paper 22.25 x 15 in.
The Arrangement n.d. ink on paper 12 x 15.25 in.
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Catcher 1983 mixed media on paper 21.5 x 14.25 in.
(facing page) Fashionable Woman and Man n.d. ink on paper 24 x 18 in.
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Chien Papillons 1967 acrylic on paper 13.25 x 18.75 in.
Table Dog 1967 acrylic on paper 10.75 x 18 in.
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“Beasts�
Dog Walking Her Owner in London 1955 ink on paper 5 x 6.75 in.
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Rhino 2002 mixed media on paper 30 x 36 in.
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Rooster 1985 pastel on paper 15.25 x 11.5 in.
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More sports 17th Hole 1995 mixed media on paper 19 x 24.5 in.
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Jack at the Driving Range n.d. mixed media on paper 14 x 10.5 in.
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Lee Elder and Jim Thorpe 1990 ink on paper 13.25 x 11.5 in.
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Hong Kong Golf Course 1990 mixed media on paper 13.5 x 25.5 in.
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Gene Sarazen n.d. mixed media on paper 23.5 x 14.25 in.
(facing page) Tropical Shower at the Seminole Florida Golf Course 1991 mixed media on paper 35.5 x 29.75 in.
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Shaquille O’Neal Print Signing 2000 pencil on paper 14.5 x 15 in. (facing page) LeBron James 2008 mono print 30 x 22 in.
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Wimbledon 1984 mixed media on paper 27 x 46.5 in.
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Early Works “As for some critics brushing him off, Neiman responded: ‘If you want to marginalize me, do it. I love my margin. When I step back from the canvas and look at the world I’ve recorded, it’s my life. It’s a life that freed me to do the only thing that ever really mattered to me — to make pictures.’” – Michael Mink, Investor’s Business Daily
(facing page) Still Life 1947 mixed media on paper 25.25 x 19.75 in.
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Portrait of a Woman 1949 mixed media on paper 19.75 x 17.75 in.
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(facing page) Parkside Scene 1947 mixed media on paper 24 x 19 in.
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Index 67 “View from my studio in Paris, Eiffel Towers”
27 Handlebars at the Tour de France
94 17th Hole
30 Harry Carson
24 A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi
75 Homage to the Marriage at Cana after Veronese
30 Bake Turner
98 Hong Kong Golf Course
76 Belmont Harbor
12 Huntsman and Hounds
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96 Jack at the Driving Range
Blind Brook Polo
47 Bobby Short at Café Carlyle in NYC
71 Janet in a London Park
34 Boxing Match Buster Mathis
61 Jazz Sax
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Brunello (Horse Race Collage)
25 Jimmy Vasser, Chip Ganassi, Alex Zanardi
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Cadmium Horse
and Joe Montana
10 Cadre Noir Cavalry School of Saumur
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Jockey and Horse at Rest
66 Café les Deux Magots
32 Joe Namath
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33 LA Ram Helmet
Carousel Horses
88 Catcher
102 LeBron James
49 Charles Mingus in Chicago
97 Lee Elder and Jim Thorpe
54 Chez Bardet
55 Les Ambassadeurs Club
90 Chien Papillons
78 Maiko Lee
50 Close Dancers
40 Marlon Brando as the Godfather
31 Coach Shula
84 Mother and Daughter in Nice
22 Connemara Pony Foal
86 Murder Mystery
53 Couple in Booth
86 Murder Scene Escape
26 Cyclists
36 Napoleon
91 Dog Walking Her Owner in London
16 Newspaper Readers at Longchamp, Grand Prix de Paris
21 Dresser in Nymphenburg at the Munich Olympics
109 Parkside Scene
21 Equestriennes
18 Pesniar (Arabian Horse)
39 F.S. Fitzgerald
74 Piazza delle Erbe
89 Fashionable Woman and Man
64 Place de la Concorde
85 Fast Car Femme and Suitor in Rome
43 Playboy Bunny Christmas Card Design
27 Female Cyclist
108 Portrait of a Woman
38 Fidel Castro and Aide
48 Prince with Cigar
80 Folies Bergère Nudes
58 Pump Room
44 Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome
81 Reclining Nude on Beach
100 Gene Sarazen
83 Red Dancer
10 General Pershing
92 Rhino
32 George Blanda
93 Rooster
56 Green Derby
56 Salt and Pepper
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70 Savoy Theatre 23 Seattle Slew at Belmont, Barn 27 17 Seattle Slew with Owner, Trainer and Jockey 42 Self-Portrait 103 Shaquille O’Neal Print Signing 45 Sinatra Opening at the Fontainebleau 68 Sotheby’s London I 69 Sotheby’s London II 106 Still Life 82 Sunbather with Hat 28 Superbowl XXIII 39 T.C. Buffalo Rider 90 Table Dog 31 Talamini, Before Super Bowl 87 The Arrangement 23 The Horse Called LeRoy Neiman 62 The Pickwick Club 52 The Sommelier 59 Tossed Salad 63 Trattoria Terrazza 101 Tropical Shower at the Seminole Florida Golf Course 57 Tucano Champagne Bucket 57 Uncorking the Bottle 13 Untitled 73 Venetian Waterway 72 Venice Gondolas 60 Vladimir Horowitz 20 War Horses 85 Westhampton Rolls 33 William Perry 104 Wimbledon 87 Woman in Italian Interior 38 Woody Allen 14 World Equestrian Games, Sketch Charles Mingus in Chicago (detail)
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Spring 2017 Project Manager:
Ken Amorino Graphics technician:
Scott Saraceno Catalog Design:
Susan Tsuchiya Front cover: Trattoria Terrazza (detail) Inside front cover: Folies Bergère Nudes (detail) Page 112: Venice Gondolas (detail) Back cover: Close Dancers (detail)
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SAN FRANCISCO 765 Beach Street San Francisco CA 94109
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