LeRoy Neiman—arguably the world’s most recognizable contemporary artist—broke the barrier between fine art and popular art in the 1960s. His prints continue to bring in $10 million a year in sales. But it is the life he’s lived and the people he’s known that make the memoir of this swashbuckling bon vivant with the famous mustache such a marvelous historical canvas. His is the story of a scrappy Depression-era kid who had talent, insatiable curiosity, and a knack for wrangling himself into places he didn’t belong. As a result, he hobnobbed with everyone who’s anyone and created indelible images that helped define a century.
Neiman sat ringside with some of the most extraordinary figures of the twentieth century. Instructor and confidant to Muhammad Ali throughout his tumultuous career, Neiman also traveled with Sinatra, cavorted with Dali and Warhol, watched afternoon soaps with Dizzy Gillespie, played in Sly Stallone’s Rocky movies, exchanged quips with Nixon, smoked cigars with Castro, and experienced the September 5, 1972, terrorist attacks at the Munich Olympics alongside Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell, and Jim McKay. And then there’s his contribution to the culture-shifting influence of Playboy. Neiman recalls his half-century relationship with Hugh Hefner—as principle artistic contributor to Playboy since its founding in 1954, setting up studios in London and Paris to cover his Playboy beat, “Man at His Leisure,” and his mythic creation Femlin, made famous on the pages of Playboy magazine for nearly six decades.
With his life’s work, and now in All Told, LeRoy Neiman has captured sports heroes, movie stars, presidents, dish washers, jet-setters, and jockeys—a panoramic record of society like no other."
Curious?! I know I am and can't wait to check this out even further!
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