Friday, April 30, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Blue Period

Frank Sinatra wasn't known for an artistic bent, but his paintings are now on display

Memorabilia from the private collection of Frank and Barbara Sinatra is on view in the Godt-Cleary Gallery exhibit. Photo by John Gurzinski. Frank Sinatra's art leaned toward the contemporary styles of Ellsworth Kelly, Mark Rothko and Robert Mangold. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Frank Sinatra won every award a singer and actor can get. But he kept another talent hidden away from the public.

For 10 to 15 years, probably starting sometime in the 1970s, Sinatra spent considerable time working in an artist's studio at his Palm Springs, Calif., home.

The result of his love of art is on display in "Frank Sinatra: Paintings and Memorabilia" in the Godt-Cleary Gallery at Mandalay Place, Mandalay Bay's retail concourse.

Gallery director Michele Quinn, who put the show together, says Sinatra was "a Sunday painter, but a pretty good Sunday painter. This is a side of his life that has not been much talked about. People come in and ask, `Did he really do this?' "

Sinatra began painting clowns, but in the 1980s he got serious about his art, Quinn says. His work from then into the 1990s was most clearly influenced by the bright colors and abstract shapes of Mark Rothko, Robert Mangold and Ellsworth Kelly.

But he was not an imitator. "He was experimenting with his own voice, not copying their styles," Quinn says.

The paintings are untitled, except for the dominant colors Sinatra used, such as red and black, green and white, white and brown, red white and blue, green and red, etc.

Two of the paintings show recognizable shapes from nature -- "Untitled 7 (Acapulco Sunset)," which shows ocean waves in the bottom third of the painting, and "Untitled 8 (Blue & Gray Bridge)," with a section of a bridge set against a sky background.

Prices for the paintings are $7,000-$22,000.

Quinn says Sinatra's art fits in well at Godt-Cleary Gallery, a commercial gallery specializing in contemporary art and design from 1960 to the present.

Culling the exhibit from Sinatra's warehouse, Quinn selected memorabilia, including a drawing collage of Sinatra by an unknown artist in 1975, a portrait of the chairman of the board by Sandro in 1989, a piece of sheet music for the song "I Was Wrong" with a note and kisses in lipstick by a fan in 1947, a photograph of Sinatra with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on a golf course, date undetermined, a pair of golf shoes and dress shoes worn by Sinatra, and a red fireman's hat with "Sinatra" painted in white.

The memorabilia is available for purchase. Prices range from $600 to $2,000.

Quinn selected the kind of memorabilia that isn't usually associated with Sinatra and Las Vegas. There are no pictures of him in front of Strip landmarks.

"He's so powerful on so many levels," Quinn says. "He's infused in so much of our culture."

Also in the exhibition are paintings from the Sinatra's personal art collection, including works by Walt Kuhn and Norman Rockwell.