Champagne, New Year’s Eve 2006

Curator: This is LeRoy Neiman's "Champagne, New Year’s Eve," created in 2006 using acrylic paint. Editor: My first thought? Unrestrained joy. The colours practically vibrate off the canvas, don’t they? Curator: Indeed. Neiman, throughout his career, consistently captured a hedonistic slice of upper class society. New Year's Eve celebrations have complex symbolism. Its a moment laden with social expectations about renewed promises and forced collective celebrations, and this work really begs us to analyze who those expectations are benefitting, while critiquing the notion of performative ritual. Editor: Interesting. To me, the image feels immediately accessible. The champagne bottle dominates the lower left, with the implied motion upward like the bursting energy, the bubbles, everything moving to an apex, toward a fresh start, it speaks to a human desire to start anew. This links to recurring motifs throughout history of renewal, the shedding of the old and celebration of new beginnings. The symbolic properties of champagne themselves are linked to celebration as early as the French monarchy and has, throughout visual and cultural history, become emblematic with a wealthy lifestyle. Curator: The Fauvist colour palette and expressionistic brushstrokes serve to amplify a celebratory feel. This aesthetic style developed largely among white Western European artists to shock conservative sensibilities while conveniently failing to acknowledge primitive artistic contributions by colonized nations, so in many ways this art's history further exemplifies the kind of classism and white supremacy displayed. Editor: A fair point. The dynamism really captures that fleeting sense of anticipation and release, as well as a collective celebration, which taps into deeper mythic reservoirs we assign with celebratory feasts since basically forever, such as community and rebirth. You can also feel the immediacy and spontaneity, like a memory captured in motion, but those visual ingredients can be very loaded. Curator: Absolutely. Context becomes crucial. Neiman painted celebrities, athletes, and social gatherings, effectively creating works that celebrate those social divides and dynamics instead of making astute cultural critique. Editor: It's a really intriguing snapshot. Considering that imagery can connect deeply ingrained cultural ideals, I see in the imagery both an immediate expression of gaiety, but you bring up critical and worthy questions about it all. Curator: Right. There's much more than meets the eye here; an understanding of how class structures impact access and opportunity being crucial for analysis.