Standing Jock 1959

LeRoy Neiman made this oil painting of a jockey in 1959 and it's a great example of how an artist can use color and gesture to capture a feeling more than a likeness. Neiman uses a really active, broken brushstroke here; it’s all about these little dabs and dashes of color, right? Look at how he defines the jockey’s form not with lines, but with these energetic clusters of pink, yellow, and turquoise. You get a sense of movement, of the jockey almost vibrating with energy. There’s a real physicality to the paint itself - it’s thick, you can see the texture, the way he loaded the brush. Then there are those slashes of orange at the bottom, which give it a kick. Neiman’s work reminds me of someone like Joan Mitchell in its expressive use of color and brushwork, but with a pop sensibility, which is not to say that either approach is better, just different ways of seeing. Art’s like that; it’s a conversation, not a competition.