Elvis Presley 1976

LeRoy Neiman created this painting of Elvis with dynamic strokes of blue, yellow, pink and black. It feels like you can see him building up the image from nothing, letting the King emerge out of a whirlwind of pure color. I imagine Neiman was there, maybe even on stage, trying to capture Elvis’s wild energy. The paint's applied wet-on-wet, blurring the edges so it's hard to tell where one color ends and another begins. Look at the blue under the guitar, how it bleeds into the yellow, the yellow merges with the black of the guitar… It’s all about movement and the vibrant energy of the performance. There’s a real sense of immediacy in the way Neiman handles the paint. This painting reminds me of Joan Mitchell, another painter who wasn’t afraid to let loose with color and gesture. In each case, it’s like they're trying to capture not just what they see, but how it feels to be there, in that moment. Painting is an ongoing experiment, a way of figuring things out as much as it is a way of showing them.