Chapter 4
In: Sport and the European Avant-Garde (1900-1945)
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Abstract
This chapter considers the sporting theme in German Expressionism and Dada. It asks how and why German artists and writers associated with these movements embraced it, and how representations of sport were shaped by vitalist ideas about the sporting body. It also examines the extent to which such representations work in relation to each movement’s revitalising aesthetic, avant-garde techniques and broader cultural and political ambitions. To emphasise the continued presence of sporting themes in both movements while also considering similarities and differences between them, the chapter looks at visual representations of the sporting body in German Expressionism and Dada, and closely examines one particular sport, boxing, in the literature, art and manifestos of both movements. The chapter discusses work by Expressionists Paul Boldt, Rudolf Großmann, Max Pechstein, Heinrich Richter-Berlin, René Schickele and William Wauer, and Dadaists Erwin Blumenfeld, Max Ernst, George Grosz, John Heartfield and Hannah Höch.