Yo, he paints.
Sly Stallone is the “Rocky” of this week’s Art Basel Miami Beach show, coming out of nowhere to punch out $90,000 by selling abstract artworks he painted in his garage.
“Deep down, everyone wants to be special,” Stallone explained of his paintings, which feature bold, scribbly lines and a riot of colors more violent than a Rambo movie’s jungle shoot-’em-up.
Critics say Stallone’s artwork lacks the quality of his “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies and are more comparable with big-screen clunkers like “Get Carter” and “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot.”
But money screamed more loudly than the nay-sayers.
One buyer was Steve Wynn, the sight-impaired Las Vegas casino mogul and art collector, who reportedly shelled out $40,000 for a Stallone painting.
Another Stallone painting, “Trapped Ideals,” a self-portrait, was bought by an art gallery for $50,000. Stallone finished “Trapped Ideals” in 1977, the same year “Rocky” came out.
Not bad sales numbers for the artist’s very first gallery show.
Stallone, 63, tried to explain one of his artworks, “Toxic Superman,” which depicts a dismembered superhero.
The 1991 painting is about “the ups and downs of Hollywood, the peaks and valleys. Society makes it difficult for a man to be a man,” Stallone told The Art Newspaper.
“The US working male is a dying breed. I wouldn’t exactly say I have a following,” said Stallone, who says he mostly gives the paintings to relatives.
“I’m not just painting for painting’s sake. I want to be truthful,” the movie muscleman told London’s Daily Mail.
Zurich’s Galerie Gmurzynska is displaying Stallone’s paintings at the Miami show alongside Picasso, Matisse and Botero.
“I’m going to have to get a job in order to afford anything,” Stallone joked of the other artworks on sale at the show.
But the “Rocky” and “Rambo” star’s artwork certainly belongs in such grand company, says Princess Michael of Kent, a Galerie Gmurzynska consultant.
She gushed that Stallone is “a very talented painter.”
Asked if she’d like to add some of Stallone’s work to her collection, the member of Britain’s royal family told The Art Newspaper, “It’s not a question of wanting to, but being able to afford to.”
Sales were brisker at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach than in 2008 — a sign to dealers that the economy is improving.
“There was a tension last year,” said New York photography dealer Edwynn Houk. “You don’t have that this year. People are in a much better mood.”