French Connection 1976

LeRoy Neiman made this painting called 'French Connection' using expressive strokes of blues, yellows, and reds. Imagine him there, brush in hand, trying to capture the frenetic energy of the game, the back and forth. I wonder if Neiman played hockey himself or just loved the spectacle, the color, the sheer physicality of it all? I like the way he hasn’t tried to make it 'real’ with photographic detail, instead opting for a kind of shorthand, a visual code for hockey. He lays down thick strokes of paint to build the scene – a slash of blue here, a dab of yellow there. These marks convey the speed and movement of the players. And the colors are intense, almost jarring, yet they capture the raw excitement of the sport. It reminds me of some of Joan Mitchell's paintings, where the subject is secondary to the emotion, the pure energy of the painted mark. You get the feeling that Neiman is in conversation with all these artists who came before him, all trying to capture the world in their own way. Painting is like that – an ongoing conversation, a game of telephone across time.