Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
November 14, 2007 - January 27, 2008
Sporting Art in the 20th Century presents paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings (English, 1875-1959) and sculpture and watercolors by John R. Skeaping (English, 1901-1980).
Although photography to a certain extent replaced the traditional concerns of sporting art, sporting art continued to prosper in the 20th century.
Munnings and Skeaping stand out among 20th-century sporting artists. They are somewhat opposed in their artistic influences.
Munnings - who was president of the Royal Academy - virulently opposed Modernism, especially Picasso, and continued to paint racing subjects in an elegiac late-Impressionist style.
Skeaping, on the other hand, was more open to Modernist influences: certain of his sculptures and watercolors recall Cubism. Both artists, however, successfully used art to convey the passion and excitement of sport in a manner that at its best still seems strikingly fresh and contemporary, according to Dr. Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and head of the department of European art at VMFA.
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