Index of Artists

Arp, Jean
Atteniese, Alexander
Balthus, Count
Beal, Jack
Bearden, Romare
Beauchamp, John
Beckmann, Max 
Bell, Charles 
Bellows, George 
Benton, Thomas Hart 
Binford, Julien
Bingham, George Caleb 
Bishop, Isabel
Botero, Fernando 
Braque, Georges 
Brna, Suz 
Buri, Max 
Caravaggio 
Cezanne, Paul 
Chaplin, Charles 
Chiodo, Mario 
Collisz, Louis 
Conversano, Henry M. 
Coolidge, C.M.
Cotton, Will 
Dali, Salvador 
Daumier, Honoré
Davidson, Dwight 
Degas, Edgar 
Dix, Otto
Duchamp, Marcel 
Dufy, Raoul
Echtler, Adolph 
Evergood, Philip 
Exekias
Flack, Audrey 
Fletcher, Martin 
Gillray, James 
Goodfellow, Stephen 
Goya, Francisco
Greene, Lorna 
Gris, Juan
Gromaire, Marcel 
Grosz, George
Haem, Hans 
Hals, Dirk 
Hartigan, Grace 
Hayes, Arlene La Dell 
Hogarth, William
Howe, Oscar
Hunter, Clementine
Johnson, Raymond
Kronberger, Carl
Kuhn, Walt
Kriegstein, Zara 
Lancret, Nicholas
La Tour, Georges de
Lawrence, Jacob
Lee, Annie
Leger, Fernand
Le Nain, Mathieu
Mantegna, Andrea
Marchiori, Carlo
Meyers, William
Millais, Sir John Everett
Mitchell, Joan
Morris, Robin
Motherwell, Robert
Mount, William Sidney
Munch, Edvard 3
Murillo, Bartholome
Neiman, LeRoy
O’Lear, Ann
Pavy, Francis
Picasso, Pablo
Poucette
Radwood, A.C.
Rattner, Abraham
Redon, Odilon
Rego, Paula
Remington, Frederic 
Rivers, Larry
Rockwell, Norman
Rombouts, Theodoor
Rubenstein, Israel
Russell, Charles M. 
Schoonover, Frank
Seltzer, Olaf Carl
Speer, Steve
Stanley, John Mix 
Steen, Jan
Teniers, David the Younger
Terbrugghen, Hendrick
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Van Doesburg, Theo
Van Gogh, Vincent
van Leyden, Lucas 
Woodruff, Hale
Woodville, Richard Caton
Wright, Rufus

PRUDENCE, AVARICE, LUST, JUSTICE, ANGER
1977
Jack Beal
Born: 1931, Richmond, Virginia, USA
oil on canvas, 72" x 78"
Collection Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

     Jack Beal was the son of a parts manager of a Richmond auto dealership. As a child, Beal had a keen interest in art and drawing; he developed his skills while periodically confined to bed with chronic ear infections. He was later accepted as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he met and studied with future artistic luminaries Claes Oldenburg, Richard Estes, and Robert Indiana. Early in his career, Beal was inspired by Cézanne and Matisse and he painted primarily in the Abstract Expressionist style. After growing dissatisfied with his abstract paintings, he developed a new technique: American Realism. During the late 1970s, Beal produced a series of allegorical paintings that represented virtues and vices, which included "Prudence, Avarice, Lust, Justice, Anger." Taken in order (from top left), the powerful vice avarice is represented by a gambler. Notice the "hold-out" card (an ace) in the gambler's belt, which he will later use to cheat. Also of note is Beal's choice of a poker table as the battleground, further establishing gambling as an important theme in this work.

     This coffee-table art book is one-of-a-kind. From hundreds of portrayals created over centuries by celebrated artists, such as Cézanne, Picasso, Munch, Leger, de la Tour, Remington, and Neiman, the best 120 were chosen to appear in this provocative visual documentation of the evolution of gambling.
     Much more than a compilation of subject-specific art, The Art of Gambling is a scholarly look at the history of gaming. Each image is accompanied by a facing page of text, providing readers with a thumbnail sketch of the artist, then zeroing in on the image itself. The renderings, as seen through the artist's eye and preserved on canvas or in stone, serve as a form of "photographic" chronicling that weaves a history of gambling through the ages—for the benefit of art lovers and gambling enthusiasts alike.
      Includes contributions by a blue-ribbon panel of gambling experts.

     Throughout history, gambling has served as the subject for hundreds of compelling and robust portrayals by celebrated artists such as Cézanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, de la Tour, Remington, Caravaggio, Goya, Dali, Rockwell, and Neiman. The Art of Gambling Through the Ages showcases this great body of work, for the benefit of art lovers and gambling enthusiasts alike.
     This book was three years in the making, way back in 1996 research specialist Arthur Flowers approached Anthony Curtis with the idea of creating a full-color coffee-table art book that focused on gambling. The two agreed to collaborate to bring their respective expertise to this enormous project.
     For the next three years, gambling-related paintings, drawings, and sculpture were identified and catalogued, biographies of the artists compiled, and the history of gambling and card games scrutinized. Hundreds of calls to museums, galleries, and private collectors were made to obtain rights and permissions; thousands of hours were spent sifting through documents in libraries and on the Internet.
     From a black-figure painting dating back to 500 B.C. through the great masters and up to contemporary artists whose work is available today, 139 classic pieces from more than 100 painters and sculptors appear in this epic and timeless volume.

       The images are displayed in predominantly full-page presentations. Accompanying each is a facing page of text, which supplies a thumbnail sketch of the artist, then zeros in on the gambling itself. The intent is to whet the appetite sufficiently to send the reader back for closer look, further enhancing the appreciation of these classic works.
     The pièce de résistance is an insightful Foreword written by acclaimed artist LeRoy Neiman, whose gambling art graces the walls of casinos, museums, and galleries around the world.

     These renderings, as seen through the artist’s eye and preserved on canvas or in stone, serve as a form of “photographic” chronicling that weaves a history of the human fascination with cards, dice, and other vehicles of wagering—the most provocative and prestigious visual documentation of the evolution of gambling ever assembled.

Midwest Gaming and Travel, The Knoxville News, Sentinel, Casino International, Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Casino Player, Casino Journal

“The Art of Gambling Through the Ages is a veritable primer on gaming history.”
     —Midwest Gaming and Travel

“A feast for your eyes.”
     —Casino International magazine