‘Common People’ Flock to Painter of Uncommon Riches

“I love the way he blends colors to create forms.”

Local LeRoy Neiman fan

“Neiman’s paintings require no work from viewers. Like TV, they provide a passive kind of enjoyment. They do not provide visual nourishment. Caveat emptor. These Twinkies of painting may induce visual madness.”

Times art review, 1986

LeRoy Neiman, the reigning king of populist art, has made two area appearances in two weeks, once to sign copies of his 1988 book, “Monte Carlo Chase,” at the Quinn-Pollak Gallery in Seaport Village, and last weekend to be honored at Tijuana’s Agua Caliente Race Track.

The Quinn-Pollak staff turned out in black tie and sleek gowns, creating a soigne atmosphere as patrons milled through the gallery, sipping Champagne and nibbling at the canapes.

A 1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III was parked prominently outside, and a gleaming dark green 1953 Allard sports car (courtesy of the San Diego Automotive Museum) was stationed strategically inside the gallery, underscoring the racing theme and the tone of casual wealth and sophistication that goes hand in hand with Neiman’s subject matter.

Idolized by fans and dismissed by critics with equal passion, Neiman’s brightly spattered canvases hung on the gallery walls, chronicling the high life and the good life, from Las Vegas high rollers to sports car sophisticates at Le Mans.

In the crowded gallery, Neiman art lovers queued up six and seven deep to add Neiman’s autograph to the $44 book of his works they had just bought.

One woman, who said she works at a local television station, caught up to Neiman as he was preparing to leave, shook his hand and got him to pose with her for a picture. It was a moment to cherish.

“I just wanted to see him,” she said. “That would have been enough.”

That kind of devotion kept three store assistants busy for more than an hour in an assembly-line process, passing books, prints and posters to Neiman for his signature. The artist paused only to get peoples’ names right or to oblige a photograph request from those who took cameras.

Neiman, with his distinctive mustache, has become as much a celebrity as his subjects, a roster that includes the likes of Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, Bjorn Borg and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His personal image has been enhanced over 14 years of producing sketches for Playboy magazine’s Man at His Leisure section and his assignments as ABC’s official artist for the 1972, 1976 and 1984 Olympics.

He also served as CBS-TV’s computer artist for the Super Bowl.

Today, a Neiman oil painting may run in the $100,000 to $300,000 price range. He has become a millionaire from the sales of more than 80,000 prints. Yet, his largest audience, he maintains, is the “common people,” who buy prints at prices that start at about $2,200.

In less than two hours at the Quinn-Pollak appearance, Neiman fans loaded up with books and posters that cost from $65 to $150 each.

Last weekend, Neiman made another southern trip from his home in Los Angeles, this time to Tijuana, probably the Day-Glo-on-velvet capital of the world. Caliente Race Track has commissioned the 61-year-old artist to produce a painting of the historic track, which first opened in 1929.

“I will walk the track tomorrow morning,” Neiman said Friday night, when asked how he would get a sense of Caliente. “I’m a good mudder,” he laughed, referring to the wet turf.

But, when told that race-track officials said he would create a historic painting of an earlier version of the storied track, the usually genial Neiman bristled and snapped: “No one tells me what to do.”

Track owner Jorge Hank Rhon added that there had been a misunderstanding, and that Neiman would paint whatever he wanted. Hank feted the artist Friday night, with a lavish reception and an exhibit of his serigraph and silk-screen horse-racing prints at the track’s Phar Lap Room.

Neiman was guest of honor at the track throughout a weekend that concluded with Sunday’s running of the 21st Marlboro International Caribbean Classic. Neiman’s view of the spectacle of sports seemed a good match for Caliente’s colorful pageantry, which included races by a buffalo, ostrich and greyhounds ridden by spider monkeys.

At a race track press conference, Neiman said he liked to focus on “the show biz aspect of life” in his paintings. Although his artworks often reflect the lives of the rich and famous, he believes the common people relate to that.

“I know the reality of the coal mines of Pennsylvania and Wales,” he said. “That’s not for me to paint. I don’t paint the world in general. I’ve never wanted to paint the troubles of the world or the troubles of the artist. That’s not my calling. My calling is to be here.”