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It has been difficult to hold onto many paintings but I have retained a few. Possibly the current favorite is titled 'Big Band' completed in 2005. It measures 13 feet x 9 feet. It has 18 nearly life size recognizable portraits of the biggest jazz stars that I knew and saw perform in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and includes Wynton Marsalis.

LeRoy Neiman

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LeRoy Neiman
Age: 91 †
Born: 1921
Born: June 8
Died: 2012
Died: June 20
Actor
Artist
Painter
St Paul
Minnesota
Leroy Neiman
Many
Band
Currents
Completed
Life
Painting
Nearly
Measures
Hold
Possibly
Includes
Feet
Favorite
Portraits
Knew
Biggest
Paintings
Stars
Jazz
Onto
Titled
Bigs
Size
Perform
Retained
Difficult
Saws
Current
Recognizable

More quotes by LeRoy Neiman

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Ive zeroed in on what you would call action and excellence... Everybody who does anything to try to succeed has to give the best of themselves, and art has made me pull the best out of myself.
LeRoy Neiman
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The most important thing is to just do it. If I work at a higher level I have responsibility to do better than what I've done before. Sometimes the best happens - beyond possibility. Just do it. Can't worry about it.
LeRoy Neiman
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Some people try to paint in my style. Some simply sell pirated copies of my work. Some claim to be my publisher or agent or even my exclusive representative, when they are not.
LeRoy Neiman
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Boxing is my real passion. I can go to ballet, theatre, movies, or other sporting events... and nothing is like the fights to me. I'm excited by the visual beauty of it. A boxer can look so spectacular by doing a good job.
LeRoy Neiman
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When I paint, I seriously consider the public presence of a person - the surface facade. I am less concerned with how people look when they wake up or how they act at home. A person's public presence reflects his own efforts at image development.
LeRoy Neiman
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I can easily ignore my detractors and feel the people who respond favorably.
LeRoy Neiman
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My lovely wife Janet has been in a few paintings. She is basically a reserved woman who has never sought the limelight. She has always been there throughout my career and continues to be at my side.
LeRoy Neiman
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I always stayed in tune with my own ambitions and attitudes and I'm still my intractable old self, for better or worse.
LeRoy Neiman
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The people who love my paintings, that respond to them the most, they're spectators, they're not viewers.
LeRoy Neiman
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I've met and sketched most of the great athletes from the past five decades and their movement, grace and energy have kept me captivated over the years. That's what the ancient Greeks first saw and that's what caught my interest.
LeRoy Neiman
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It has been difficult to hold onto many paintings but I have retained a few.
LeRoy Neiman
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Throughout my life, cigars have played different roles for me. They fit easily and well in the various stages and experiences Ive had -- like a companion, almost. If youve smoked a long time, as I have, they become part of you.
LeRoy Neiman
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I've got the public. I don't care about the critics. I did at one time. I don't any more. I did when I needed compliments. But if you get a lot of compliments, you don't need a critic to tell you, 'This should be done another way.'
LeRoy Neiman
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Eating is one of the great beauties in life. One of my favorite recreations... eating with friends, the service, the ambience.
LeRoy Neiman
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As I turn 91... I have to admit my hours at the easel have diminished.
LeRoy Neiman
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You can't take yourself too seriously.
LeRoy Neiman
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I hold doors open for all the women. Men can open the doors for themselves.
LeRoy Neiman
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The big shock of my life was Abstract Expressionism - Pollock, de Kooning, those guys. It changed my work. I was an academically trained student, and suddenly you could pour paint, smear it on, broom it on!
LeRoy Neiman
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No, I never had any dreams. The process of art is a dream in itself. The artist just doesn't... you work out something. It's yours. You don't have to go to sleep to do that. You do that on the canvas.
LeRoy Neiman
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You know what I like about San Francisco? The women are beautiful, fashionable and smart. San Francisco is one of the only cities I like to visit. I love New York and Chicago - I studied there, and L.A. has the same people as New York.
LeRoy Neiman