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Artist: LeRoy Neiman
Title: Bob Knight Portrait
Year created: 1979
Medium: Photo-reproduction of Original Painting, Hand-Signed & Inscribed by Bob Knight
Edition: Hand-signed & Inscribed by Bobby Knight
Height (inches): 31.75
Width (inches): 27.5
This piece is framed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
This LeRoy Neiman portrait of Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight is hand-signed by Knight, who has added the inscription "76-81-87 Champs" to commemorate his leading the I.U. team to win the NCAA Championship in 1976, 1981 and 1987.
Custom framed in an elegant silver wood frame with custom double mat, this great showpiece measures 31-3/4"in height x 27-1/2"width, and has a great story behind it:
Indianapolis businessman and art collector Barton Kaufman— an all-Big Ten baseball player at Indiana University in the 1960s— met LeRoy Neiman in New York City in 1975. A lengthy friendship followed, with Kaufman commissioning a painting from Neiman almost every year. Eventually, of a total of 28 commissioned paintings, Kaufman auctioned off 26 of them to raise funds for his Alma Mater I.U.
From all of his commissioned works, Kaufman kept only two treasured paintings by LeRoy Neiman. One was a painting of then-IU basketball coach Bob Knight in a huddle with some of his 1975-1976 era star players: Kent Benson (#54), Scott May (#42), Quinn Buckner (#21), Bobby Wilkerson (#20), and Tom Abernathy (#2).
Kaufman had arranged for a post-game locker room meeting between Neiman and Knight at the 1979 National Invitation Tournament final in Madison Square Garden between Indiana and Purdue University. Not long after, Neiman painted the picture of Knight in a sideline huddle.
The original painting was signed by Neiman, but not inscribed, and remained solely in the private collection of Mr. Kaufman. But Mr. Kaufman was asked for a photograph of his spectacular painting— first, by sports editor Bob Hamill, and next by Neiman himself. The high-quality photographic reproduction given to Neiman was evidently personalized by Neiman and presented to Bob Knight, with Neiman's inscription: To Bobby Knight "SIR Bobby a real Knight" LeRoy Neiman '79. From that special, inscribed image, Knight created a series of these portraits, which he in turn personally autographed.