Carl Yastrzemski c. 1970s

LeRoy Neiman painted this portrait of Carl Yastrzemski with thick brushes and swathes of dynamic color, like he was capturing a moment more than a likeness. It’s almost like he was painting the feeling of baseball. Look at the way he builds up the paint, those slabs of bright color; it's not really about blending, but about the immediacy of the gesture. The way he throws down the pigment, especially around the shoulder and arm – it’s like each stroke is a burst of energy, a snapshot of movement. There's an aliveness to it, like a freeze-frame of an action painting of an actual action. Neiman reminds me a bit of Elaine de Kooning, another painter interested in portraiture and the movement of the brush. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas and approaches, a way of seeing the world through someone else's eyes.