Stanley Weston Artist Statement
I see the world in terms of colors, lines, shadows and design. As a self taught artist who has been fortunate enough to have achieved financial success as a magazine Publisher, I have had the opportunity to travel the world and know many people of fame and fortune, as well as the unusual and destitute.
In my art, I relish the oddities of humanity and am fascinated by peoples will to survive, no matter what. The artists that most influenced me are Egon Schiele, Lucien Freud, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, John Singer Sargent, Leonardo da Vinci and Winslow Homer.
What influenced me in terms of art and photography was my muse, my stunning wife and daughters, travels via ship and planes too far off places. A camera is always around my neck. My cameras through the years were the Graflex Speed Graphic, Rolleiflex and what become my choice camera the Leica M3, which was my favorite although I have had them all - including the early digital cameras.
As a sports magazine publisher and also the designer of each of the thousands of covers, concerned placement of photos, text, design and all important colors! Never put purple on a newsstand!
When I was younger I painted 54 covers for Ring Magazine, the premier boxing magazine of the day. In my home studio I painted my family, baseball players, boxers, jockeys etc. Later in my life I loosened up in the style of Lucien Freud and painted emotively capturing the turbulent essence of my own feelings after losing my wife.
Concerning photography I spent my life capturing the moment in sports, construction workers, architectural buildings, tug boats, NYC, cities in Europe and of course my wife, Hope. My aim was to capture the soul, what lied beyond the beautiful face and smile whether it was a baker or a model, a construction worker or a boxer. When I casually photographed the new upcoming Cassius Clay, I focused on his personality, his being. He was a funny, egocentric phenomenon and I tried to capture that in my portraits.
~ Stanley Weston
**Stanley Weston was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category in 2006.
Stanley Weston’s legacy and work are preserved and promoted by his grandson, Patrick Scholz, through the Stanley Weston Archives. Your support keeps the archive running and the digitization of the archive. Thank you.
About Stanley Weston:
Stanley Weston (né Weinburger; September 25, 1919 – April 11, 2002) was an American publisher, sportswriter, artist and photographer. He promoted the sport of boxing and professional wrestling throughout his career. Weston started Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a professional wrestling magazine, as well as 20 other magazines over his career. Weston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
Publishing career:
Weston became enamored with the sport of boxing at the age of 10 after his father brought home a copy of The Ring magazine. At the age of 13, Weston met neighbor and The Ring founder Nat Fleischer and later landed a summer job as a stock boy at the publication. Weston was soon colorizing black and white portraits of boxing figures with oils. In December 1939, Weston, a budding artist, painted a portrait of Billy Conn that would be the first of 57 Ring covers.
Weston, a retired Air Force major, had served in both World War II and in Korea. He returned to civilian life and The Ring in 1945, but left the publication in 1951. He served in the Korean War, and then he launched Boxing & Wrestling, successfully competing with The Ring.
He launched Boxing Illustrated/Wrestling News in 1958 and published it until 1964. In 1979 he started Pro Wrestling Illustrated which is still in production today. In 1989, Fifty-two years after joining The Ring magazine Weston purchased the The Ring magazine that gave him his first job.
He was also an author who penned several of the definitive books on boxing history, including History of the Heavyweights, The Heavyweight Champions, The Best of The Ring, The Chronicle of Boxing and, with Steve Farhood, The Ring: Boxing the 20th Century.
Awards and accomplishments:
International Boxing Hall of Fame - Inductee - Observer (2006)**
Pro Wrestling Illustrated - PWI Stanley Weston Award (1992)