Paris Street Scene 1964

LeRoy Neiman made this painting of a Paris street scene, and it really hits you with its bold brushstrokes and vivid colors, like the pure process of putting paint on canvas became the subject. The texture here is undeniable; you can almost feel the impasto beneath your fingers, those thick blobs of juicy paint. It looks like Neiman used big brushes and maybe even a palette knife, smearing and layering the paint to build up this frenetic surface. I love how he captures the energy of the city with these loose, gestural marks, particularly the drag of the reds, building up the colors of the French flag. The paint is mostly opaque, which adds to the sense of immediacy and boldness. This feels to me like a cousin of Joan Mitchell's work, sharing a similar sense of energetic abstraction, though Neiman is arguably more representational. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation. The beauty lies in the ambiguity, in the multiple ways we can experience and interpret it.