Historic Mike Tyson Art Auction

Training Joined: Nov 10, 2011 Posts: 1

Dear Tyson Talk,

My name is Greg Spalenka and I want to share some boxing history with you.

It was 1986 and I had been working in New York City for four years as an illustrator
for all the major magazines, newspapers and book publishers. Art director Larry Gendron
of Sports Illustrated asked me if I would be interested in recording my impressions
of a young up and coming boxer named Mike Tyson. "Let's do it," I said.

So began my journey during that hot muggy summer to Catskill, New York where
I was awed, inspired, humiliated, and deeply touched by my experience with the
soon to be world’s youngest heavyweight boxing champion. At twenty years old
he was a man/child. Tyson was incredibly sweet and innocent but also a hurricane
of anger and power. It was obvious that the force in Mike Tyson was more than physical.

I made sketches, took Polaroid pictures and traced Tyson on over size pieces of
paper to create life size drawings and paintings. I recorded interviews on micro-cassette
of him, Kevin Rooney and their sparring sessions. Much was learned about Tyson’s
history, and the legacy of D’Amato. D’Amato had died the year before but the walls of
this space echoed his spirit and wisdom.

Ultimately this project became, Ironworks the cover story for the Jan. 1989 issue of
Print magazine. Now, twenty five years later on November 11th, Heritage Auctions
will be auctioning this Mike Tyson time capsule. You can see all the art (some of it life
size), 62 original polaroids, spreads from Print magazine and learn more about my
adventure with a young Mike Tyson here. http://bit.ly/s3EAt7

The intention of the auction is to find a collector who respects the historical significance
of this work.

My time with Mike taught me the importance of confronting my fears and not giving up.
There were moments during the project when he yelled at me (literally fell on my butt),
or when I felt completely out of place and wanted to throw in the towel. But I stuck it out
turning out some of the strongest work of my career to show for it.

Thank you,

Greg Spalenka

Training Joined: Oct 16, 2011 Posts: 2

Cool.

am really interested in what you said, but your blog link did not work.