LeRoy Neiman

Merrill Chase, Chicago, Illinois
Private Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana (acquired from the above, 1979)
By descent in the family of the above to the present owner

Leroy Neiman, Winners: My Thirty Years in Sports, New York, 1983, p. 52

Surface generally in good, original, condition; with a few small areas of craquelure in planet at upper right. Under ultraviolet light: no apparent inpainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A signed copy of Leroy Neiman, Winners, My Thirty Years in Sports, New York, 1983, will accompany the lot.

In 1978, Neiman was selected to be the official CBS artist for Super Bowl XII in New Orleans where the Denver Broncos were to play the Dallas Cowboys.  The first Super Bowl to be played in prime-time, it was won by the Cowboys by a score of 27 to 10, the second Super Bowl win for Dallas.  Here Neiman depicts all 22 players on the field, 11 to a side, along with a referee.  Each player flies through the stratosphere during the game as Number 12, Roger Staubach, throws a game-clinching pass to receiver, Golden Richards, Number 83, as if the football were a comet.  The Denver player trying to block the pass is probably Number 59, Joe Rizzo, one of the top NFL linebackers for the Broncos' "Orange Crush" defense.  Staubach, known as "Captain America", for the Cowboys, often referred to as "America's Team", retired as the second highest-rated passer of all time.  He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and one of the most famous quarterbacks in football history.

America's love of space travel was still a vibrant part of our national conversation in 1978.  In May of 1977, George Lucas' first Star Wars feature debuted and the day following Super Bowl XII, NASA announced a new space mission for a group of astronauts that included women and the first African American and Asian American to venture into outer space.  Not surprisingly, the small depiction of the New Orleans superdome just above Neiman's signature has the distinct feel of a ship ready to launch into outer space. 

SUPER BOWL-TALK

Neiman went on to create two different silkscreen prints of this image.  He explains his sentiment behind the painting and the process by which the prints evolved in Winners: My Thirty Years in Sports:

"I started this outer space painting several years back, caught up in the thought that television makes football more than an air-and-ground game.  It becomes stratospheric.

The pass rides on the roar of the crowd, literally off the Super Bowl field, and projects the players into outer space, feeding the audio and video to satellites, then bouncing them back to earth.

My painting intended to heighten this imagery, with players floating and tumbling in space like a football star constellation, the superstar quarterback's pass arcing like a comet.

Thus, TV puts football into orbit.

At that time, I titled the painting  Football Star Constellation.  A silkscreen print was reproduced from it, in a limited edition, and renamed Space Football.

Then the ESPN network approached me about marketing the series through their airwaves, if I agreed to add their satellite (which was done for the second serigraph release).

This idea appealed to my sense of fitness, and I complied, feeling that we were adding the one element that completed the purpose of this ethereal painting."  (Leroy Neiman, Winners: My Thirty Years in Sports, op. cit., p. 52)