Skip to main content

Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 10

LeRoy Neiman
Munich, Olympic 1972, Mark Spitz
1972

Price:$975

$1,200List Price

About the Item

This artwork titled "Munich, Olympic 1972, Mark Spitz" 1972 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and inscribed A.P (Artist Proof) in pencil by the artist. The image size is 10.5 x 14.75 inches, framed size is 20.65 x 24.5 inches. Custom framed in a dark wood frame, with off white matting. It is in excellent condition, it has a very light blemish spot at the right side of the sheet, practically invisible. About the subject: Mark Spitz is one of the greatest swimmers of all time. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games. At the 1972 Munich Games, Spitz was determined to make up for his below-par performances four years earlier (Mexico City, 1968). He did not disappoint. Over a period of eight days, Mark Spitz entered seven events, won all seven, and set a world record in every one. Mark Spitz held the record for most gold medals won at a single Olympic Games for 36 years. It was finally broken by American phenomenon Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games. About the artist: Mr. Neiman's kinetic, quickly executed paintings and drawings, many of them published in Playboy, offered his fans gaudily colored visual reports on heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic contests, as well as social panoramas like the horse races at Deauville, France, and the Cannes Film Festival. Quite consciously, he cast himself in the mold of French Impressionists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas, chroniclers of public life who found rich social material at racetracks, dance halls and cafes. Mr. Neiman often painted or sketched on live television. With the camera recording his progress at the sketchpad or easel, he interpreted the drama of Olympic Games and Super Bowls for an audience of millions. When Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced off in Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide the world chess championship, Mr. Neiman was there, sketching. He was on hand to capture Federico Fellini directing "8 ½" and the Kirov Ballet performing in the Soviet Union. In popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth. A prolific one-man industry, he generated hundreds of paintings, drawings, watercolors, limited-edition serigraph prints and coffee-table books yearly, earning gross annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. Although he exhibited constantly and his work was included in the collections of dozens of museums around the world, critical respect eluded him. Mainstream art critics either ignored him completely or, if forced to consider his work, dismissed it with contempt as garish and superficial — magazine illustration with pretensions. Mr. Neiman professed not to care. Maybe the critics are right," he told American Artist magazine in 1995. "But what am I supposed to do about it — stop painting, change my work completely? I go back into the studio, and there I am at the easel again. I enjoy what I'm doing and feel good working. Other thoughts are just crowded out." His image suggested an artist well beyond the reach of criticism. A dandy and bon vivant, he cut an arresting figure with his luxuriant ear-to-ear mustache, white suits, flashy hats and Cuban cigars. "He quite intentionally invented himself as a flamboyant artist not unlike Salvador Dalí, in much the same way that I became Mr. Playboy in the late '50s," Hugh Hefner told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1995. LeRoy Runquist was born on June 8, 1921, in St. Paul. His father, a railroad worker, deserted the family when LeRoy was quite young, and the boy took the surname of his stepfather. He showed a flair for art at an early age. While attending a local Roman Catholic school, he impressed schoolmates by drawing ink tattoos on their arms during recess. As a teenager, he earned money doing illustrations for local grocery stores. "I'd sketch a turkey, a cow, a fish, with the prices," he told Cigar Aficionado. "And then I had the good sense to draw the guy who owned the store. This gave me tremendous power as a kid." After being drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a cook in the European theater but in his spare time painted risqué murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls. The Army's Special Services Division, recognizing his talent, put him to work painting stage sets for Red Cross shows when he was stationed in Germany after the war. On leaving the military, he studied briefly at the St. Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, after four years of study, he taught figure drawing and fashion illustration throughout the 1950s. When the janitor of the apartment building next door to his threw out half-empty cans of enamel house paint, Mr. Neiman found his métier. Experimenting with the new medium, he embraced a rapid style of applying paint to canvas imposed by the free-flowing quality of the house paint. While doing freelance fashion illustration for the Carson Pirie Scott department store in Chicago in the early 1950s, he became friendly with Mr. Hefner, a copywriter there who was on the verge of publishing the first issue of a men's magazine. In 1954, after five issues of Playboy had appeared, Mr. Neiman ran into Mr. Hefner and invited him to his apartment to see his paintings of boxers, strip clubs and restaurants. Mr. Hefner, impressed, showed the work to Playboy's art director, Art Paul, who commissioned an illustration for "Black Country," a story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician. Thus began a relationship that endured for more than half a century and established Mr. Neiman's reputation. In 1955, when Mr. Hefner decided that the party-jokes page needed visual interest, Mr. Neiman came up with the Femlin, a curvaceous brunette who cavorted across the page in thigh-high stockings, high-heeled shoes, opera gloves and nothing else. She appeared in every issue of the magazine thereafter. Three years later, Mr. Neiman devised a running feature, "Man at His Leisure." For the next 15 years, he went on assignment to glamour spots around the world, sending back visual reports on subjects as varied as the races at Royal Ascot, the dining room of the Tour d'Argent in Paris, the nude beaches of the Dalmatian coast, the running of the bulls at Pamplona and Carnaby Street in swinging London. He later produced more than 100 paintings and 2 murals for 18 of the Playboy clubs that opened around the world. "Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings — not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself," Mr. Neiman told V.I.P. magazine in 1962. Working in the same copywriting department at Carson Pirie Scott as Mr. Hefner was Janet Byrne, a student at the Art Institute. She and Mr. Neiman married in 1957. She survives him. A prolific artist, he generated dozens of paintings each year that routinely commanded five-figure prices. When Christie's auctioned off the Playboy archives in 2003, his 1969 painting Man at His Leisure: Le Mans sold for $107,550. Sales of the signed, limited-edition print versions of his paintings, published in editions of 250 to 500, became a lucrative business in itself after Knoedler Publishing, a wholesale operation, was created in 1975 to publish and distribute his serigraphs, etchings, books and posters. Mr. Neiman's most famous images came from the world of sports. His long association with the Olympics began with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, and he went on to cover the games, on live television, in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, and Sarajevo and Los Angeles in 1984, using watercolor, ink or felt-tip marker to produce images with the dispatch of a courtroom sketch artist. At the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowls, he used a computerized electronic pen to portray the action for CBS. Although he was best known for scenes filled with people and incident, he also painted many portraits. Athletes predominated, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath among his more famous subjects, but he also painted Leonard Bernstein, the ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell, the poet Marianne Moore and Sylvester Stallone, who gave Mr. Neiman cameo roles in three "Rocky" films. His many books included LeRoy Neiman: Art and Life Style, Horses, Winners: My Thirty Years in Sports, Big-Time Golf, LeRoy Neiman on Safari and LeRoy Neiman: Five Decades. In 1995, he donated $6 million to Columbia University's School of the Arts to endow the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies.

Creator:
LeRoy Neiman (1921 - 2012, American)
Creation Year:
1972
Dimensions:
Height: 20.65 in (52.46 cm)Width: 24.5 in (62.23 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)
Medium:
Screen
Movement Style:
American Modern
Period:
Late 20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
San Francisco, CA
Reference Number:
Seller: ler/nei/mun/oly/011stDibs: LU66638218062

Shop All LeRoy Neiman

LeRoy Neiman

LeRoy Neiman, born LeRoy Runquist, is best known for his vibrantly colored paintings and screen prints, which draw on Impressionism and Pop Art and frequently feature portraits of athletes and musicians as well as depictions of sporting events. He is renowned for creating art during live coverage of the Olympics and other major American and international sports competitions. He once commented, “I use (bold) color to emphasize the scent, the spirit, and the feeling of the thing I’ve experienced.”

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Neiman showed an early aptitude for drawing. After returning home from WWII, he studied at the Saint Paul School of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where his classmates included Robert Indiana and Leon Golub. Upon graduation in 1950, he began teaching at SAIC.

In 1953, his oil painting Idle Boats won first prize at the Twin City Show, where the Minneapolis Art Institute purchased it. Neiman’s reputation quickly grew, and museums such as the Carnegie Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington purchased his works.

In 1954, Neiman’s famous association with Playboy magazine began to take shape. Hugh Hefner commissioned Neiman to create an illustration for this fledgling magazine, and his piece won the 1954 Chicago Art Directors Award. This led to a relationship with Playboy that lasted five decades and included Neiman writing and illustrating the “Man at His Leisure” section and the creation of the well-known “Femlin” — a female nymph wearing only opera gloves, stockings and high heels — which appeared on the “Party Jokes” page in every issue since 1955.

In 1970, the 5th Dimension commissioned Neiman to create a cover illustration for the pop group’s album Portrait. In 1994, he created the illustration used for the playbill and the immense Broadway mural for the musical Busker Alley. He was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the highest honor of the state of Illinois, the Order of Lincoln, in 2009.

Today, you can find Neiman’s works in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields), among others.

On 1stDibs, find LeRoy Neiman prints, drawings, paintings and more.

You May Also Like

Trivium MMV

By Francisco Souto

Located in New Orleans, LA

In medieval universities, the trivium comprised the three subjects that were taught first: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The word is a Latin term meaning "the three ways" or "the thr...

Category

Early 2000s American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Mezzotint, Lithograph, Screen

Trivium MMV

Francisco Souto
Trivium MMV, 2005

$650

H 17 in W 20 in

"Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Original Silkscreen on Paper Artists Proof

By Marc Foster Grant

Located in Soquel, CA

"Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Silkscreen on Paper 1967 color silkscreen depicting the Dodge Rebellion Girls by Marc Foster Grant (American, b. 1947). A silhouette of the 'dodge gi...

Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Ink, Screen

"Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Original Silkscreen on Paper Artists Proof

Marc Foster Grant
"Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Original Silkscreen on Paper Artists Proof, 1967

$760 Sale Price

20% Off

H 22 in W 32 in D 0.5 in

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

By Ernest Tino Trova

Located in Missouri, MO

Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) 24 x 24 inches Wrapped to Foam Core Signed Artist Proof Lower Right Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-...

Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

Ernest Tino Trova
Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967

Price Upon Request

H 24 in W 24 in

"Incoronato (The Crowning)" by Carlo Maria Mariani (Classical, Abstract, Figure)

By Carlo Maria Mariani

Located in New York, NY

b. 1953, Rome, Italy One of Europe’s leading conceptual artists, Carlo Maria Mariani uses the medium of paint to combine the language of both classical and contemporary imagery in o...

Category

1990s American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

"Incoronato (The Crowning)" by Carlo Maria Mariani (Classical, Abstract, Figure)

Carlo Maria Mariani
"Incoronato (The Crowning)" by Carlo Maria Mariani (Classical, Abstract, Figure), 1999

$2,400

H 33 in W 25 in

Swimmer - Screenprint (Olympic Games Munich 1972)

By Ronald Brooks Kitaj

Located in Paris, IDF

Ronard Brooks KITAJ Swimmer Screen print Signature printed in the plate On heavy paper 101 x 64 cm (c. 40 x 26 inch) Made for the Olympic Games in Munich, 1972 Excellent condition

Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

Swimmer - Screenprint (Olympic Games Munich 1972)

Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Swimmer - Screenprint (Olympic Games Munich 1972), 1972

$238

H 39.77 in W 25.2 in

New Glory Banner (Americana, Iconic, Classic, Vintage, 28% OFF, FRAMED)

By Robert Indiana

Located in Kansas City, MO

Robert Indiana New Glory Banner Silkscreen on heavy woven paper Year: 1997 Unsigned as issued Size: 10.4 × 16.8 on 16.6 × 21.7 inches Framed: 29 x 21.25 inches COA provided *W...

Category

1990s American Modern Prints and Multiples

Materials

Screen

New Glory Banner (Americana, Iconic, Classic, Vintage, 28% OFF, FRAMED)

Robert Indiana
New Glory Banner (Americana, Iconic, Classic, Vintage, 28% OFF, FRAMED), 1997

$433 Sale Price

27% Off

H 29 in W 21.25 in D 1 in

"New Hampshire Lobster with Chips" - Screen Print by Timothy Lee

Located in Soquel, CA

"New Hampshire Lobster with Chips" - Screen Print by Timothy Lee The artwork "N.H. Lobster" by Timothy Lee, created in 1983, is a print that combines elements of realism and abstrac...

Category

1980s American Modern Interior Prints

Materials

Laid Paper, Screen

"New Hampshire Lobster with Chips" - Screen Print by Timothy Lee

Timothy Lee
"New Hampshire Lobster with Chips" - Screen Print by Timothy Lee, 1983

$1,050

H 14 in W 11 in D 0.5 in

Trova/Index, Waves

By Ernest Tino Trova

Located in Missouri, MO

Trova/Index, Waves, 1969 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) Signed in Pencil Lower Right Unframed: 10.5 x 7.5 inches With Frame: 15.25 x 11.75 inches Known for his Falling ...

Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Trova/Index, Waves

Ernest Tino Trova
Trova/Index, Waves, 1969

Price Upon Request

H 10.5 in W 7.5 in

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

By Ernest Tino Trova

Located in Missouri, MO

Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) Signed Lower Right in Pencil Screenprint, Available in Black or Silver Frame Unframed: 6 x 6 inches Wit...

Category

20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

Ernest Tino Trova
Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967

Price Upon Request

H 6 in W 6 in

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

By Ernest Tino Trova

Located in Missouri, MO

Study/Falling Man (Series I) By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) 24 x 24 inches Wrapped to Foam Core Signed Artist Proof Lower Right Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) ...

Category

1960s American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Study/Falling Man (Series I)

Ernest Tino Trova
Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967

Price Upon Request

H 24 in W 24 in

More From This Seller

My Wife Married a Lie

By Kim Yoakum

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "My Wife Married a Lie" is a original color serigraph on Wove paper by American artist Kim Yoakum. It is hand signed and numbered 51/595 in pencil by the artist. ...

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

My Wife Married a Lie

Kim Yoakum
My Wife Married a Lie, c.1990

$500

La Seine a Paris, Large original color serigraph

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork :La Seine a Paris" c.1990 is an original color serigraph on hand made paper by American artist Linea Pergola, b.1953. It is hand signed and numbered A.P. 25/50 in pencil...

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

La Seine a Paris, Large original color serigraph

Linea Pergola
La Seine a Paris, Large original color serigraph, c.1990

$900

Platform

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Platform" 1963 is an original silkscreen by American artist Kenneth William Auvil, 1925-1999. It is signed, dated, titled and numbered 9/27 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 17 x 11.25 inches, framed size is 23.5 x 17.65 inches. Custom framed in a bronze color metal frame. It is in good condition, paper is slightly toned by age. About the artist: Educational Background University of Washington, 1953 MFA Art University of Washington, 1949 BA Art Teaching Experience San Jose State University, 1956 -1988 Selected Publications Serigraphy: Silk Screen Techniques for the Artist, Prentice‑Hall, 1965‑1996. Activities: Learning to Use the Macintosh Computer...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern More Prints

Materials

Screen

Platform

Kenneth William Auvil
Platform, 1963

$650

Toast

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Toast" c.1990, is an original color serigraph by American artist Rickey Jewell Hohimer, 1946-2021. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 98/300 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 23.75 x 9.5 inches, framed size is 30.25 x 16.25 inches. The artwork is in excellent condition, the frame is slightly damaged, and will be replaced by a new similar black frame when sold. This will bring the over all condition to excellent. About the artist: Although formally trained with a MFA in painting, Rickey Jewell Hohimer has used the styles of Van Gogh and Gaughin to reach for the spontaneity and simplicity of today's folk art. Hohimer creates figures which are not photos of reality; they are romantically stylized to encourage straightforward emotional responses both to the colorful images and to the situations in which they find themselves. Each of Hohimer's paintings lays out a basic story line to which viewers add their own details. "I want the viewer to become personally involved. My paintings offer a change from those which encourage extensive intellectualizing about what the artist is trying to convey. I want viewers to smile -- to enjoy the whimsical nature of what they are experiencing -- to feel it, not to analyze it. His jazz paintings are stories on canvas of inspired musicians spontaneously making music of the moment. Life in the jazz age is clubs and nightlife beckoning to musicians to produce jazz art...

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

Toast

Rickey Jewell Hohimer
Toast, c.1990

$700

II Cup of Joe

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "II Cup of Joe" c.1990, is an original color serigraph by American artist Rickey Jewell Hohimer, 1946-2021. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 250/300 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 19.5 x 23.5 inches, framed size is 26.75 x 30 inches. The artwork is in excellent condition, the frame is slightly damaged at the top, and will be replaced by a new similar black frame when sold. This will bring the over all condition to excellent. About the artist: Although formally trained with a MFA in painting, Rickey Jewell Hohimer has used the styles of Van Gogh and Gaughin to reach for the spontaneity and simplicity of today's folk art. Hohimer creates figures which are not photos of reality; they are romantically stylized to encourage straightforward emotional responses both to the colorful images and to the situations in which they find themselves. Each of Hohimer's paintings lays out a basic story line to which viewers add their own details. "I want the viewer to become personally involved. My paintings offer a change from those which encourage extensive intellectualizing about what the artist is trying to convey. I want viewers to smile -- to enjoy the whimsical nature of what they are experiencing -- to feel it, not to analyze it!. His jazz paintings are stories on canvas of inspired musicians spontaneously making music of the moment. Life in the jazz age is clubs and nightlife beckoning to musicians to produce jazz art...

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

II Cup of Joe

Rickey Jewell Hohimer
II Cup of Joe, c.1990

$800

"Metropolitan Opera, New York City Premiere" Large serigraph.

By LeRoy Neiman

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Metropolitan Opera, New York City, Premiere" 1980 is an original colors serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and numbere...

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

"Metropolitan Opera, New York City Premiere" Large serigraph.

LeRoy Neiman
"Metropolitan Opera, New York City Premiere" Large serigraph., 1980

$4,500

Still Thinking About These?

All Recently Viewed

More Ways To Browse

Sylvester Stallone Vintage

Carnaby Vintage

Carson Pirie Scott

Opera Gloves Vintage

Salomon Van Abbe

Saltimbanque Au Repos

Salvador Dali Cervantes

Salvador Dali El Cid

Salvador Dali Le Baiser

Salvador Dali Mary

Salvador Dali Medusa

Salvador Dali Sa

Salvador Dali Signed Etching El Cid

Salvador Dali The Businessman

Salvador Dali The Mystic Ladder

View All Popular Figurative Prints Searches