Sports and art are two excellent forms of expression, yet they are rarely viewed as interconnected in the world’s cultural landscape.
Stereotypically, sports focus on physical prowess, while art centers on emotional impact. Uniting these two specialties can deepen our appreciation for both — we can see the physicality of artistic expression and emotional dynamics on the playing field.
So, how can we connect these two worlds?
Sports media professional LJ Rader answers that question with Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts @artbutmakeitsports. Rader creatively matches significant athletic moments with pieces of artwork and vice versa, drawing solely from memory and personal experience.
He blends the two worlds together and emphasizes the mutual relationship between these two seemingly disparate disciplines. Rader shows us how both arts and athletics provoke similar, powerful reactions from us even though they seem to occupy different spaces and attract different audiences.
This past year was full of endeavors in USC athletics deserving of artistic parallel. Using images from our incredible Annenberg Media photographers, here is my Trojan edition of “art, but make it sports.”
The Trojan horse Traveler is a beloved staple of USC home football games. I first saw the painting above at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and instantly was reminded of Traveler making triumphant rounds in the Coliseum. I found similarities in the viewer’s perspective in seeing the subject. Traveler exactly mirrors Henri’s “white horse.”
This photo of senior outside hitter Skylar Fields screams victory. It was a daunting task to find a piece of art that could match the intensity and sensation that I felt when I looked at the Fields moment. Ultimately, nothing compares — but I tried to come close. What is a better embodiment of her achievements than a sculpture with wings? After all, the sky’s the limit.
The early season showed promise for USC’s football team. It effortlessly breezed past its first few games, including a home Stanford game, as depicted above. I like how the two images resemble physical domination. The movement between redshirt junior running back MarShawn Lloyd and his fallen Cardinal opponent is steeped in thick tension, as the USC sideline and Coliseum crowd watch in the background. Lloyd and Cain stand out in the backdrop of the rest of the whole world, as the viewer is drawn to these individual battles.
This women’s soccer photograph featuring freshman forward Maribel Flores is terrifically ambiguous. Initially, I couldn’t decide whether it is a picture of triumph, anxiety, ambition, or a combination of all three. Regardless of tone, I matched Flores with Brownell’s painting because they both share a solitary focal point of stillness in contrast to the vast background. In my opinion, both photographs exude optimism, as the bright colors give the scene a dreamlike quality.
Young freshman outside hitter London Wijay has already cemented her status as a reliable scorer and key to the women’s volleyball team’s success. What can I say? She doth striketh thee ill as pestilence.
USC’s defensive line arose from a season-long slumber to topple the Louisville Cardinals in their final game of the 2023 season. I like the balanced composition of the two images — looking at them side-by-side almost convinces me of a mythological power and battle-readiness in the Trojans.
Whether it’s a punt, pirouette, or pass, there is an undeniable shared grace in each motion.
The men’s volleyball team had much to celebrate in the photograph above, namely the 100th win of head coach Jeff Nygaard. The composition of these two images evoke skyward awe from the subjects within the frame. Kulmbach may have done it first, but really, who did it better?
Before America’s pastime, there were America’s pastures. I appreciate how these two images present tension and tranquility in a parallel way. Even though the Trojan baseball player is reaching out with a more aggressive intention as his Boucher counterpart, both frames feel like such an intimate moment between the two figures in the foreground.
In any piece of artwork, hands are subject to scrutiny and attention. Their depiction — face-up, face-down, illuminated, shadowy, closed, open — communicates a thousand words. Hands are just as purposeful in the athletic world. WNBA-bound guard and court general McKenzie Forbes speaks with her hands in the photo above, which serves as a meaningful snapshot of her veteran leadership. Forbes’s outstretched gesture, much like that of Pujol’s, has a deliberate gravity, communicating trust in her teammates.
Once again, I found a link between the contemporary and classical. Ly’s photograph and Blake’s painting are determination personified. The angel’s classical pose mirrors the Trojan’s movement, drawing attention to the top of the frame and beyond the eye can see.
Above, USC graduate Jared Feikes demonstrates how the precision of an excellent pitch is a Herculean task. The dynamic movement of the main subjects — the Trojan athlete and the Greek hero — displays their respective strengths and control.
Suspended in motion. While Volodymyr Iakubenko of USC men’s tennis conveys a vigorous action, Alexander’s figure in “Repose” is in languid rest, as its name suggests. But the curved posture of the subject’s body suggests there is potential energy and some urgency underneath the stillness.
Immediately, the bright orange basketball grabs my visual attention. The focus is so narrowed on the ball as a beacon, and the daisy is similarly compelling to me.
In perhaps the most exciting occasion of the past year’s athletic calendar, freshman sensation JuJu Watkins is palpably excited after the women’s basketball team took home the Pac-12 championship. The right hand of Tiepolo’s figure raised arm and gaze echoes Watkins’ pose, but within an ethereal setting. Both images illustrate the spectrum of greatness. Striving for achievement spans eras and cultures, transcending the boundaries of modern sports and renaissance art.
These illustrated moments, whether by an athlete or an artist, encapsulate the essence of all collective narratives — stories of adversity, endurance, and the reach for something greater.