Using spit bite etching, a technique that requires a quick, unfaltering gestural movement to etch directly into the plate, Neiman catches his figures in the height of activity, mid-pitch or mid-swing. Neiman has made prints throughout his career. His dedication to the art of printmaking is evidenced in his founding of the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University in 1996.
Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, LeRoy Neiman's artistic career was determined at an early age: as a grade-school student in the 1930s, he earned a few extra pennies by tattooing Mickey Mouse and Popeye on classmates' forearms. Later, in 1954, his friend Hugh Hefner enlisted him for the launch of Playboy magazine, and Neiman became its official artist. Throughout his career, Neiman has drawn and painted many prominent celebrities, focusing primarily on sports events and athletic stars such as Muhammad Ali. As the writer and critic Jan Avgikos noted, Neiman "is a glamorous artist who turned painting into a spectator sport and performed it with such virtuosity and panache that both he and his art became a sensation."
