Leroy Neiman: Art & Life Style

First edition (1974) copy of Leroy Neiman: Art & Life Style

LeRoy Neiman: Art & Life Style is a book for all seasons and for all tastes. A superlative selection of Neiman's finest work is highlighted by the artist's notes on the people, places and events he has painted - from chic society beauties, superstars and big business wheeler-dealers to Bowery rejects, poolroom hustlers and sidewalk hustlers. Neiman's art transcends all class distinctions to capture the kaleidoscopic social scene. We also catch an intimate glimpse of the artist at work and see him sketching his subjects "on the spot.' Where does he get his inspiration? How does he view his potential subjects? What goes on in his mind during the actual creative process? LeRoy Neiman: Art & Life Style provides answers to these intriguing questions. It is a book to be read and reread, a work that lights the eye and makes us inescapably aware of the wonderful absurdity of the human condition.

Among contemporary artists, no other eye has been so devoted to recording the pleasures and vices of its own age. He checks out the fleeting spectacle of the social scene. He is a keen analyst of our unconscious fears and petty vanities. His target is the mask we wear in public, the convenient image we project in our dealings with others. His style can accommodate a variety of subjects: haute cuisine in France's top restaurants, insights into the aristocratic manners of the highborn, the meaning of "Blacks blacking it, or the look and feel of a championship prize-fight. LeRoy Neiman-the go-go artist in Neimanland. He occupies a unique superstar position in today's pop culture while also standing alone —an original in the art community.

This is the first time that a cross section of Neiman's work has been gathered together between covers. Equally significant, the meaning behind Neiman's art is given verbal as well as visual expression: we hear the artist's thoughts on his own paintings. Nor is the private individual neglected; Neiman speaks directly to us as a man as well as an artist. He has become a part of the vast scene he records, a personality with a public image that has made him one of the few gifted artists to achieve worldwide recognition in his own lifetime.

Hardcover 

Year/Edition: First edition, 1974, Felicie Publisher

Condition: missing dust jacket, otherwise in good vintage condition.

Dimensions: 13" x 10"