Artist: LeRoy Neiman
Title: Basketball (from The Munich Suite, 1972)
Year created: 1972
Medium: Signed & Numbered Limited Edition Serigraph on Paper
Signed by the artist
Edition: 145/250
Height (inches): 11.25 (image size)
Width (inches): 16 (image size)
Framed size: 21" x 25"
This piece is framed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
Description of piece: This highly collectible early Neiman work celebrates the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team. This very classic Neiman depicts 5 one-on-one games being played simultaneously: Kevin Joyce/Bob Jones, Tom McMillen/Doug Collins, Kenny Davis/Thomas Henderson, Mike Bantom/Ed Ratleff, Jim Brewer/Dwight Jones— with NBA legend Bill Russell as coach! Neiman cleverly placed NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell as coach of the team in his painting, referencing Russell's critique on ABC-TV of Olympic Team coach Henry P. Iba's coaching style, which he opined lacked creative offense moves. In the serigraph, Neiman has written the names of the players, identifying each one, along with the words "U.S. Basketball team 5 1 on 1 games" and "Olympic Park München"— all in Neiman's very identifiable script!
From LeRoy Neiman's "The Munich Suite, 1972", the artwork is numbered 145 from the small limited edition of 250 pieces. With an image size of 11 1/4" in height x 16" in width, this iconic Neiman comes custom framed and ready for display in a custom black lacquered frame, with exquisite archival triple mat, accentuating and highlighting the artwork. The framed size is 21"x 25".
The 1972 Olympic men's basketball final was one of the most controversial in Olympic history and was the first ever loss for Team USA since the sport began Olympic play in 1936. The United States team won the previous seven gold medals and was favored to win another in Munich at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The team convincingly won its first eight games of the tournament putting its overall Olympic record at 63–0 and setting up a final against the Soviet Union. Trailing by one point with only three seconds remaining in the contest, the Soviets inbounded the ball from their own end line and scored the game-winning basket at the final buzzer, after various officiating errors led to the Soviet inbounds play being initiated three different times before finally resulting in the winning basket. The Soviets won the game by a single point, igniting objections questioning the legitimacy of the final play.
Artist bio: Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, LeRoy Neiman (June 8, 1921 - June 20, 2012) studied briefly in St. Paul before moving to Chicago to study at the School of Art Institute of Chicago where he then taught for 10 years before moving to New York City in 1962. Leroy Neiman is possibly the most popular painter and print maker in America, one of the few artists of the 20th century whose name has become a household word in millions of homes, nationally and internationally.
Best known for his brilliantly colored, stunningly energetic images of the world of sports, exclusive leisure activities, and the world of entertainment, LeRoy Neiman's art is unique; it stands alone, without any real comparison. It is an art which became controversial because Neiman broke the barriers of many of the most hallowed assumptions of modern art history and contemporary criticism. LeRoy Neiman's style explodes with the dramatic intensity of Abstract Expressionist brush strokes, strokes that pick out action that is strikingly accurate.
Since 1970 LeRoy Neiman published hundreds of limited edition serigraphs which have become as much sought after as the prints of Miro, Chagall and Picasso. Having exhibited worldwide, from Moscow to Tokyo to Caracas, honored with many awards for his art, and published many books, Neiman is an icon of contemporary art. His work is in the permanent collections of countless museums including the Whitney Museum in NYC, Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, the Hermitage in Leningrad, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
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