Josh Gibson: Swing Club
Josh Gibson: Swing Club
1998
mixed media w/ found objects
10 x 12
Private collection
NFS

The great Josh Gibson is presented here, in his iconic batting stance, playing for Pittsburgh's most famous Negro Leagues team, the Homestead Grays. This black and white painting is peppered with colorful found objects such as the Swing Club billboard, a matchbook cover for a dance club of the era, whose name also functions as a double entendre for Gibson's hitting abilities, or the very bat itself. A more visually subtle use of applied objects lies in the crowd behind him. The lead gray numbers, typically used as sash organizers on old houses, indicate Gibson's lifetime home run total. The Spring and Fall ritual of changing out the storm sashes for screens in many homes marked the seasonal span of baseball.