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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Sport

Army Of Me Blue

Fist

Glove

Mort d'un clown

Cristiano Ronaldo 2

Cristiano Ronaldo

Basket Legend

Lebron James

Hoop dreams

Basket

Day of a champion I

Mike Tyson

Lonzo Ball Lakers

LeBron James

LeBron Dunk

Plaquage en vert

Plaquage en rose

Escrimeuse

Sept d'or

Sacré cœur

Opéra XI

1988 Centenaire Roland Garros BLEUE Roland Garros Centenary BLUE

Golf (scena IV)

D’Olympie à Paris 2024

Joueur de Tennis, gravure originale

Toi et Moi

Passion

Portrait #03

Régate à Perros-Guirec, Bretagne

Coupe du monde 82

Lutte Sénégalaise

Polo the Game

L'escena del joc 2

Abstract Expression -5

Mollige pup (Chubby puppy)

Les 3 Vallées

Le Bel Endormi

Home Run

For Degas

Warriors face off in huka-huka fight, Waurá Village, Xingu Indigenous Territory (XL)

Warriors face off in huka-huka fight, Waurá Village, Xingu Indigenous Territory (L)

Warriors face off in huka-huka fight, Waurá Village, Xingu Indigenous Territory (M)

Warriors face off in huka-huka fight, Waurá Village, Xingu Indigenous Territory (S)

At the court

Polo

En el bordillo I

Gym bag 1

Flyin' high

Football

Big wave. Surfing

Ghost Rider

I want it painted red

A. Dupont

Aktion

Paris 2024

N'tamack

Pop vs lydi N°1/20

High dive

Lagoon Diver

Renault F1 (Alain Prost)

1969 White Paris Blanc Bowling Bowling à Paris 2

Contre-Pied

Nirvana

Boxer boys

Another Direction

Lithographie originale de Spahn