Artist: LeRoy Neiman
Title: Untitled (portrait of Kay Gardella)
Year created: 1971
Medium: Original Mixed Media on Paper
Edition: Original Artwork, Hand-signed, Dated, Inscribed, and Dedicated
Framed Dimensions:
Height (inches): 19
Width (inches): 16
Dimensions of Visible Artwork Area within Matting:
Height (inches): 14-1/4
Width (inches): 11-1/4
Signed by the artist
Signed Area: front
Description of piece:
Collect this one-of-a-kind, original artwork by renowned artist LeRoy Neiman!
LeRoy Neiman worked with pen and ink, graphite pencil, felt-tip markers, watercolours, and enamel paint. This very special original mixed media portraiture was created by Neiman especially for the subject of his portrait, New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella. The work demonstrates Neiman’s raw talent— a portraiture with minimalistic line and tone, yet instilled with movement and energy, and capturing the spirit of his subject.
Born in heavily Italian-American Belleville, NJ, Gardella joined the “News” as a copygirl two years after graduating from college. Over the remainder of the century Gardella worked her way through the ranks, ultimately working at the paper for nearly sixty years. The paper named her radio and television editor in 1975, a critic in 1981, and a columnist in 1993.
Gardella interviewed everyone from Frank Sinatra (she was reportedly one of the few female columnists he liked) to Edward R. Murrow. She was particularly close friends with Bob Hope and his wife Dolores. Gardella often mourned for the “golden age of Hollywood” and criticized declining values.
Neiman has not only created a portrait of Ms. Gardella, he also dedicated and gifted the work to her. Hand-signed and personally inscribed, Neiman has written, dramatically large, and spanning the entire width of the artwork: “To - of - and for Kay Gardella”. Neiman has signed in a full name signature, “LeRoy Neiman”, and has added the location in which he created the artwork, along with the date of creation: “New York Oct 29, ’71”.
The artwork, which was personally owned by Kay Gardella, comes elegantly framed in its original, vintage custom frame in black, enhanced with delicate silver inner trim and an ivory mat. Framed size measures 19” in height x 16” width. The visible area of the artwork measures 14-1/4” height x 11-1/4” width.
LeRoy Neiman’s portrait of Kay Gardella is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.
Artist bio:
LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012) studied in Chicago at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, where he then taught for 10 years before moving to New York City in 1962. Renowned for his painting and printmaking, Neiman is one of the few artists of the 20th century whose work is known by millions, both nationally and internationally.
Best known for his brilliantly colored, stunningly energetic images of the world of sports, exclusive leisure activities, and the world of entertainment, LeRoy Neiman's art is unique, and his work is without any real comparison in the art world. Neiman broke the barriers of many of the most hallowed assumptions of modern art history and contemporary criticism, his style exploding with the dramatic intensity of Abstract Expressionist brushstrokes, strokes that pick out action: whether it is the action of sports, the action of a nightclub, casino or yacht race, or capturing the inimitable majesty of nature.
LeRoy Neiman published hundreds of limited edition serigraphs which have become as much sought after as the prints of Miro, Chagall, and Picasso. Exhibited worldwide, from Moscow to Tokyo to Caracas, and honored with many awards for his art, Neiman is an icon of contemporary art. His work is held in the permanent collections of innumerable museums including the Whitney Museum in NYC, Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, the Hermitage in Leningrad, and the Art Institute of Chicago.