The Museum Of UnCut Funk was recently interviewed for an article written by Patrick Sauer from Vice Sports about visual representations of Muhammad Ali.
We love Muhammad Ali. We have loved him since we were kids watching his fights, his animated cartoon and all the times he appeared on tv during the 1970’s. We have a few Muhammad Ali items in our collection that we treasure. One very cool item is our signed Sting Like A Bee serigraph. We spoke to Patrick about this special piece of artwork. You can read our section of the article below. You can read the entire article which features some amazing Muhammad Ali artwork at Vice Sports. We would like to thank Patrick for including us in his very cool tribute to THE GOAT!!!
Loreen Williamson, 52, Central New Jersey
Sting Like A Bee
Prior to the virtual Museum of Uncut Funk we own now, my business partner Pamela Thomas, 54, and I owned an art gallery in Summit, NJ. An Australian art dealer contacted us in the early 2000s with four 1979 pieces by Muhammad Ali. The one I loved the most was Sting Like A Bee, the only lithograph to feature boxing. As a child of the 1970s, I was a huge Ali fan, so we purchased it for maybe a thousand dollars? Prior to his passing, it could have been listed for upwards of $10,000 I suppose. Who knows where it goes from here? Usually celebrity artwork is publicized, but I had no idea he was a painter. So cool.
The Museum of Uncut Funk is our collection of 1970s African-American pop culture—our Funky Turns 40 exhibition is touring the country—so clearly Ali is one of our heroes. We have an Ali section with signed boxing gloves, stamps, a rare animation cel from the I Am the Greatest! cartoon, and multiple copies of the DC comic Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. Our overall collection is our love, passion, and obsession with the years following the civil rights era, when positive representations of black people were finally a reality. Ali was everywhere. He occupied such a big place, his very being changed people’s hearts. Sting Like A Bee has his autograph on it. We treasure the painting. It’s not for sale.
Source: Patrick Sauer, Vice Sports
