Exhibition: ‘Fútbol: The Beautiful Game’ at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Exhibition dates: 2nd February – 20th July 2014

In honour of the World Cup final and a wonderful tournament, here is a glorious posting to celebrate The Beautiful Game!

PS. So much of this work is conceptual graphic design, doesn’t anybody make art anymore?

Marcus

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Many thankx to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

On the eve of the World Cup – which, like the Olympics, takes place every four years – this exhibition celebrates football, the world’s game, and its richness as a field for metaphorical inquiry. Just as the World Cup brings together athletes and fans from around the globe, Fútbol: The Beautiful Game explores some of the ties that bind us as humans. Focusing on a simple game allows for a direct conversation about the communication and (more often) miscommunication that characterize our collective life, while celebrating one thing that most of the planet holds its breath for: the quadrennial event held to crown a nation as world champion of football. The sport has often been cited as a metaphor for nations, for cultures, and even for life, as is suggested by a statement attributed to the writer Albert Camus: “After many years in which the world has afforded me many experiences, what I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football.” Camus believed that the simple rules governing the game often had more to teach us about life than did politicians and philosophers.

Fútbol: The Beautiful Game presents the work of more than 30 artists who address the game through its imagery, signs, symbols, and sounds while also touching on larger issues well apart from the field of play. These themes include masculinity and the construction of heroes; ritual and worship; marketing and power; and current political, social, and cultural phenomena.

Click to view slideshow.

Dario Escobar
Obverse & Reverse XIV
2013
Latex, leather, string and steel
11 1/2 × 6 9/16 × 6 9/16 ft. (349.89 × 199.94 × 199.94 cm)
Dario Escobar
Courtesy of the artist and Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York

In the background: Andreas Gursky
Amsterdam, EM Arena I
2000
Chromogenic print
108 1/4 × 80 11/16 × 2 7/16 in. (275 × 205 × 6.2 cm)
Gagosian Gallery
Andreas Gursky, Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Nelson Leirner
Maracana
2003
Plaster, plastic, ceramic, wood
120 x 130 3/4 x 9.5 in.
Brooklyn Museum

In case: Satch Hoyt
Kick That
2006
Mixed media with sound
Satch Hoyt
Courtesy of the artist

In the background: George Afedzi Hughes
Parallel
2009-11
Acrylic, oil, enamel on canvas
72 x 120 in. (182.88 x 304.8 cm)
Skoto Gallery
Collection of the artist, Courtesy Skoto Gallery

Stephen Dean
Volta
2002-2003
Single-channel color DVD installation (9′) with audio and fabric enclosure
Collection of Ruth and William True

Right on floor: Mary Ellen Carroll
FREE THROW
1984
Mannequin bottom and basketball with rubberized paint
4 x 3 x 1 ft. (121.91 x 91.44 x 30.48 cm)
Mary Ellen Carroll
Courtesy of the artist, 3rd Streaming-NYC, Galerie Hubert Winter-Vienna, Austria

Centre: Wendy White
Clavado
2013
Acrylic on canvas, wood, enamel
74 1/2 × 74 1/2 in. (189.23 × 189.23 cm)
Andrew Rafacz Gallery
Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Rafacz

Kehinde Wiley
Samuel Eto’o
2010
Oil on Canvas
76 x 60 in.
Roberts & Tilton Gallery
© Kehinde Wiley
Image courtesy of the artist, and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City

Right: Nery Gabriel Lemus
Thank You for the Game
2013
Serigraph
36 x 50 in. (91.44 x 127 cm)
Self Help Graphics & Art, Professional Printmaking Program, 2013. On loan from the Self Help
Graphics & Art Collection
© Nery Gabriel Lemus

Right: Dewey Tafoya
Olmeca 1370 BCE
2013
Serigraph
36 × 50 in. (91.44 × 127 cm)
Self-Help Graphics
Self Help Graphics & Art, Professional Printmaking Program, 2013. On loan from the Self Help
Graphics & Art Collection

Installation views of the exhibition Fútbol: The Beautiful Game at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

“The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Fútbol: The Beautiful Game, an exhibition examining the sport of fútbol, or soccer, as it is known in the United States. Featuring approximately 50 works by nearly 30 artists on the subject of fútbol - often referred to as “the beautiful game” – the exhibition looks at issues of nationalism, identity, globalism, and mass spectacle as well as the shared human experience between spectators from a multitude of cultures. In anticipation of the 2014 World Cup that takes place in Brazil this summer, LACMA’s exhibition considers the sport through video, photography, painting, sculpture, and large-scale installation.

“A globally beloved sport celebrated in the context of a museum: what a great opportunity to explore the international scope of soccer through the lens of art,” said Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA. “Fútbol should excite all, especially as it coincides with the World Cup in Brazil in summer 2014.”

“When people watch a game, they feel inspired by the spirit of the team, the fans, and the sense of community,” remarked 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.”

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Exhibition overview

Two room-sized video installations anchor Fútbol: The Beautiful Game. The first, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon, provides an intimate portrait of Zinedine Zidane – one of the greatest soccer players in the history of the sport – during the course of a single match. Meanwhile, Stephen Dean’s Volta, set to samba music, directs its gaze at stadium crowds and draws attention to both the pandemonium and organized ritual of mass audiences.

Other works by artists including Robin Rhode, Kehinde Wiley, Petra Cortright, Andy Warhol, Mark Bradford, Mary Ellen Carroll, Hassan Hajjaj, and Andreas Gursky, among others, provide a sense of the possibilities of the sport as a universal conversation piece. With artists hailing from as far afield as Morocco, Germany, Mexico, and South Africa – in addition to several Los Angeles–based artists – the geographic range represented in Fútbol: The Beautiful Game reflects the global reach of the sport.

Gustavo Artigas’s The Rules of the Game examines the ways in which communities that play different sports (basketball, soccer, and football) perceive one another, while Miguel Calderón’s video Mexico vs. Brasil dramatically unfolds during an unlikely victory for Mexico. Chris Beas harkens back to classical modes of presentation in his paintings: his athletic figures are depicted in a celebratory, almost mythic light. Meanwhile, the athletes featured in Generic Art Solutions’ works are almost caricatures caught in moments of extreme dramatization.

In collaboration with LACMA, a new edition of prints has been commissioned by Self Help Graphics under the direction of executive director, Evonne Gallardo. 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, seemingly for his mistaken own goal, to references to the Olmec culture of the first major civilization in Mexico.

As a nod to the imminent World Cup, the exhibition’s design alludes to the Brazilian flag with graphic symbolism as it evokes the environs of the sport – sun, sky, and grass – through a vibrant yellow, blue, and green.”

Press release from the LACMA website

Lyle Ashton Harris
Verona #2
2001-2004
Silver gelatin print
16 x 20 in.
The Robert E. Holmes Collection
© Lyle Ashton Harris

George Afedzi Hughes
Parallel
2009-11
Acrylic, oil, enamel on canvas
72 x 120 in. (182.88 x 304.8 cm)
Skoto Gallery
Collection of the artist, Courtesy Skoto Gallery

Stephen Dean
VOLTA (still)
2002-2003
Single-channel color DVD installation (9′) with audio and fabric enclosure
Collection of William and Ruth True, Seattle
Courtesy of the artist and Baldwin Gallery, Aspen
© Stephen Dean

Miguel Calderón
Mexico vs Brasil (video still)
2004
Video transferred to DVD
Duration: 1 hrs. 30 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City
© Miguel Calderón

Antoni Muntadas
Celebracions
2009
DVD
Blake Byrne
Collection of Blake Byrne, Los Angeles

Chris Beas
Sir Bobby
2007
Acrylic on Canvas
24 x 25 3/8 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Martha Otero Gallery
© Chris Beas

Ana Serrano
Narco Soccer
2013
Serigraph
50 × 36 in. (127 × 91.44 cm)
Self-Help Graphics
Self Help Graphics & Art, Professional Printmaking Program, 2013. On loan from the Self Help
Graphics & Art Collection

Generic Art Solutions
Pieta
2008
Photograph
36 x 36 in.
Courtesy of Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans
© Generic Art Solutions

Kehinde Wiley
Samuel Eto’o
2010
Oil on Canvas
76 x 60 in.
Roberts & Tilton Gallery
© Kehinde Wiley
Image courtesy of the artist, and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City

Nery Gabriel Lemus
Thank You for the Game
2013
Serigraph
36 x 50 in. (91.44 x 127 cm)
Self Help Graphics & Art, Professional Printmaking Program, 2013. On loan from the Self Help
Graphics & Art Collection
© Nery Gabriel Lemus