ON CANVAS, FILM AND PLINTH

Nicholas de Stael, born in St Petersburg, he moved to Belgium to study art and then lived in Paris, Morocco and Algiers, eventually dying in Antibes in 1955, leaving a legacy of at least a 1000 paintings.
He had a particular interest in football and was captivated by the colour, dynamism and randomness of the game with the colours of the night sky and emerald pitch (not evident here), under the floodlights. Watching a game at the Parc de Princes in March 1952 with his wife, he took a number of "snapshots" and created a "Footballeurs Series" with 25 paintings, created with a palette knife and brush. These are sprinkled globally, around major museum collections.

Don't know about you, but I can detect a football match going on there with "Les Bleus" filling the canvas.
He has produced "the most important football painting in history", some say, although Andy Warhol and LS Lowry fans might disagree.
A Manchester City fan, Lowry's "The Football Match" sold in 1949 for £5.5 million in May 2011. How many paintings did he produce that were of a football theme? Look him up!

His painting of Burden Park (Bolton's old ground) in 1953 was bought by the Football Association for £1.9m in 1999 and original "Football ground" it was renamed "Going to the Match". It is on show at the Lowry.

Warhol(1928-87) produced "The Complete Athletes Series"  1978 worth $6 million approx. OJ Simpson, Jack Nicklaus, Pele, Chris Evert, Ali.....

Mexican, Angel Zarraga (1886-1946) was one of the first 20th Century artists to explore football. His wife Jeannette Ivanoff, was a star player for the French women's team that won the 1922 World Cup. "Futbolista en el llano" (footballers on the plain??) was bought for $ 929,000 in Sotheby's, November 2014.

Jeff Koons in his first solo exhibition in 1985 displayed sports'materials in a number of ways. A realistic bronze replica of a football called "Soccerball (Bumblebee)" was not included in the show but was sold for $437,000 in 2011.

Watch the ball enter the net with Zidane; Douglas Gordon and Phillippe Parreno used 17 synchronised cameras to produce this appreciation of the French (Real Madrid) hero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDbZu1wDoa4