Boxing Match 1, Vintage Drawing by Unknown Artist, c.1980s

Regular price $35.00

This is one of six pencil and colored pencil drawings of boxers I'm listing from the sketchpad of an unknown artist. The text on the shorts of the the boxer at left is enough to figure out that he is world champion Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran (b.1951), who competed from 1968 to 2001, and it seems possible the other is Sugar Rae Leonard, who he fought several times, most famously in 1980, though I'm not totally sure.

Though I don't follow the sport, I find the aesthetics of boxing extremely powerful, which I think these naive drawings tap beautifully.  Floating in space, complete focus is on the gestures and expressions of the two bodies, only amplified by the color and details of their gloves, trunks and boots. About as pure and poignant as it gets; super intimate and deeply human.

Paper size is 12" x 18". Good condition, with a bit of staining in the space between the two boxers--which you could read as sweat!--and some scattered tiny dark marks near the top edge of the paper. Blank back. C. 1980s I would think.