LeRoy Neiman the Artist

LeRoy Neiman is arguably America's most popular living artist. Known for his brilliantly colored semi-abstract paintings of sporting events and leisure activities, Neiman has perfected an energetic style that seems to explode with dramatic intensity. His unique talents have made his work so admired that he has brought art into the lives of millions of Americans.

Neiman served in the U.S. Army during WWII. Following his return in 1946, Neiman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago on the G.I. Bill and then served on the faculty for ten years. During the time Neiman was teaching, he was exhibiting art in competitions and winning prizes. In 1954, Neiman began his association with Playboy Magazine. Since 1960, he has traveled the world observing and painting leisure life, social activities and athletic competitions including the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby, championship boxing, PGA and The Masters golf tournament, Wimbledon and other Grand Slam competitions, as well as night life, entertainment, jazz and the world of casino gambling.

Neiman has sponsored and supported several organizations from coast to coast that foster art activities for underprivileged children such as The LeRoy Neiman Center for Youth in San Francisco and the Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center in Harlem. He also has established the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University in New York and scholarships at his Alma Mater, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has received five honorary doctorates and numerous awards, a recent Lifetime achievement award from the University of Southern California, an induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and proclamations and citations. Most recently he has received The Order of Lincoln on the 200th birthday celebration of Abraham Lincoln by the The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. He has authored twelve books of his art. A documentary on his jazz painting, “The Big Band,” had its' world premiere in Los Angeles in February, 2009.

His work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the State Hermitage Museum in Russia, Wadham College at Oxford and in museums and art galleries the world over, as well as in private and corporate collections.