JUNE2013:   THE 122nd ARTICLE FOR BASEBALL GURU

                                                  ONEMOREINNING

 

The last  two articles that  have appeared  here have involved  baseball  in the arts.  In this piece we'll look at the various paintings and artists that have portrayed the game

ALL THE ARTISTS DISCUSSED HERE  CAN BE ACCESSED ON WIKIPEDIA IMAGES

 

   CHARLES FAZZINO'S art is a riotous, image filled potpourri  of many images all cramped into a single composition. His depictions of baseball fields with the players in them are almost surrealistic in scope and content. Mostly cartoon like, they emphasize the joy of the game and its diversity. He is one of the few that will be mentioned here that doesn't employ a very realistic approach in his rendering.

   GRAIG KREINDLE specializes in depicting the superstars (mostly New York Yankees) of the game in an extremely realistic art style. Working basically from photographs he manages to elevate the images with an iconic stature. His paintings are quite large and this forces him into working for the most part standing up rather than sitting in a prone position across his canvas.

   BERNIE HUBERT'S forte is to show superstars in a single pose framed by a background of sorts They end up as majestic replicas of the game, larger than life and combined with his excellent draftsmanship they are quite impressive. Usually they are still but every once in a while there is  movement shown and a play being made. The Derek Jeter painting is an excellent example of the above.

    BILL PURDOM: studied with some of the best contemporary artists around these days…….and it shows. His draftsmanship is better than just top notch and sense of composition quite unusual.

   He borrows heavily from existing photographs but gives them s dimension in his technique that the camera doesn't convey. Here is Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson examining a bat together, Ty Cobb sliding vociferously into second base, an aging Babe Ruth being honored at Yankee stadium, Bob Gibson falling off the mound while pitching at Busch Stadium, Don Mattingly hitting his 8th homerun on 8 consecutive days, Jackie Robinson stealing home during the World Series, Reggie Jackson hitting his third consecutive homerun against the L.A. Dodgers, etc.

   NORMAN  ROCKWELL: What can possibly be said about Norman Rockwell that hasn’t been said already? He is America's best known  artist and nobody has captured the spirit and essence of what we are better than him.  What is generally not known is that he has painted pictures of baseball in all its dimensions, from Umpires waiting out a rain delay, scenes in a dugout, homerun hitters crossing the plate, batting practice, coaches giving signs, pitchers winding up, kids playing in backyards, little league players choosing up sides with a bat, fans in the stands, rural baseball scene, grandpa at bat with his grandson catching him. a close play at second base, a player sliding into a base, a rookie coming into a dugout for the first time and many more.

  Probably the two most well known baseball artists to paint the game are DICK PEREZ and RON LEWIS. In this writers opinion they are far from being the best.

   Perez has made his reputation by painting players faces for Topps cards and other venues. In most cases I  find the renderings to be a bit stffish and routinely drawn.

  The same can be said about Ron Lewis. He has made a name for himself with his very large group paintings of Hall of Fame members, All Star players, 599 home run hitters, and 300 game pitchers, The renderings are decent, standardized and like Perez kind of stiff.

   However their paintings demand large prices in the collectible market and are wildly sought  after by fans.

 

NEXT MONTH PLAYS, MUSICALS & FILMS  THAT DEPICT THE GAME.