Exhibitions

​Who could "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee"? Muhammad Ali was The Greatest—he even said so himself. Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, he was a three-time heavyweight champion and an outspoken, popular, and often controversial public figure. In the early 1960s, Ali found friendship with renowned artist LeRoy Neiman, with whom he shared an affinity for boxing, the limelight, and breaking with convention. Neiman even taught and encouraged Ali to draw. Using works on loan from the LeRoy Neiman Foundation, Muhammad Ali, LeRoy Neiman, and the Art of Boxing celebrates one of America's greatest boxers and one of the most popular artists of the sport. Neiman’s vivid watercolors and intimate, on-the-spot sketches capture Ali both in and outside the ring. Highlights include portraits, sketches of Ali's critical matches such as the "Fight of the Century" and the "Thrilla in Manila," and some works created by Ali himself.

Two sides of Ali
LeRoy Neiman saw Muhammad Ali through the stroke of his pencil and the swipe of his paint brush, while another artist and friend of Ali's, George Kalinsky, captured many of the same explosive moments in Ali's career through the crispness of photography. On display simultaneously at New-York Historical, see Ali through the eyes of two artistic greats. Visit "I Am King of the World”: Photographs of Muhammad Ali by George Kalinsky.

Support for this exhibition provided by the LeRoy Neiman Foundation and The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

Exhibitions at the New-York Historical Society are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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