Bart Forbes

Bart Forbes' illustrations have graced the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time, Boys Life and the Saturday Review. Forbes' sport-focused work has been used to sell everything from radios and cameras to beer. Therefore, when the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) searched for its 1986 Sport Artist of the Year Award, Forbes was a natural choice.

Born in Oklahoma, Forbes graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1961. After a stint in the Army, he began his art career by attending the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California. Since that time, his work has not only appeared in a collection of the more popular magazines, but has garnered commercial clients that include Georgia Pacific, Kodak, Exxon, Miller Brewing, RCA and NBC. He has also designed more than 20 commemorative postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.

From the beginning, Forbes' strong interest in the world of sport has allowed him to be recognized as one of the leading sport artists of his day. An avid golfer, he has done theme paintings for a variety of PGA and Seniors' tournaments. He has covered nearly every major sport, including most of the recent important boxing matches — Ali vs. Holmes, Leonard vs. Hearns, Hagler vs. Hearns. Other major sporting events that he has designed official posters of include the Boston Marathon, New York Marathon, America's Cup and the Indianapolis 500, as well as the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.

His work for the National Football League has spanned more than 15 years, culminating in his theme art for Super Bowl IX. He has also done numerous watercolors for World Championship Tennis and posters for the Byron Nelson Golf Tournament.

Because of his unique talent in portraying a wide variety of sports, Forbes has taken a special interest with the Olympic movement. He was selected by the Korean National Olympic Committee as the official artist for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul and has produced official art for the U.S. Olympic Committee for both the Barcelona and Atlanta Games. Budweiser and Proctor & Gamble have commissioned Forbes' illustrations for Olympic Games advertising as well.

His paintings are included in collections of many across the nation, including Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, seven paintings in the collection of former President Jimmy Carter, George Bush and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. His art also hangs on the walls of the New York offices of the National Football League, in the Smithsonian Institute, the Western Company of North America, the Las Colinas Sports Club and the University of California.