Opening Day Auction Closing May 9th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/10/2015
Never one to rest on his laurels, Dick Perez is ever evolving, ever experimenting, ever pushing the boundaries of his craft. In our February auction, the Diamond Kingmaker took a hiatus from baseball and turned his attention to the gridiron with an acclaimed portrait of UCLA running back Jackie Robinson. Now Perez is branching out to the squared circle. "Boxing ran a close second to baseball during my youth in the Bronx," Dick recalls. "I was a hard-core fan who avidly followed Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio, Jake LaMotta, Kid Gavilan, Rocky Marciano and many others from the 1950s 'Gillette Friday Night Fight' TV broadcasts. My first visit to a live boxing match was an overwhelming experience. The real sound of landed punches was stunning and still resonates in my memory today."
Not in the past three decades has Perez devoted his palette to the sweet science, yet here he shows his versatility and dexterity with a timeless painting for the ages. The setting is Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910, in an outdoor stadium built solely for the purpose of this very battle. Jackson is in his prime, a finely oiled machine with a Herculean physique. Jeffries has come out of retirement and shed 100 pounds to regain his fighting weight. According to period accounts, the men wore blue and purple trunks respectively, with both sporting a small U.S. flag. Perez captures the rivals in a pose of tremendous symmetry, balance and composition—a pyramid of brute power against the cloudless sky of a sweltering summer afternoon. The Galveston Giant grapples with the Great White Hope, not long before the 15th-round knockout that stunned the world, sparked race riots nationwide, led to trumped-up legal charges against the champion, and ultimately resulted in his self-exile in Europe. The zenith of Johnson's career also proved to be his tragic downfall.
Bio: Dick Perez is the preeminent living baseball artist—and arguably the greatest the sport has ever known. For 45 years, Perez has paid homage to the game’s pantheon through monumental projects such as his Perez-Steele Art Cards, Donruss Diamond Kings, Immortals luxury book, and Charles Conlon Collection. Throughout that time, he has also held the distinguished position of Official Artist for the Philadelphia Phillies, Baseball Hall of Fame, Donruss and Topps. Perez’s Impressionist-style portraits are housed in the prestigious collections of museums, major-league franchises, corporations, and private art collectors including Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.