Andy Warhol: Athletes & The Art of Sport

During the summer of 2013, The Dayton Art Institute will present a pair of sports-themed exhibitions, Andy Warhol: Athletes and The Art of Sport: Highlights from the Collection of the Dayton Art Institute, both on view June 22 – September 1.

Andy Warhol: Athletes
It was the mid-1970s, and Studio 54 was in full swing when art collector Richard Weisman commissioned his friend Andy Warhol to paint the portraits of several top athletes of the day. At first Warhol was unfamiliar with the sports stars but characteristic of his obsession with fame he recalled: “I really got to love the athletes because they are the really big stars.” The resulting group of ten silk-screen paintings from 1978 present some of the most influential sports stars of the era, including boxer Muhammad Ali, football’s O.J. Simpson, ice skater Dorothy Hamill, basketball’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, golfer Jack Nicklaus, ice hockey’s Rod Gilbert, tennis’ Chris Evert, horse racer Willie Shoemaker, baseball’s Tom Seaver and soccer’s Pelé.

The Art of Sport: Highlights from the Collection of the Dayton Art Institute
The theme of sports is ubiquitous in art, and has occupied artists from ancient times to the present. This exhibition features over 80 examples of how that theme is manifest in some of the Dayton Art Institute’s finest treasures. The objects on display represent a wide-range of media including painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media, and the exhibition is sure to delight sports, and art lovers of all ages.