Art and Sport Meet in Gagosian’s New Show in Paris

Paris only has a few more days of Olympic-mania in store, but a high art ode to the extravaganza will remain on view in the city through September 7. Gagosian has partnered with the Olympic Museum to present “The Art of the Olympics,” a two-part show spanning the mega gallery’s rue de Castiglione and rue de Ponthieu locations, pairing sporty artworks by modern and contemporary talents from Gagosian’s roster with posters and artifacts on loan from the Olympic Museum.

Since their 2019 show inspired by the fire at Notre Dame, Gagosian has established a gallery tradition of “responding directly to key events in the city,” the show’s press release states. Thus, Gagosian partnered with the Olympic Museum, situated in the International Olympic Committee’s Lausanne headquarters, ahead of this summer’s games.

The IOC works with artists in numerous ways—not only by assisting Olympic committees in commissioning posters and preserving finished copies in their Museum, but by establishing new ways to integrate art into the games, like their latest “baton-passing” initiative kickstarted by French artist JR at 2021’s Tokyo Summer Olympics, wherein an artist from the country slated to host the next Olympics creates a sculpture in the city hosting the current edition.

Gagosian’s first floor gallery at rue de Castiglione offers archival works by an entirely male lineup of ten artists, including a glittering video game canvas by Takashi Murakami that echoes Olympic shooting, a hanging soccer ball by Man Ray, and a black and white race illustrated by Keith Haring. Jonas Wood’s verdant oil painting Scholl’s Canyon (2007) sets the tone at the exhibition’s entrance, reframing the fraught beauty of golf courses as an abstract composition. Nearby, Christo’s Running Fence (Project for Sonoma County and Marin County, California) (1974) evokes the thrill of the marathon—and references the Paris Olympics’ interesting decision to repurpose Christo’s collaborative Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped (1961-2021) into tents for this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic games.

The second floor of Gagosian’s rue de Ponthieu location, a twenty minute walk down Avenue Gabriel, features contributions from the Olympic Museum centered around Olympic poster commissions over the years, like Robert Rauschenberg’s photo-collaged “Star In Motion” for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, and Rachel Whitehead’s tessellated rings for the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Artist correspondence and other ephemera related to these posters sits in tables amongst the wall-hanging installations.

Andreas Gursky’s photograph Amsterdam, Arena I (2001) will be on constant view for the public in a street-facing display at Gagosian’s rue de Castiglione location throughout the exhibition’s run. To further celebrate their partnership with the Olympic Museum, Gagosian has agreed to donate a portion of proceeds from this show to the IOC’s Olympic Refuge Foundation, which benefits displaced children around the world through the power of sport.