Artwork commemorating Jeter's greatest moments unveiled at Art Miami
MIAMI -- “The Swing” and “The Jump” are synonymous with Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, and now they’ve been immortalized in a collection of artworks titled JETER.
Jeter and artist Russell Young hand-selected and reimagined the two images into 12 large-scale paintings -- six of each portrait -- to go along with a variety of works hand-signed by Jeter and created in Young’s signature style of screen printing finished with “Diamond Dust.”
First featured on Oct. 24 at Taglialatella Galleries in New York, the collection will be displayed from Dec. 3-8 at Art Miami. A portion of the proceeds generated from the artworks will be donated to Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation and to the Perry J. Cohen Foundation.
“When we look at the overall sports world, all the great legends and champions have dabbled in the art world a little bit with their image being utilized, but not everyone has had their image commemorated with a real artist, so to speak,” said Nick Korniloff, the executive vice president and director of Art Miami. “These works are unique in the sense that each one is an individual piece of art that has their own color on distinction hand touched by the artist, signed by the athlete, Derek, and also the artist, and they're also authenticated by MLB.”
Earlier this year, MLB wanted to pursue the project but didn't know which artist to choose. It was the relationship between Daniel Crosby and MLB front office members, executives and staffers that put the idea in motion. Crosby got into the sport art and collectible memorabilia market in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, even opening galleries in both the Dodgers’ and Angels’ ballparks. So late this spring, Crosby invited them to Young’s exhibit.
“‘You want it to become art and not fan prints, right?’” Young recalled his manager Crosby telling MLB. “‘You want to elevate it into the art world. This elevates it into being art.’”
This browser does not support the video element.
Young began his career as a photographer and visual artist before directing music videos and photographing musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and George Michael. He then applied his skills to silkscreen printing on paper, canvas and linen, harnessing the “Diamond Dust” technique originally invented by Andy Warhol in the 1980s, and becoming a household name in pop art.
MLB was convinced, but Crosby died over the summer from a massive heart attack and the project nearly fell apart. His tragic passing motivated the group to see it through.
A day after returning from his honeymoon, Young flew to New York to meet Jeter and gifted him a similar piece of art he had done of legendary soccer player Pelé.
Though Young is from Northern England and Jeter grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., they bonded over their humble beginnings and love of their three children. Young’s move across the pond overlapped with the Yankees’ Jeter-led dynasty that birthed five World Series championships. As fate would have it, Young experienced the 2000 Subway Series’ postgame celebrations because of his friendships with actor Mark Consuelos and then-Yankees third-base coach Willie Randolph.
Over the course of an hour, Young and Jeter settled on the two images for the collection: His home run swing from Game 4 of the 2000 World Series and his signature jump throw.
“We were both laser sharp on the images we wanted to do, and he trusted me, trusted me 100 percent,” Young said. “He wasn't second-guessing me or anything.”
After that meeting, Young and Brian Swarts from Taglialatella collaborated on the names for the custom-mixed colors, incorporating Jeter’s background with titles like “Kalamazoo Blue” and “November Blue.”
Upwards of nine people assisted Young in the studio for the process of hand pulling the “Diamond Dust” while crawling across the floor. He calls it no different from what people do with T-shirts but on a bigger scale. Young would return to New York three times for a month’s worth of work before the art was finished.
Then last month, the collection debuted. The response was palpable.
“What's great is, you see people's eyes, and you watch them look at the work,” Young said. “It only takes one person like that for it all to be worth it. Just their eyes light up. They can't believe what they're seeing, and then people come up with stories: ‘Oh, my dad took me when … Oh, I went here … I was at that game.’ It was a really nice connection.”
Even more baseball and art lovers will get a chance to see the collection at Art Miami, which is the leading international contemporary and modern art fair showcasing artworks of the 20th and 21st centuries in collaboration with a selection of the world's most-respected galleries. Anywhere from 70,000-80,000 people travel from across the globe to attend.
“To recognize Derek for his achievements on and off the field, I think he's widely recognized nationally for his talents as a professional baseball player, now a broadcaster, but also all the good work he does for charity through his foundation with kids,” Korniloff said. “That's something we always will support at the Art Fair level. We're a very community-based organization. Derek's a resident of South Florida, which even makes it more important to highlight someone who's in the community raising his family out and about.
“Miami has a wonderful way of embracing those who come to live and be a part of our community. So that's super important to us being the hometown fair that we would not only embrace an important project from a well-respected artist but our gallery partner with Major League Baseball, and then highlight both the Turn 2 Foundation and the Perry J. Cohen Foundation.”