Dancers in the Koutoubia Palace, Tangier 1969

LeRoy Neiman made ‘Dancers in the Koutoubia Palace, Tangier’ with oils, and what strikes me is how the painting seems to be in motion, as if the dancers and onlookers are all vibrating with energy. Imagine being Neiman, brush in hand, trying to capture the fleeting gestures of the dancers, the way light flickers across the room, and the general buzz of excitement. I wonder if he mixed thick dollops of paint straight on the canvas to build up the texture, capturing the vibrant colors of the dancers' costumes with broad, confident strokes. And those yellows! They pulse with warmth, like the music itself is radiating color. It's almost as if he’s channeling the spirit of Matisse, but with a dash of American bravado. You know, it’s amazing how painters can take something as simple as pigment and turn it into a whole world of feeling and movement. We’re all just copying each other in the end, riffing and building on what came before.