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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Categories

Subcategories

Sport

Marathonienne

Régate

Impossible behaviour - 9

Invaincue en cette nuit

Cloned Schnauzer with water bottle

Copa del mundo de futbol

The Acrobatic Ensamble, no. I/VIII (large size)

Woman Walking II

Ali Patterson II

Gants de boxe (Red-heart red-violet)

V As in Victor

Embrace the Stillness

Tennis

Sir Alex

Giants, High jump in Rio

Chapter Nine Eleven

Moya volant

Tennis, Olympic Games Beijing

Orange_1

Tracks II

Le chant des machines

Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman in Kinshasa Zaire

Untitled

Tennis

Little world map Rome Peking, Olympic Games Beijing

Jeu double en magenta

Agia Anna

L'attente

Perros de piedra I A

Pojukx

Kooo

Le swing brune

Polytechnique

Lelo 1

Déjeuner sur Herbe - Saint Cloud - Hippodrome - Francegalop- Horseracing - Courses hippique - Plat - Prix

Traditional Wrestling

Athlétisme 1

Fashion Addict: Burberry pill

Skateboard

Baseball, Olympic Games Beijing

Joana

Fase I: Empoderamiento

Victory

Athleticism, Original Lithograph by Alfredo Sosabravo

Diversions

Arjuna the Ace Archer

Free Wheeling (En Roue Libre)

The Olympics

Swimming, glemmingebro, Sweden

Olympic Connections, Olympic Games Beijing

Tchernobyl

Oceano

Ensemble

Seconds Count

Challenge (Red)

Lamborghini Huracan Surfboard

Discobole

Mangeur de spaghettis

Epicentre, Olympic Games Beijing

La Piscine du CNM

Cheval rouge

Mats

The Golden moment

Slapshot

Square Dance

Scene With A Baby Jumper