Celebrating 50 Years

Neiman canceled an appearance set for Saturday at the gallery for health reasons. The exhibit will open as scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday and run through Aug. 26.

A 50-year retrospective is a tough thing to do for an artist, says Centaur Art Galleries President Richard Perry, because many don’t live long enough to have a career that spans half a century.

But Neiman, 79, considered to be one of the most popular American artists of the 20th century, has produced a large body of work during his career. He also has spent a lot of time in Las Vegas and has been inspired by the city’s leisure activities, so it’s only fitting that this retrospective is presented here, Perry says. His work has been displayed in Centaur for 25 years.

More than 450 works of art — from charcoal drawings to paintings — will be on display, including 100 originals.

“It is literally the biggest show anyone has done for him in recent times,” says Perry, who first met Neiman in Chicago 38 years ago.

The core of the exhibit is a collection of 26 paintings commissioned by an anonymous individual during the past 30 years, Perry says. The collection consists of paintings of sports figures who represent the ideal athlete, such as Mary Lou Retton, Jackie Robinson and Peyton Manning. The core collection is appraised at more than $5 million.

“The paintings, they’re exquisite. They’re inspirational,” says Perry, who came up with the retrospective idea about three years ago.

When the core collection became available for display, gallery representatives searched the world for additional pieces. The hardest piece to find was a 1957 painting called “The Wild Horses.” It depicts horses from the Wild West era, Perry says.

Though he has painted a variety of subjects, including animals, famous locations and man’s leisure life, Neiman probably is most known for his sports-themed works. Depicting popular subjects in his art is probably the root of his appeal, says artist Thomas Holder, the chairman of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas art department.

“He’s a guy artist,” says S2 Art gallery founder and owner Jack Solomon, Neiman’s longtime friend and former publisher. “Most of LeRoy’s stuff is male-oriented, sports, the good life from a male point of view. He’s sort of a man’s man.”

His work also is readily identifiable, which makes it more accessible to the public, Solomon says.

“When you look at something he paints you know immediately it’s a Neiman, you don’t have to look at the signature,” he says. “It’s colorful, it’s happy usually.”

Neiman was teaching art at the Chicago Institute of Art when Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner offered him a job as the magazine’s artist in 1953. For 15 years, Neiman traveled the world and captured major events on canvas for his Playboy feature called “Man of Leisure.”

“That changed my whole life into the social life and that’s where I found my subject matter, you might say,” Neiman says.