Some of his paintings will go up for auction, Oct 5, at Bonhams, offering an opportunity to discover the artistic practice of the man otherwise known as “The Greatest of All Time.”
“The most important political-cultural figure to survive the deadly tumult of the 1960s and flourish in the 1970s,” is how the American critic Wesley Morris described Muhammad Ali, following his death, June 3, 2016.
If one thing’s for sure, it’s that the Kentucky-born boxer was a multifaceted character, as three-time world heavyweight champion, civil rights activist, showman and self-taught artist.
Muhammad Ali came from a family of artists, musicians and craftsmen.
His father, Cassius Clay, Sr, was a church muralist who lamented that he was not a more successful artist because of racial segregation in the United States, according to the New York Times.
Despite this, Muhammad Ali seems to have inherited this artistic predisposition, only achieving satisfactory high school grades in sports and art.
Although he embarked on a career in boxing as a teenager, Muhammad Ali had a lifelong passion for the arts.
In 1967, he made a series of drawings about his fight for African-American civil rights for the magazine Avant Garde.
Ten years later, he returned to creating art thanks to the encouragement of Rodney Hilton Brown, author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet & Prophet.”
‘A cultural icon’
The artworks up for sale at Bonhams come directly from the personal collection of Hilton Brown. According to the auction house, they constitute the largest collection of works by Muhammad Ali ever presented at auction.
Among them are “War In America,” estimated to fetch between US$25,000 and US$35,000, as well as “Sting Like a Bee.”
The athlete created this piece in Mississippi during the filming of the “Freedom Road” miniseries, in which he starred alongside American singer and actor, Kris Kristofferson.
It is the only artwork by Muhammad Ali to include one of his complete poems. According to Artnet News, one of the 500 editions of this work sold for US$2,900 at RoGallery in 2010.
The one for sale at Bonhams is estimated to fetch from US$40,000 to US$60,000.
“Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon who defined a generation. His artwork depicts those subjects close to his heart: Boxing, Civil Rights, Religion and World Peace and Humanitarianism.
“This sale presents buyers with an incredibly rare opportunity to acquire unique and meaningful artwork made by ‘The Greatest of All Time,'” said Helen Hall, director of pop culture at Bonhams.