All Told : My Art and Life among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies, and Provocateurs

by Neiman, LeRoy

• ISBN13: 9780762778379
• ISBN10: 0762778377
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-05
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

LeRoy Neimanarguably the world's most recognizable contemporary artistbroke the barrier between fine art and popular art in the 1960s. His prints continue to bring in $10 million a year in sales. But it is the life he's lived and the people he's known that make the memoir of this swashbuckling bon vivant with the famous mustache such a marvelous historical canvas. His is the story of a scrappy Depression-era kid who had talent, insatiable curiosity, and a knack for wrangling himself into places he didn't belong. As a result, he hobnobbed with everyone who's anyone and created indelible images that helped define a century. Neiman sat ringside with some of the most extraordinary figures of the twentieth century. Instructor and confidant to Muhammad Ali throughout his tumultuous career, Neiman also traveled with Sinatra, cavorted with Dali and Warhol, watched afternoon soaps with Dizzy Gillespie, played in Sly Stallone's Rockymovies, exchanged quips with Nixon, smoked cigars with Castro, and experienced the September 5, 1972, terrorist attacks at the Munich Olympics alongside Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell, and Jim McKay. And then there's his contribution to the culture-shifting influence of Playboy. Neiman recalls his half-century relationship with Hugh Hefneras principle artistic contributor to Playboysince its founding in 1954, setting up studios in London and Paris to cover his Playboybeat, "Man at His Leisure," and as creator of the Femlin, the iconic Playboysex doll. With his life's work, and now in All Told, LeRoy Neiman has captured sports heroes, movie stars, presidents, dishwashers, jet-setters, jockeys, and even high-class hookersa panoramic record of society like no other. [Page Two of spread: Great photo of LeRoy Neiman, plus caption]

Author Biography

LeRoy Neiman married fine art to popular art with his brilliantly colored, energetic depictions of sports, celebrities, America at play, life on safari, and famous locations. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he left high school in 1942 to join the U.S. Army, returning four years later to obtain his high school degree. He then studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (where, for a time, he taught), the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. Early in the 1950s he became a fashion illustrator for the department store of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., where he met Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in 1953. He lives in New York City, overlooking Central Park, where he keeps his studio, offices, archives and penthouse on separate floors.