Pete Rose 1975

LeRoy Neiman’s ‘Pete Rose’ is a riot of colors and painterly gestures that captures the energy of a baseball game, I imagine made with fast strokes and a loaded brush. The act of painting here seems like a dance. Neiman throws down pinks, oranges, greens—a whole spectrum—to build up the scene. The paint is applied in thick, juicy strokes. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas, trying to freeze time and capture the player’s intensity. It's like he’s saying, "let’s see if I can capture the essence of the game with just a few well-placed marks.” You can see how a gesture—like the slash of white that defines the baseball—communicates so much about movement and speed. Neiman’s work always reminds me that painting is about pushing boundaries, seeing how much you can do with color and form to evoke a feeling. We all build upon each other, don't we? Artists have an ongoing conversation. I guess we are all trying to turn our view of the world into something tangible.