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Bob Peak
Football Team Sports Action Painting Abstract Expressionism, Sports Illustrated

1963

$15,000
£11,329.15
€13,093.14
CA$21,039.80
A$23,398.29
CHF 12,247.93
MX$285,430.68
NOK 153,899.64
SEK 144,762.48
DKK 97,731.81

About the Item

Football players cloaked in oversized Browns jackets are seen from behind running off the field. Always the graphic innovator, legendary illustrator Bob Peak creates a radical composition by leaving the bottom two-thirds of the picture plane empty of detail. To convey a sense of motion, Peak uses broad strokes of paint similar to the action painters Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, who were the dominant force in the fine art world in the 1960s. Clearly, one can see a cross-over influence from Fine Art to commercial illustration as Peak strikes a balance between abstract versus figurative art. This work was done on an assignment for Sports Illustrated 1963. Bob Peak, in my opinion, was the Norman Rockwell of post-war American Illustration, this is one of the works that paved the way for a new way of seeing. It's more fine art than commercial art. For Apocalypse Now, in 1979, Francis Ford Coppola could have hired any artist in the world to create the movie poster and image for his film. He hired Bob Peak. Unsigned. - Reproduced in the seminal book on illustration by Walt Read, The Illustrator in America. page 256.
  • Creator:
    Bob Peak (1927 - 1992, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1963
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 27.5 in (69.85 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Overgood condition. Some bowing to the board - Framed under an acrylic shadow box frame. Slight undulation to the panel. A few specks of loss in the lower left quadrant in near the center right edge. Framed Dimensions 19.5 X 29 Inches.
  • Gallery Location:
    Miami, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU385310258822

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