Sport

At school, we sometimes tend to oppose athletes and artists. However, sport and art often mix and sublimate each other. The meeting of these two disciplines is frequent in the history of art and more particularly in contemporary art.

Already during Antiquity, the Greeks devoted an absolute cult to the perfect athletic body. On pots and vases, artists painted the exploits of the competitors of the first Olympic Games in the 8th century BC.

Whatever the medium (photography, painting, sculpture, collage...), the musculature and the psychological state of the sportsmen, the places of training or the competitions are inexhaustible sources of inspiration for the artists. Between the representation of reality and the hijacking of a symbol, sport is a recurring theme for young artists.

Discover with Artsper our Olympic podium of artworks!

Photography is probably the first medium that comes to mind when representing sports. It is the only medium that allows us to capture images of the athletes' prowess at full speed. Thus, the shots are taken on the spot to offer a better rendering of the movement and to manage to capture the palpable tension on the field, the team cohesion, the crucial moment...

A leader of the new wave, Gerry Cranham had a career in athletics before becoming a coach. Passionate about photography, he takes pictures of the young people he coaches in order to correct their position and analyze their stride. Very quickly, he decided to convert his hobby into a real job. He became a sports photographer and quickly built a reputation as one of the leading sports photographers in England and internationally. His pictures of rugby, soccer, tennis, wrestling and swimming were published all over the world in the most prestigious magazines such as Sport Illustrated or The Observer.

But sport also inspired painters and it is found in all artistic movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1853, Gustave Courbet painted "The Wrestlers", a large oil on canvas depicting two men practicing French wrestling in the old hippodrome of the Champs Élysées. To the right, in the background, one can see the audience, cheering the athletes. Among the Impressionists, Claude Monet developed his technique with "Les Régates d'Argenteuil", an 1872 painting in which the boats are reflected in the water in a magnificent way. In modern art, Nicolas de Staël's "Les Footballeurs" represents a soccer field in the middle of a match, but in an abstract way. The players are discernible thanks to the flat colors that make up the team jerseys.

You too can bring your passions to life through contemporary sports paintings, sculptures and photographs. Discover the work of well-known and emerging artists such as Victor Spahn, Isabelle Picarel, Michel Birot, Chiara Dazi and many others...

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Subcategories

Sport

Ho'okipa beach

Arthur

Boxer Bruce

Hippodrome marin de Plouescat

Rowboat

No43 SPIRIT Series

No10 SPIRIT Series

No22 Spirit Series

No31 Spirit Series

No24 Spirit Series

Cariatides

No83 Spirit Series

Arabesque

No40 Spirit Series

Jeune Nuit

Flame

No62 SPIRIT Series

No22 SPIRIT Series

Teresa

Pool At Las Hadas

Tennis player

Surfing

The jogger

Double portrait-I(The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant,New York,2003)

Acrobatie

La Jeunesse de Bacchus by W Bouguereau 1884 / 7 Skateboards

Swing

The Race

Triple portrait-II(The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant,New York,2003)

Equilibre

Man Throwing a Ball 2

Dive duo 2

Woman running

Man running, Woman running

Man catching and throwing a ball

Man throwing a ball

A Tennis Match

Sans titre 2

Ageha

The jump

Dance of fire

Les sumotoris

Ballet Femme (Third Life), The Dancers

La Piscine de Bondi Beach

Ochre swimmer

Lady

Ska dancer 1

Absolu

Mademoiselle

Le sprinter

Tori

Jouissance

Grace Losing Grip

Skateboard

Nude Yoga

Spider

Y.

The levitation

Close Combat #3

Close Combat I

Close Combat II

Les Quatres Saisons by W Bouguereau 1854 / 4 Skateboards

Horizon

La dynamique des corps - Jours 02 - 04 - 05 - 08

Equilibre

Piste Noire II