Sporting Modernity

During the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic§(1918-1933) sports emerged as a popular phenomenon§that critics often derided as a degenerate fad. But§sports and art institutions as well as avant-garde§artists looked more closely at sports' potential to§rejuvenate a populace demoralized by World War I and§cultivate a more dynamic, harmonious society. This§book examines images of sports in the visual arts of§Weimar Germany to explore how institutions and§artists forged a link between sports and art and gave§new visual form to notions about the ideal body. It§looks at the 1930 Berlin art exhibition Sports as§Cultural Factor and sports at the Bauhaus and§investigates the sports pictures of László§Moholy-Nagy, Anton Räderscheidt, and Willi Baumeister§as exemplary case studies. Besides examining Weimar§sports culture and its link to art, this study§illuminates the complex ways in which artists used§the motif of the athletic body to define humans'§relation to modernity while addressing issues of§industrialization, gender, mind-body dualism, and the§promotion of sports. This engaging work will be of§particular value to readers interested in modern art,§sports, and culture in Germany.