1980s Leroy Neiman "Metropolitan Opera Premiere" Serigraph, Signed in Pencil and Paint, Certificate of Authenticity. Professionally Matted and Framed

Description

Metropolitan Opera Premiere
Certificate of Authenticity attached.
October 18, 1985

Printing, especially serigraphy, was LeRoy’s most prolific medium. During his … more Metropolitan Opera Premiere
Certificate of Authenticity attached.
October 18, 1985

Printing, especially serigraphy, was LeRoy’s most prolific medium. During his busiest time period, Neiman printed an average of six serigraphs per year. The works were printed in limited edition runs by hand in New York City at several print shops through the years, namely at BrandX. Serigraphs or silkscreens are created one color at a time and sometimes have up to 60 layers of color per print. The serigraphs are recognizable by the artist’s signature primary color palette and expressionist style. Neiman also used printing techniques like monoprinting, etching, lithography.

After returning from abroad in 1963, LeRoy settled into a New York City studio, which would remain his home base and workplace for the next 50 years. He felt energized by the city, citing landmarks such as the Metropolitan Opera, Central Park, the NY Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet as muses. Neiman always had a pad of paper in hand, sketching from the back of taxi cabs and people he met on the street.

Artist:
Leroy Neiman 1921-2012. Artist, Teacher, Illustrator, Chronicler, Celebrity, Philanthropist.
Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, studied at Saint Paul School of Art and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). At SAIC, in a class of 1950 that was rife with talent, Neiman studied alongside Robert Clark (who later changed his last name to Indiana) and Leon Golub.
Neiman spent a decade after his graduation teaching figure drawing and fashion illustration at SAIC. Meanwhile, he entered his paintings in regional competitions—and found quick success. In 1953, his Idle Boats won first prize for oil painting at the Twin City Show. The Minneapolis Art Institute bought the painting. And Neiman’s stature grew briskly as other prestigious museums—the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Carnegie Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting—acquired other pieces of his work.

In 1954, along came a break that altered Neiman’s career. While doing fashion illustrations for retailer Carson Pirie Scott, he met not only his future bride Janet Byrne, but also Hugh Hefner, a copywriter for the department store chain who had also just launched a new men’s magazine. This magazine, called Playboy, featured nearly nude women, serious journalism, and fiction. Hefner commissioned an illustration from Neiman for a short story—which turned out to win the Chicago Art Directors Award. In 1957, the same year Neiman married Janet, he created what became an enduring iconic logo for Playboy: the Femlin. This was a mischievous-looking, saucy, sexy female sprite, or gremlin, clothed only in opera gloves, stockings, and high heels. She was, ironically, a champion of women’s rights. less