Mixed Doubles 1975

LeRoy Neiman painted Mixed Doubles with oil to capture the energy of a tennis match. The colours are vibrant, and the marks are put down wet-on-wet. It's all about the moment of application, creating something immediate. The texture is key here. The paint is thick, and you can almost feel the bristles of the brush as Neiman created a kind of controlled chaos. Look at the way he suggests the tennis net with broken lines and daubs of colour. It's not about perfect representation but about capturing the essence of the game, the movement, and the excitement. I see echoes of Matisse here, maybe even a touch of Diebenkorn. But Neiman has his own thing going on, a kind of jazzy abstraction that makes you want to pick up a racket and swing. Ultimately, this is what good art does; it doesn’t just show you something, it makes you feel it too.