Painter of the national pastime
Client: Objects and Images Fine Arts
About this Project
Graig Kreindler was destined to love baseball. Named after New York Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles, Kreindler grew up listening to his father’s stories about the “good old days” and the players that lived in them. As a child, he would draw the players on his baseball cards, trying to get their likenesses just right.
It was a college assignment while at the School of Visual Arts in New York City that brought his two passions -- painting and baseball -- together. From that point on, Graig decided to focus his attention on bringing the early days of the sport back to life, with painstaking accuracy. He often spends months researching exactly how an old ballpark looked in a given year, or what the weather was like the day a famous game was played. He admits to having dreams where he finally discovers the colors of an advertisement on the outfield wall or realizes he had chosen the wrong shade for the pinstripes on a teams’ uniforms. But the results speak for themselves. All of this attention to detail reminds fans what it was like to be in those early ballparks -- the cozy atmosphere where players were accessibly human.
This video was commissioned to explore the fine-art side of sports memorabilia - that these moments don’t have to be defined as kitsch, but rather moving, high-drama portraits of the men who entertained generations, sometimes at great personal sacrifice.
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Gallerist: Objects and Images Fine Arts
