Football Is Art

Entrance to the exhibition

Held in Manchester from 5 April 2019 to 27 October 2019.

On Tuesday morning I headed down to the Football Is Art exhibition at the National Football Museum in Manchester. This is a building you won’t have missed if you’ve been to this northern city before. The building sits directly across from Victoria Train Station, making quite the visual impact.

National History Museum

My boyfriend made the suggestion that we visited the museum as his friend's artwork was in the Football Is Art exhibition, not only this but his brother was the subject of the artwork.
The painting was named ‘Not a Penny More’ by Gary Armer, originally from the Fylde area.
Gary said, “The portrait features a friend of mine and explores the relationship of modern football support and masculine identity. The portrait was painted entirely from life in my studio.”

Gary Armer 'Not a Penny More'

As we headed around the museum it was apparent that there is a vast amount of history behind football. I didn’t realise the changes that the much loved sport had gone through over the decades. In the museum there are four floors, focusing on the history of football and acting as a timeline. We particularly loved seeing the old vintage football posters and reading about the history of Blackpool Football Club (our home town).
I’d say you need at least an hour to walk around the exhibitions and give yourself time to take everything in; the Football Is Art exhibition was the last area we went to (and of course, my favourite). On the colourful or bright white painted walls, football paintings were carefully placed in a well thought out order.
We filmed some of it on our Instagram story, which you can catch on the ARTdiscount highlights if you haven’t seen already.
Some paintings screamed football and were very life like; others were abstract and incredibly thought provoking. Picasso’s piece sat in a glass cabinet, which sat by the entrance, this was particularly interesting as it was like no other piece I’d seen. Hopefully we can find a good photo to show you! You could spot Banksy’s sporty piece from a distance, as his style is so distinctive.

Banksy 'Football Terrorist'

The National Football Museum says “Footballers have often been described as artists on the pitch, but what happens when the game is depicted as art? Can art in all its forms truly capture the emotions of a match? Our latest exhibition, Football Is Art, shows how artists have depicted the beauty, drama and passion of our game. We've selected works from a star-studded line-up of painters, illustrators and sculptors. From Paul Nash to Picasso, George Best to Banksy, the exhibition features household names and hidden gems alike, each one capturing what makes football the game of our lives in their own unique way.”

Picasso 'Footballeur'

For more information head to: https://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com

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