Antin
tends to see 'funny sides of things' By Robert L. Pincus
October 12, 2003 Excerpt: Visions of baseball With baseball's postseason unfolding in all its welcome unpredictability, the time seems right to mention an unusual exhibition that delves into the history of the game in the days before Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the color barrier. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., has organized an art exhibition called "Shades of Greatness." Paintings by one of the featured artists, San Diegan Kadir Nelson, were a prime catalyst for the exhibition. He pictures one of the league's pioneers in the striking "Willie Foster and Young Fans." The style is hyper-realist, with the towering figure of Foster facing the viewer and flanked on each side by two young boys. "Low and Away" elegantly freezes the action of a pitcher on his follow-through and the batter finishing his swing with filled stands as backdrop. The show, which includes four paintings by Nelson, only continues through Wednesday in Kansas City, but museum officials are currently organizing a national tour. They have been talking to their counterparts at the Hall of Champions in San Diego about the possibility that it could be a venue. "I've been doing sports pictures even before I began painting at 16," says Nelson. "I've been drawing all the time since I was about 3. "Basketball pictures were first. I played basketball in high school (at Crawford High) and college." He has done well as an illustrator, contributing images to several books, including "Big Jabe," a tale by Jerdine Nolen about plantation life before the Civil War, and "Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan In Pursuit of a Dream," a story of the basketball star's youthful successes and struggles with the game, written by Jordan's mother and sister. Nelson is working on a book about the Negro Leagues, the first for which he is writing the story as well as rendering the images. Hyperion will be the publisher. "I knew what I wanted the book to say. This subject matter is close to my heart. It brings together history, the history of African-Americans and the history of sports."
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