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Muhammad Ali 1942–2016
The boxer Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) captured gold at the 1960 Olympics, won epic fights against George Foreman and Joe Frazier, and consistently stood up for what he believed was right. Even after his career in sports ended, he never left the public eye. His conversion to Islam and his opposition to the Vietnam War made him a lightning rod for criticism. In 1967, he was stripped of his heavyweight title and suspended from boxing after refusing to serve in Vietnam. While Ali eventually regained his title and returned to the ring, he increasingly involved himself in global social and humanitarian causes.
Artist Robert McCurdy began this portrait as Ali was nearing the end of his decades-long battle with Parkinson's disease. Physically, he had grown weak, but his wife, Lonnie Ali, noted: "I learn every day from this man: the courage, the strength and the grace that he lives with his illness."
Robert McCurdy (born 1952)
Oil on canvas, 2017
Gift of Ian M. and Annette P. Cumming |