Note on Art

Note on Art

A note from LeRoy Neiman on making art in his cultural moment.

This note from LeRoy Neiman provides a self-conscious, retrospective reflection on artistic influence. Within the writing, the artist characterizes his influences as “contemporary” and “how things look today”. As abstract as this description might seem, this interest in now-ness, and recording the present moment from the inside, was very much a theme in the artist’s work. On a more granular level, the note references how more modern, electronic arts (e.g. TV, film, and advertising) proved vital to Neiman’s practice and conceptualization of the location of visual arts in culture, more generally. This self-positioning of his work vis-a-vis these low brow cultural forms then speaks to the high-art, low-art division that was of interest in the mid-20th century and a personal preoccupation for the artist. That said, it should be noted that this collapsing of stereotypically high and low forms was not an agenda of sorts but instead simply a side-effect of Neiman’s cultural enmeshment.

LeRoy Neiman

LeRoy Neiman Foundation

LeRoy Neiman Foundation

c. 1990-2011

LeRoy Neiman

Property of the LeRoy Neiman Foundation; please consult the organization's archivist for further details.

Notes, LN_Notes_1595, LN_Notes_1875, LN_Notes_2314, LN_Notes_1593, LN_Notes_909, LN_Notes_1021_01; LN_Notes_1021_02, LN_Notes_2214_01; LN_Notes_2214_02, LN_Notes_1594, LN_Notes_986_01; LN_Notes_986_02, LN_Notes_819_01; LN_Notes_819_02, LN_Notes_2302, LN_Notes_1776_01; LN_Notes_1776_02; LN_Notes_1776_03; LN_Notes_1776_04; LN_Notes_1776_05, LN_Notes_1764_01; LN_Notes_1764_02; LN_Notes_1764_03; LN_Notes_1764_04

Image/jpeg

English

Document

LN_Notes_1012

New York (N.Y.) New York

I was not looking for the new as advertising, films, T.V., was and the art was.
Ballet (need of funding)[,] classical music[,] (jazz) was struggling to keep up (hold on)[.] Other forms of artistic expression introduced in outstanding new ways. (Every thing new has in some form been done before) While I just contrived to be me the same me, same subject matter etc. Was I getting better? Not really. Just that the look of world keeps changing and (my work appeared contemporary[.] [H]ow thing[s] look today is my subject matter. [E]xample[,] the sedate international [manual?] folks were the people (often formulate class) at the tables in my Monte Carlo of the mid[-]century years I painted the gambling scene. Today it is Las Vegas, noisy, casual, sexy, neo etc.[,] but its purpose the same.
I boxing at this time[,] fighters sat in their corner until introduction[.] [N]o advertising on canvas, ropes, trucks, etc[.][Ringsiders?] elegant, all male but wearing [?] [.]
Today [noisy], rowdy[,] a lady for every man[.]
Was I a groove or a rut?
Hear the spin of the roulette wheel[.]

Pencil on paper.