February 28 – The Beautiful Game is an increasingly overused expression; of course it is beautiful. It has a depth of beauty and meaning to football fans and players that is rarely communicated in words. But can this depth be expressed in art? The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) thinks it can.
Fútbol: The Beautiful Game is an exhibition that opened at the LACMA in January and is running until July. Featuring about 50 works by nearly 30 artists, the exhibition “examines issues of nationalism, identity, globalism, and mass spectacle as well as the shared human experience between spectators from a multitude of cultures.”
The exhibition features video, photography, painting, sculpture, and large- scale installation.
“When people watch a game, they feel inspired by the spirit of the team, the fans, and the sense of community,” said Franklin Sirmans, Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and department head of contemporary art at LACMA, “We, the fans, create the spirit of the team via our rituals. Witnessing a game is one of the few occasions during which a collective sense of enthusiasm is still possible. This exhibition explores that energy.”
The exhibition is anchored by two room-sized video installations. The first, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon, provides an intimate portrait of Zinedine Zidane during the course of a single match. The second, Stephen Dean’s Volta, set to samba music, focuses on crowds and “draws attention to both the pandemonium and organised ritual of mass audiences”.
The exhibition features Andy Warhol’s portrait of Pele as well as works by other artists including Robin Rhode, Kehinde Wiley, Petra Cortright, Mark Bradford, Mary Ellen Carroll, Hassan Hajjaj, and Andreas Gursky. The global appeal of football is reflected in the global spread of the artists who come from Morocco, Germany, Mexico, and South Africa as well as several Los Angeles–based artists.
In collaboration with LACMA, a new edition of prints has been commissioned by Self Help Graphics. The new prints by Carolyn Castano, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Ana Serrano, Dewey Tafoya, Ami Motevelli and Mario Ybarra, Jr. address varied aspects of the game – from a commemoration for the Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar who was shot and killed shortly after the 1994 World Cup, to references to the Olmec culture of the first major civilisation in Mexico.
The exhibition’s design acknowledges that it is World Cup year and alludes to the Brazilian flag with graphic symbolism through a vibrant yellow, blue, and green.
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