St. Tropez 1962

Curator: Looking at "St. Tropez" by LeRoy Neiman, painted in 1962 using acrylics, I'm struck by the chaotic energy; a blur of yachts and sunbathers seemingly captured mid-motion. Editor: That energy immediately speaks to me! It feels utterly Mediterranean; that frantic rush of vacationers to find leisure in every moment, distilled into strokes of pure color. But I wonder about the material – acrylic paint allowed Neiman, in effect, to almost sculpt the colors. What does it tell us about this "snapshot" approach? Curator: It says a great deal about accessibility, wouldn't you say? Before acrylics, recreating such a vibrant, fast-drying image demanded a commitment of wealth and skill in working with oils. Acrylics democratized this sort of explosive mark-making; he could create that frenetic rhythm far more readily. The fact that these boats—icons of wealth and leisure—are rendered using a "common" medium is quite clever. Editor: Precisely! Those sailboats are so charged in the modern cultural imaginary! Think of Hemingway's yachts as compared to your neighbor’s beat-up dinghy, it spans the dreams and realities of success and getting away, right? The imagery here evokes both this accessibility and the elitism, painted using fast, immediate strokes! He is very skilled. It almost feels symbolic to render such images through an “everyman” media. Curator: It suggests a critique, perhaps? Or at least a commentary on the performance of leisure, right? Given Neiman's association with capturing athletic feats – other arenas of staged intensity – he was no stranger to observing moments of spectacle as if documenting them. Editor: The constant striving! I see your point. There is certainly a frenetic symbolism: the boats jockeying for position, sunbathers craving attention and sunlight… a miniature modern Eden teeming with the anxieties of status. These repeating masts suggest to me both confinement and escapism, as do the swarms of bright white dots. What is it all for, exactly? Curator: Perhaps this "all for show" sensibility is best mirrored by his fast paced approach, reflecting our insatiable consumption of "moments". Food for thought, right? Editor: Indeed! And thank you, an explosive image needs close readings!