Sport, in particular athletics, gives artists great opportunities, as well as huge challenges. Running, jumping, throwing, fighting, swimming – these ways of using the human body offer much to sculpt, paint, photograph or film. And that has been true since ancient times. The Olympic Games were not just about bringing the different Greek states together in friendly competition: athletics was also central to discovering how to portray people in motion, often in revolutionary ways. Although the ancient Egyptians played ballgames and other sports, depictions of these in their tombs are flat and static. Greece’s Games, by contrast, inspired a great artistic leap forward as sculptors and vase painters learned the language of speed.
The revival of the Olympics at the end of the 1800s coincided with the birth of modern art – and, just as classical artists were inspired by athletics, their modern counterparts have seen the physically elite through eyes liberated by cubism and besotted by pop. Here are the 20 greatest results, the best sporting artworks of all time.
