A View From the Rear

Forget about that Van Gogh junk on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The real art event of the moment is today and Friday at the L.A. Convention Center, where “Original Butt Sketch” artist Krandel Lee Newton of Dallas will be drawing derrieres for visitors to NeoCon West, a trade fair for interior designers.

Newton, a former engineer at Westinghouse, has sketched an estimated 175,000 backsides--most of them clothed--since 1987. He discovered his calling on a Dallas street corner while painting the backs of parade watchers.

Today, his Original Butt Sketch World Headquarters employs a staff of five artists and a publicist. In addition to $200-an-hour appearances at conventions, the company offers $55 “Buttgrams,” in which an artist is sent to an office for a surprise sketch.

The charcoal renderings take about 2 1/2 minutes each. One newspaper dubbed the genre “posterior Impressionism.”

Celebrity fannies in Newton’s oeuvre reportedly include those of John Goodman, Tony Curtis, Queen Latifah, Vanna White, Leeza Gibbons, Wolfgang Puck, Peter Graves and Alex Trebek, whom Newton believes possesses the world’s best butt.

For information, call (what else?) (888) THE-BUTT or visit the company’s Web site, https://www.buttsketch.com.