DORTMUND, Germany — The idea of art and football may for some fans conjure amazement at a player’s exquisite skill, or a lasting image of glory or bitter defeat in the aftermath of the full-time whistle.
Few will immediately think of surrealist painters like Salvador Dali and Joan Miro or street artist Banksy, still less the work of Michelangelo or Renaissance painters.
An exhibition at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, however, aims to bring together football fanatics and art buffs and showcase the overlap between art and the beautiful game.
In Motion: Art and Football, which coincides with Euro 2024, includes nearly 200 works representing all 24 nations at the European Championship.
The exhibition charts the path of the sport from the early 20th century to today and features some of its most recognisable stars: Diego Maradona, Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The museum’s director, Manuel Neukirchner, explained that “football is a social phenomenon”, which in its earlier days was an important medium for artistic expression.
In more modern works in the exhibition, Ronaldo is shown as the god in Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, while Cantona is modelled on a Renaissance-era painting of the resurrection of Jesus — a piece owned by Cantona himself.
Neukirchner said players such as Cantona, like former greats such as Johann Cruyff and Pele in a more individualistic era of the game, channelled art on the pitch.
While there may now seem to be less space for individuality in elite football, Neukirchner said players in Germany’s current side like Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz showed a more free-spirited approach.
“This is also an opportunity where art can actually in this sense positively influence football,” he added.
The exhibition, which runs until January, is one of several art projects during the European Championship run by the museum, which features shirts worn by Maradona and Franz Beckenbauer alongside more bizarre items like the ashes of famous footballing “oracle” Paul the octopus.
Josephine Henning, part of the German squad who won Women’s Euro 2013, and the museum’s “artist in residence” during the tournament, agreed with Neukirchner that creativity is as important as ever as football becomes more regimented.
“You always need someone who’s a little bit different and the artists in this world, that’s what they’re there for, to allow everyone to be themselves,” she said.
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