Olympic Swimmers 1976

LeRoy Neiman captured the dynamic energy of Olympic Swimmers with bold strokes of acrylic paint. Look at the way he’s built up these watery blues and greens, with flicks of white like foam. I wonder what it was like for Neiman standing there, brush in hand, trying to capture the speed and splash of those swimmers? He was interested in reportage and immediacy; not necessarily photo-realism, but something more emotionally evocative, something truer. I bet he was thinking about the way the body pushes through space, how muscles tense and release, and all the while, the clock is ticking! Notice how he uses thick, juicy strokes, and the way the yellow lane dividers almost vibrate against the cool blues of the water. In his way, he was carrying on conversations with painters like the Italian Futurists, like Umberto Boccioni, who also sought to express movement and dynamism in painting. Ultimately, painting like this is about embodied expression, embracing ambiguity, and inviting multiple interpretations.