LeRoy Neiman
Fencing at Munich Olympics, 1972
For the last two weeks we have seen images of incredible and daring feats from the Olympic Games in Paris. One click and we can see photos and videos of almost every sport imaginable, many in real time.
Before AI, before Photoshop, before the internet, camera phones, before photography and printing became quick and easy, before cameras became accessible to the public (in the 1950s), artists were sent on assignments, by newspapers and magazines, to capture and illustrate current events.
One of the best illustrators, especially when it came to sports, was LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012). Neiman was born and raised in Minnesota and served in the army during World War ll. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1950 on the G.I. Bill and taught at the Institute for ten years.
He had met Hugh Hefner when they both did some freelance work for a department store chain; Hefner as a writer, Neiman as an illustrator. A chance meeting after Hefner started Playboy led to Neiman’s fifty year career with the magazine. He covered the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby, championship boxing, PGA and The Masters golf tournament, The Ryder Cup, the World Equestrian Games, Wimbledon and other Grand Slam competitions, as well as night life, entertainment, jazz, and the world of casino gambling.
LeRoy Neiman’s (Untitled) Horse Racing serigraph is available at Surovek Gallery.
F. Luis Mora (1874-1940) was born in Uruguay. His family emigrated to America, during an insurgency, when Mora was just three years old. Mora’s father was a sculptor, who encouraged and oversaw his art education.
The family settled in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where Mora married his childhood sweetheart (who was the daughter of the mayor of Perth Amboy).
Mora studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at the Art Students League in New York. He worked as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly, Scribner's, The Century, Collier's, Sunday Magazine and Ladies' Home Journal. During World War I, Mora was one of several illustrators who volunteered to create motivational World War I posters for the U.S. Committee on Public Information.
Mora’s works are in the permanent collection of The Met, The Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, The New York Historical Society, The Museum of the City of New York, The National Academy of Design in New York, the Yale University Art Gallery and many other major venues.
Card Sharks Tangle by F. Luis Mora is available at Surovek Gallery.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of LeRoy Neiman and Luis Mora, available at Surovek Gallery.
