Sporting Modernity

During the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic(1918-1933) sports emerged as a popular phenomenonthat critics often derided as a degenerate fad. Butsports and art institutions as well as avant-gardeartists looked more closely at sports' potential torejuvenate a populace demoralized by World War I andcultivate a more dynamic, harmonious society. Thisbook examines images of sports in the visual arts ofWeimar Germany to explore how institutions andartists forged a link between sports and art and gavenew visual form to notions about the ideal body. Itlooks at the 1930 Berlin art exhibition Sports asCultural Factor and sports at the Bauhaus andinvestigates the sports pictures of LászlóMoholy-Nagy, Anton Räderscheidt, and Willi Baumeisteras exemplary case studies. Besides examining Weimarsports culture and its link to art, this studyilluminates the complex ways in which artists usedthe motif of the athletic body to define humans'relation to modernity while addressing issues ofindustrialization, gender, mind-body dualism, and thepromotion of sports. This engaging work will be ofparticular value to readers interested in modern art,sports, and culture in Germany.