Lot 232
MUHAMMAD ALI SIGNED SILKSCREEN OF HIS BOXING PAINTING "STING LIKE A BEE"
A terrific and especially rare signed limited edition silkscreen print of a painting created by Muhammad Ali, "Sting Like a Bee", 26" x 22" on high quality heavy cotton paper, signed "Muhammad Ali" with a 6 1/2"" long pencil signature at bottom and numbered 114/500. This simplistic and humorous painting really embodies the endearing showman aspect of Ali''s career and incorporates his most famous quote. A smiling Ali is shown at center, his arms raised in victory, as his opponent lies on the mat "seeing stars". The crowd is shown as a sea of faces, most smiling, a few, as expected, frowning. The defeated boxer exclaims: "Ref, he did float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!" A figure at right, perhaps a corner man, flees the scenes, exclaiming in rhyme: "Yes, if you were smart you run like me!" Very fine condition. Ali hand-signed a limited edition of 500 prints (plus artists'' proofs) which were printed on cream Stonehenge 100% cotton paper, neutral pH buffered. From the collection of Rodney Hilton Brown, formerly President of Hilton Fine Arts, Ltd., the publisher of Muhammad Ali''s limited edition silkscreen prints in 1978. Brown commented: "This colorful piece is probably the quintessential Muhammad Ali painting. It shows a victorious Ali standing over a fallen opponent and even combines an original poem in the captions...three practice sketches [were] drawn in preparation for this painting. The painting was executed in Natchez Mississippi, during the summer of 1978 when Ali was living there and working on the film ''Freedom Road.'' It is one of the several near-duplicate artworks done in preparation for the silkscreen print of the same name. Ali retained the original painting used to produce the silkscreen print.
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| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $99 | $10 |
| $100 | $499 | $20 |
| $500 | $999 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $1,999 | $100 |
| $2,000 | $4,999 | $250 |
| $5,000 | $9,999 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $19,999 | $1,000 |
| $20,000 | $49,999 | $2,500 |
| $50,000 | $99,999 | $5,000 |
| $100,000 + | $10,000 |