Leroy Neiman, renowned artist in sports world, dies at age 91
Neiman, official painter of five Olympiads, was known for his colorful, fast-moving brush strokes that evoked kinetic energy of sporting, leisure events.
Painter and sketch artist LeRoy Neiman, best known for evoking the kinetic energy of the world’s biggest sporting and leisure events with bright quick strokes, died Wednesday at 91.
Neiman was the official painter of five Olympiads and was a contributing artist at Playboy magazine for many years. His longtime publicist, Gail Parenteau, confirmed his death at a Manhattan, N.Y., hospital but didn’t disclose the cause.
In 1972, he sketched the world chess tournament between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland, for a live television audience.
He also produced live drawings of the Olympics for TV and was the official computer artist of the Super Bowl for CBS.
Neiman also was a portraitist who captured some of the world’s most iconic figures, Frank Sinatra and Babe Ruth among them, in a style that conveyed their public image.
One of his projects, a 160-foot-long sports mural, hung in the Sports Museum of America in Manhattan.
One face he recorded over and over again was that of Muhammad Ali. Those paintings and sketches, representing 15 years of the prizefighter’s professional life, permanently reside at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington was selected by Neiman to house his archives.
Neiman is survived by his wife of 55 years, Janet Byrne Neiman.