Les Artistes Du Foot: Fin de la Saison 1

Excerpt from “Art de Havre (May 2022)” – a fanzine based in Le Havre covering the local art scene. 

Bonjour, Le Havre Art Lovers!

Your favourite artZine has just returned from the local exhibition – called “National Ligue 2” –  at the Stade Oceane where a lot of excitement and BUZZ is flying around a bunch of local artists showing under the banner of Le Havre ASC. I must say what I saw was excellent and has got me really pumped for what might be coming. Are we seeing the start of a new movement on our very own doorsteps?

Les Artistes Du Foot: Le Jeune S1

Raoul Dufy was born and bred in Le Havre before taking the art world on. Is there anyone ready to do the same to Football?

Development is the name of the game in Football Manager 22 for me this year. Thus in the mangled words of the Rolling Stones, please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste (and young footballing prospects).

Les Artistes du Foot: Pré-saison 1

Claude Monet’s family moved to Le Havre when he was 5.

He attended the art school in the city and was encouraged by his fellow artist Eugene Boudin to paint “en plein air” which in turn led Monet to develop his style that came to be known, along with other artists including Renoir, Pissarro, Morisot and Degas, as Impressionism. The painting above “Impression, soleil levant” was Monet’s capture of the Port de Le Havre and was featured in the “Exhibition of the Impressionists” in Paris in April, 1874. This exhibition was the springboard to Monet becoming one of the most influential and famous artists of all time.

It was two years before the exhibition that the Le Havre Athletic Club was started by a bunch of Brits with a mish-mash of rugby and football. In recent times the club has gained a reputation of developing footballers many of whom go on to international level including Paul Pogba and Riyad Mahrez. I have taken over the reins at the club determined to continue this grand tradition and in particular create more footballing artists. Skills over strength is the aim. The ultimate goal of this save will be to create footballers in the mould of a Pogba or a Payet – Playmakers, Flair Players, Entertainers.

Les Artistes Du Foot

Art is everything.

Football is definitely Art. From the sublime to the ridiculous, from the Dark Arts to the Wondrous. The world’s most popular sport has its very history defined in terms of its greatest artists – Sindelar, Puskas, Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Messi, Davie Turnbull.

One city has a rich artistic history running in parallel to her football history. Le Havre, and in particular her Port, has been captured and inspired many great artists:
Corot; Courbet, Pissarro and Monet (who lived in Le Havre from 5 to 18 years old). Others would study in Le Havre including her native Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque. Le Havre could have a fair claim to be the foundations of two major art movements Impressionism and Fauvism. Away from the visual arts to literature, Le Havre has been featured in books by greats Balzac, de Maupassant and Zola. I mean, Jean-Paul Sartre even taught in Le Havre. That’s a lot of artistic history.