Pictured right: artist LeRoy Neiman at the golden nugget
Artist LeRoy Neiman died Wednesday at age 91. The artist was famous for his brightly colored, impressionistic paintings of sports events... his portraits of heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic events appeared regularly in Playboy magazine, starting in the 1950's.
Neiman also had a strong connection to Las Vegas. He attended many boxing events here and spent time painting scenes of Las Vegas gamblers.
As Neiman told KNPR's Flo Rogers in 2004, he was drawn to the characters he found in casinos. Listen to our archived interview with Neiman here.
Desert Inn Baccarat by LeRoy Neiman