Born in 1980, Luis Bueno is a São Paulo based artist and teacher. He has a degree in Graphic Design, and a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts. Before his current occupation as an artist, he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for books and magazine publishers. Nowadays, besides his artistic work, he teaches disciplines such as color theory, illustration, and computer graphics for graduate programs.
He became an artist as a consequence of the development of skills and interests he had since an early age. Though he’s increased his interest in several forms of art, especially painting, his passion lies in street art:
“Street art is a strong way to put people in direct contact with art, because a lot of people do not go to museums. When art is on the streets, people are kind of confronted with it, and the normal city space become a unique and open gallery. In a big city like São Paulo, full of buildings, roads and concrete, street art gives the citizens a different lens—a way to reflect or simply feel something not usual”
Luis began his experiments on street art ten years ago, with the use of graffiti and other techniques. However in the end of 2009, he started experimenting with paste-ups and this became his defining method. That year, he created the Pelé series, aptly named Pelé Beijoqueiro ( A form of "Pelé the kisser" in English). A friend of Luis who knew that he had developed a stencil art of Pelé at the time, showed to him a picture of Pelé kissing Muhammed Ali, that was shot in 1977 at his final match for the New York Cosmos. Amazed at the quality of the image, Luis came to the realization that he could make Pelé kiss anyone.
He cut Pelé from the picture and completely redrew him using Photoshop, changing the color of the shirt to make it resemble his Santos FC kit (which sometimes Luis paints to transform it into Brazil’s national team kit). This process resulted in countless hours of work. Luis was forced to digitally paint the image and had to reconstruct some areas that did not appear on the original image. However, once he perfected his digitized version of Pelé, he positioned him to kiss different characters, beginning with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, then C3PO, Chewbacca, Salvador Dali, Bob Marley, Marylin Monroe, David Bowie, and others.
These works of art are in different dimensions, but usually as large prints. In these cases, Bueno splits the image in different parts to print it.
The encounter of Pelé with these characters has several meanings according to Luis:
“It is a gesture of affection, which is something that sometimes is lacking at the urban context, where people are very self-centered. And it is a way to illustrate the encounter of Brazilian culture (symbolized by Pelé and by his kiss, which is a very common form of a compliment in Brazil) with great symbols of different contexts.”
For more of Luis’ work, you can find him on Facebook and Instagram.
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The Art of Football, based out of Nottingham, is run by brothers Gabe and Luke Cuthbert They are on a mission. A mission to reinvent football fashion.
Football is like a drug. Those extreme highs and lows we experience in a game are the reasons we go, and keep on going to matches, or stay glued to the screen. When the ball hits the net, or is denied beautifully altogether, all the problems and dull mediocrities of everyday life disappear. It is a wonderful moment of complete euphoria.
It was after watching Manchester City’s spectacular title-winning match that the idea for these T-shirts was born. The sudden transformation of anguish, nerves and misery into pure, uncontrollable elation was something of a spectacle. Not many ascribe to City’s big money attitude and intense style of play. Yet seeing Aguero’s near perfect strike against QPR was a the fabric of legends.The ultimate goal was to to be able to immortalize such a moment on a shirt, so that fans could wear it with pride (as they would usually do with a replica shirt), and be forever reminded of it.
It is safe to say that the majority of football T-shirts in this day and age are simply generic, crudely screen printed images of Luis Suarez’s big ugly grin, or something of the like. There is no diversity whatsoever. An infinite amount of shirts just like the one mentioned above are produced to join an infinite supply. Conversely, each design has been thoughtfully made primarily as a piece of art, this way justice can be done to the moments that fans cherish so highly. These shirts capture all the raw emotion and energy that you felt during those seconds of celebration and, most importantly, in a delicious style.
Art of Football has just launched a new collection titled “The Artists”. Their concept:
“There are good players, great players and then there are the Artists. These players saw things most wouldn’t. They did things most couldn’t. The pitch was their canvas and they painted their way into football immortality. We pay tribute to their originality, creativity, spontaneity and vision. Thank you, Artists, for making the game beautiful.”
For more ‘Art of Football,’ you can find more of their incredible work here.
Goalkeeper Gejus van der Meul ashamed after letting an easy ball pass through during a special match on the Crown Princess Juliana’s birthday. April 30, 1940. Heemstede, The Netherlands.
Ben Mosley is one of Britain’s leading football and sports artists. His work involves capturing the emotional energy, overflowing passion and dynamic movement of athletic display and pop culture in pieces that may be described as once figurative, cubist and abstract expressionist. Commissioned by the biggest organizations within sport including Wembley Stadium, Manchester United, McDonalds, The London Olympics, and The Emirates and Creek Golf clubs in Dubai, Mosley is quickly becoming a recognized international artist and his work is highly collectable throughout the world.
So many human emotions play out on the football pitch — joy, sorrow, aggression, fear, courage. For each victory and defeat there are one hundred special moments, and it is these moments that Mosley captures on canvas. His paintings have portrayed the victory of a winning goal, showed the camaraderie between father and son as they watch a game and encapsulated the electricity of a crowd making their way into the stadium. His abstract style, reminiscent of the action art of Kline and de Kooning, is at once evocative and invigorating, depicting the reality of the human narrative while hinting at the underlying emotions.
One such moment Mosley has repeatedly returned to is the singing of the National Anthem, which he views as highly ‘symbolic’
“It is a very special and powerful moment when 80,000 people in a stadium feel a sense of pride, identity and belonging and my paintings of the National Anthem are an extension of this feeling.”
The ability of sport and football to unify different people and cultures, to bring nations together and build lifelong relationships is the main reason Mosley, who has produced quite the collection of fine art, has focused on depicting football since he earned his BA Honours Fine Art degree in 2003 from the University of Liverpool. The unifying nature of sport is the overarching theme of his exhibit on the Olympic Games.
“I believe that sporting events such as the World Cup unite people from all over the world in celebration’, Mosley said. ‘It is a special moment when a nation comes together collectively to recognize an individual or group achievement with such joy, hope and pride. The sense of identity that sport can bring through success can be a catalyst to boost a nation to achieve great things.”
Mosley’s work promotes equality within football, including highlighting women’s football and working on the anti-racism campaign commemorating the 10-year anniversary of “Lets Kick Racism Out Of Football”. His paintings celebrate culture and the bonds of friendship while recognizing sporting achievement.
The League Manager’s Association requested two paintings in 2010. One of the commissioned works was called A Manager for All Seasons and was auctioned off at the league’s annual dinner which was a celebration of the FA Cup. The painting celebrates football management, and includes the most coveted trophies in British football, the Premiership trophy and the Football Association Challenge Cup (FA cup) trophy. It also incorporates football manager Jose Mourinho’s signature on one of the advertising boards in the background. The LMA recently made A Manager for All Seasons into a limited-edition print, and Mourinho signed 12 of the first 200 prints.
Several successful solo shows in London have led to Mosley’s work being televised on MTV, BBC Look North and Premier League TV, and his work may be found in private collections throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. These successes led to commissions for the Professional Football Association and the League Managers Association. The PFA asked Mosley to produce a painting, which he later dubbed History, depicting all of the winners of the PFA Award from 1974-2011. The painting is currently part of the PFA’s cherished collection of art and historical football memorabilia.
Ben Mosley has worked closely with Manchester United and the Manchester United Foundation, having been commissioned to produce two original works of Art for one of the biggest clubs in world football. One painting depict’s Wayne Rooney's incredible overhead kick verses Manchester City and the other painting was produced live in front of a black tie audience at an official Manchester United dinner. This painting depicted Manchester United legends Peter Schmeichel, Dennis Law and Dennis Irwin. Mosley has given a talk about his work in front of the Manchester United first team and Sir Alex Ferguson at the Manchester United Christmas dinner in Association with UNICEF.
These successes also led to Mosley’s work being televised on MTV, ITV, ESPN, BBC and Premier League TV, where he has painted live on Television. Mosley has his work on display at Wembley Stadium, where he is regarded as the home of football’s artist in residence. He has produced two large-scale murals that celebrate and tell the history of the illustrious stadium from 1923-2013. In 2014 Mosley represented the UK at the World Cup in Brazil in association with McDonalds. His painting “Fans of the World” was part of a global promotion that saw the company change their iconic fry box from the traditional red and gold to display the artist’s work. It was estimated that 60 million people saw the fry box in different countries from all over the world.
Mosley uses a variety of instruments that combine mono-printing techniques with contemporary methods of painting to create his individual style. He has three main ways of painting and the narrative of the moment dictates the style he uses:
“I paint straight on to the canvas because I wish to maintain a certain amount of spontaneity in each painting’, Mosley said. ‘I believe this makes each painting individual and gives them a unique personality. Because I want to capture the dynamism, excitement and movement of sport, my brushwork is gestural, angular and vigorous, and conveys the explosion of energy that happens within sport and football.”
The balance between figuration and abstraction varies between paintings. Each is so full of movement and energy they demand further study. ‘I believe that every incident in sport has a story to tell and I want my viewers to become involved with my paintings’, Mosley said.
Descriptions
Image 1 : Moore and ‘66, Acrylic on Canvas 100x100cm
This painting was created especially for the film about England’s most famous and illustrious captain Bobby Moore which airs next summer to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of England’s 1966 world Cup win. Mosley produced the painting taking influence from a stained glass window because I wanted to portray Bobby as a Saint. This is our most special moment in football as a nation and I wanted to create something special that is symbolic of the enormous contribution Bobby Moore gave to us as a nation.
Image 2: ‘66 England v West Germany, 90x90cm Acrylic on canvas
This painting shows England lifting the World Cup after their triumphant 4-2 defeat of West Germany. It is an iconic moment when Bobby Moore is lifted on to the shoulders of the players as England’s World Cup winning Captain.
Image 3: The Torch Carriers, Acrylic on canvas 100x80cm
This painting symbolizes hope and team spirit. It also shows a group of athletes passing the torch on to one another carrying the hopes and dreams of millions. This painting was influenced by Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon in terms of the form and the tribal values that I have tried to capture within the athletes . Mosley wanted to capture the athletic prowess of the sportsmen and how the torch is a symbol of success and hope. He believes he’s managed to capture the power dynamism and athleticism that sport can generate, work as a team for success which also applies to life in general.
Image 4: The Pitch Invasion, 120cmx80cm
This painting is acrylic on canvas and shows the elation and joy of football supporters invading the pitch in celebration. He believes that football is inspirational and provides moments of sheer joy and release which is what he attempts to achieve in this painting.
Image 5: History, 100x100cm Acrylic on Canvas
The PFA asked Mosley to produce a painting, which he later dubbed History, depicting all of the winners of the PFA Award from 1974-2011. The painting is currently part of the PFA’s cherished collection of art and historical football memorabilia.
Image 6: Gold Trafford, 100x80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
This painting was televised on ESPN and shows the Manchester United fans on their way to the Theatre of Dreams to watch their beloved Manchester United. In this painting he tried to capture the electricity of the fans as they anticipate victory.
Image 7: Fans of the World, 100x100cm Acrylic on Canvas
Officially commissioned by McDonalds in 2014, Mosley represented the UK at the football World Cup in Brazil in association with McDonalds. His painting “Fans of the World” was part of a global promotion that saw the company change their iconic fry box from the traditional red and gold to display “Fans Of The World” on their iconic fry box. It was estimated that 60 million people saw the fry box in different countries from all over the world.
Image 8: “They Think its All Over, It Is Now” 100x100cm
This painting celebrates Sir Geoff Hurst’s last minute goal to seal his hat-trick and give England victory against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley stadium. The final score was England 4-2 West Germany.
Image 9: Team Spirit Brazil, 90x90cm Acrylic on Canvas
This painting shows Brazil huddled together in a circle before the match begins. Mosley wanted to capture the color and energy of Brazil, who are the most successful team in World Cup history. Brazil is regarded as the spiritual home of football which is what he was trying to portray in this painting.
Image 10: The Manager, 100x100cm, Acrylic on Canvas
For more of Ben Mosley’s incredible artwork, you can find him on these social media platforms:
Twitter. Instagram. His Website.
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Tales of Defection: The Cold War’s Impact on the Game
(László Kubala, 30 September 1953)
By Shahan Petrossian
The end of the Great War in Europe ushered in another war between competing ideologies. While this new War was not fought on the battlefield, a new ideological War was being waged and Football was not immune to it.
For over 40 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Citizens from the Eastern Bloc from all walks of life and professions (which included many footballers) would risk life, prison sentences and permanent disconnect from their families and respective nations to obtain basic freedoms as well as professional opportunities in the West befitting their talents.
There are many tales of players spanning these decades that made these life and career changing decisions. This includes some of the greatest players of the game as well as relatively unknown ones.
The first case of these defections started as early as 1949 and involved one of the greatest players of the game, the Hungarian (as well as Czechoslovakian) International László (Ladislao) Kubala. After the full communist takeover of Hungary in 1949, he fled to Austria. From there he made his way to Spain and joined Barcelona. After serving the one-year suspension (this would turn out to be the customary suspension for the defectors), he excelled for his new club and earned trophies, fame and fortune along the way. Spain under General Franco would use his example as propaganda as well. Kubala became the trailblazer for future defections. He was a visible example of what life could be like in the West for those who were able to export their talent.
Less than a decade later, the Hungarian Revolution in the Fall of 1956 would pave the way for the second wave of defections.
This would involve the greatest ever player to defect, Hungary’s Captain, the ‘Galloping Major,’ Ferenc Puskás.
Hungary’s Honved, which was the backbone of the Mighty Magyars’ National Team, had been outside of the country in preparation for their upcoming Champions Cup Match in Spain vs. Athletic Bilbao. Due to the political events, they delayed their return. Eventually many returned home, but Puskas, along with Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor decided to remain in the West, as did the Honved Manager Jenő Kalmár. After their suspensions, Puskas joined the great Real Madrid side of Di Stefano, while Kubala convinced Kocsis and Czibor to join him at Barcelona.
It would be another decade when another prominent Hungarian International would defect. Ferencváros’ Zoltán Varga fled while with the Hungary Olympic squad at Guadalajara during the 1968 Mexico Olympics Games. He had defected with the belief he was to be offered a contract with Belgium’s Standard Liège. However, upon his arrival the deal was called off. He subsequently played in West Germany with Hertha Berlin and Borussia Dortmund, with a spell in between with Aberdeen and Ajax Amsterdam, while serving a ban in West Germany for taking part in a bribery scandal.
Poland had to contend with the defection of Polonia Bytom trio of Jan Banaś, Jan Liberda and Norbert Pogrzeba in 1966 before a match vs. Sweden’s IFK Norrköping. Within a year Banaś had returned and was pardoned by the Polish authorities, while Liberda and Pogrzeba had a spell in Dutch Football with AZ Alkmaar and NAC Breda respectively.
The frequency of defections increased in the 70s especially concerning former East Germans enticed with not only the prospect of freedom but higher wages and standards of the Bundesliga.
The East German U-21 pair of goalkeeper Jürgen Pahl and Norbert Nachtweih (both of Chemie Halle) took the opportunity to flee while on tour with the U-21 squad in Turkey in November 1976.
Pahl stated that there were no political reasons for their act just the need to earn better wages.
They fled to Turkey and from there to West Germany where they joined Eintracht Frankfurt (after having served the obligatory one-year suspension). Nachtweih would go on to play for Bayern Munich and many consider that he would have been capped by West Germany had he not already represented the East German U-21s.
Hungary’s Lajos Kü fled through Yugoslavia in January 1977 and found his way to Belgium’s Club Brugge. He reached the Champions Cup Final with his new club vs. Liverpool in 1978. Things took a turn to the farcical, when the match was broadcast in Hungary. The Television commentator would pronounce his name with a French accent to draw away the audience to any reference of Kü being Hungarian.
(East Germany before their historic 1974 World Cup match v West Germany)
East Germany’s then Under-21 Manager Jörg Berger took advantage of a match in Yugoslavia to flee and find his way to West Germany in 1979. He would go on to have a long managerial career in the Bundesliga, but was threatened by the East German State Security, the Stasi. It is alleged that he even survived an attempt to poison him.
Once in an interview he brushed aside the pressures associated with Management. He recounted his own escape through Yugoslavia with a false passport and said that the Yugoslavian border agent had recognized him but still allowed him to pass. Berger considered that to be real pressure not the stress of losing matches.
The East German Lutz Eigendorf used a friendly between Dinamo Berlin and West Germany’s Kaiserslautern to make his way to the West. On March 20, 1979, after the friendly while the squad was traveling back to the East, he fled at a stop and took a taxi back to Kaiserslautern to join them. It has been suggested that the Stasi took this defection the hardest as Dinamo Berlin were under their control.
On March 5th, 1983, Eigendorf was involved in a car accident and died two days later on March 7th aged 26. Many were suspicious of the circumstances of the accident and accused the Stasi of having staged it. In 2010 a former East German spy confessed that he had been ordered by the Stasi to murder Eigendorf but he had not done so.
Romanian defector and Rapid Bucharest defender Dan Coe similarly died under suspicious circumstances. He had been granted authorization by the Romanian Government to travel to Belgium in 1980 (He had played at Antwerp in the early 70s).
From Belgium he went to West Germany and sought political asylum and lived in Köln. On October 19, 1981, he was found dead in his apartment. It was unclear whether he had committed suicide or murdered, but many accused the Romanian State Security of the latter. Shortly before his death, he had given an interview on Radio Free Europe. Other Romanian defectors such as Viorel Năstase, Marcel Răducanu (both from the Army Team Steaua Bucharest) and Alexandru Sătmăreanu were fortunate in avoiding the same fate.
Năstase escaped in the Fall of 1979 when Steaua were involved in the Cup Winners Cup competition vs. Switzerland’s Young Boys Bern. After his suspension he lined for Bundeslioga’s TSV 1860 Munich and also had a spell in Italy with Catanzaro.
Dinamo Bucharest’s Alexandru Sătmăreanu defected to the West in 1980 and joined West Germany’s Stuttgart. He received a ten-year Prison sentence for his action. In West Germany, he reverted to his original name: Alexander Szamatari (since he was an ethnic Hungarian).
Marcel Răducanu defected in the August of 1981, when the Romanian National team played a Friendly vs. Borussia Dortmund. He would go on to serve Dortmund until 1988. Since Răducanu had the rank of Captain in the Romanian Army, he was sentenced to six years in Prison in Absentia.
(Dynamo Dresden’s team ahead of the 1980/81 season. Gerd Weber (back row, third from left), Peter Kotte (front row, second from left) and Matthias Müller (front row, first from the right)
The East German and Dinamo Dresden trio of Gerd Weber, Matthias Müller and Peter Kotte were not as lucky. Stasi arrested them at the airport in January 1981 before a Dinamo Dresden trip to Argentina for friendly matches.
Weber had been in contact with FC Köln and made the plans. He was sentenced to a term of 7 years and 7 months. He was released in 1989.
Kotte and Müller were banned and dismissed from Dresden, but played in the Lower Leagues. This did not deter the Dinamo Berlin duo of Falko Götz and Dirk Schlegel to escape the East. Dinamo Berlin were due to play Partizan Belgrade on November 2, 1983 for the Champions Cup. The duo went to the American Embassy in Belgrade and sought asylum and made their way to West Germany to join Bayer Leverkusen.
In June 1982, Polish and Slask Wroclaw goalkeeper Jacek Jarecki was with the National Team in preparations for the World Cup in Spain and had an outside chance of being one of the reserve goalkeepers. He fled from the Team Hotel to seek asylum in West Germany. He joined Fortuna Dusseldorf and later had a spell at Fortuna Köln.
The situation for Polish winger Cezary Tobollik was different. He fled while his club Cracovia Krakow were in Graz, Austria in the Summer of 1983. From there he joined West Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt. To avoid the usual one-year suspension, Frankfurt paid his old club £6,500 cash as well as £25,000 of Football and Ice Hockey material.
There were also many defections towards the end of the 80s just before the Berlin Wall fell.
Jürgen Sparwasser, who scored East Germany’s winning goal vs. their Western neighbors during the 1974 World Cup, fled in January 1988 while in Saarbrucken, West Germany for a Veterans Tournament. He walked into a police Station and sought asylum.
Czechoslovakia and Slavia Prague duo of Lubos Kubik and Ivo Knoflicek defected while on tour with their club in West Germany in the summer of 1988.
By the start of the following season, Kubik was at Fiorentina, while Knoflicek was at St. Pauli in West Germany.
On November 12, 1988 at Milan, Poland played against an Italian League XI in a Charity match. From there Poland’s Andrzej Rudy fled to West Germany to seek asylum and joined FC Köln.
On December 29, 1988, Romania and Steaua Bucharest’s talented Libero Miodrag Beloidedici (who was an ethnic Serb) fled his homeland for Yugoslavia and joined Red Star of Belgrade.
When he won the Champions Cup in 1991 with Red Star, he became the first ever player to win the trophy with two different clubs (having previously won with Steaua Bucharest in 1986). Given the fact that he was in the Romanian Army, he received a ten year Prison sentence in abstentia.
In July 1989, less than four months before the Fall of the Wall, the East German Axel Kruse of Hansa Rostock defected in Denmark where his club was playing an Intertoto match vs. BK Copenhagen. He found his way to West Berlin and joined Hertha.
Similarly, Rapid Bucharest’s little-known trio of Lucian Ilie, Gabriel Ciopolnea and Alexandru Aprodu defected while in Sweden, where Rapid was playing an Intertoto Cup match.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and Communism. As the months passed, new regimes and political changes and openness paved the way for the pardon and re-integration of those who had fled. It also started an era of massive transfers of Eastern European players to the richer Western Leagues. It was not the fact that they were free to do so, but in many cases the Eastern clubs were forced to sell to survive in a new Political system and climate, as they could no longer rely on the state to fund and support them.
In an age where bigger Western clubs are poaching talented adolescents from Eastern Europe and Eastern European Clubs themselves are lining up Brazilians, this reality during the Cold War years would seem like an alternate universe from a science fiction novel.
It would seem unimaginable to restrain and imprison (literally and figuratively) the talented from better opportunities in the name of ideology, but such was the world of many generations of footballers.
You can follow Shahan on Twitter here and for more of his work take a look at his excellent blog, Soccer Nostalgia
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Born in 1952 in the Altmittweida, Germany near Chemnitz, art has always been an essential part of Wolfgang’s life. In 1970, he attended the prestigious Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under the instruction of the renowned German artist Joseph Beuys. Two years later he went on to attend the Berlin University of the Arts, the largest art school in Europe.
A British-Council scholarship in painting brought him to London in 1978. He had done mostly conceptual work the year before and also some installations, using strong primary colors -- almost in a heraldic sense. He suggested to the British Council a concept that meant visiting every town and football ground of the first division (as it was called in 1978, before the advent of the Premier League). In the diploma show at St. Martin’s School of Art he showed black and white photographs of his travels, numerals from football kits and marker-drawings of the teams colors on the field.
While in England, Wolfgang bought original shirts from Arsenal (Fig. 3) which he arranged in a dressing room pattern and called the work Yes It Is, titled after the 1965 Beatles song that contained the lyrics “red is the color that my baby wore”. In Berlin he showed this work in two exhibitions consisting of wood, cloth and color.
After one year in England, he decided to stay longer and his studio equipment arrived from Berlin which included oil-paints, brushes, and canvases, among others.
In 1983, he painted (2nd photo) the line-up of the English and West-German teams before the 1966 World Cup final. It occurred in his mind that nine-hundred years earlier was the Battle of Hasting in 1066, when the Normans arrived in England . This is when the relationship between football and history began to interest him.
In Schwarz-Rot-Gold, (Fig. 4) he painted the 1954 German side shortly after the war as airplanes waiting for take-off.
The Blue Dynamos (Fig. 8) features the first appearance of a Soviet-Russian team in the West at Chelsea in 1945, with the characteristic Dynamo-trousers.
Suarez (last photo) was a painting of FC Barcelona that includes the Hungarian refugees Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis, and László Kubala.
He named the 7th image Kirschen, the German word for cherries, after using real cherries to get the color right.
The Magyars (6th image) painting shows Danny Blanchflower and Ferenc Puskás leading their team into Wembley stadium for England’s first home-defeat in 1953. This match is often called the ‘Match of the Century’ after England were thrashed 6-3 by the superior technical and tactical Hungarians.
Brazil (5th picture) depicts the 1970 Brazilian World Cup team shown from behind in what Wolfgang deems to be the best side ever.
Wolfgang painted Rigby’s Men (Fig. 1) in 1994, back in Germany. He decided to show on 22 panels the area just around the numbers, because the original photographic images came from matches with players in movement.
For these illustrations, Wolfgang generally used all sort of images, his own photos, copies from public libraries, images from magazines and even material from flea markets.
The oil-paintings are quite large. They span from 150x200cm to 200x300 cm. The “faceless footballers” as they were called in the press, have to do with the fact that rarely do fans recognize the facial features of a player from the terraces, they identify him through posture, attitude, or by numbers on the back.
To see more of Wolfgang Koethe’s brilliant artwork, you can check out his site here.
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