Hall of Fame Paintings

Opie Otterstad chose George Foreman’s gold medal celebration at the 1968 Olympics. Holding an American flag in his left hand and a bouquet of red roses in his right, an intimidating Foreman burst onto the boxing scene in Mexico City.

 

“The funny thing about George is his early image and who he really was were two different things,’’ Otterstad said. “George was very quiet, a huge man, and very intimidating and the media went with that."

 

“What I wanted to show was, even after his Olympic victory, he didn’t have a full-on glowing smile. It’s a wry smile -- almost an embarrassed smile. I wanted just a little bit of happiness on his face.