
The art of boxing
Four of Ali's works are prominently featured in "Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing," at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. It's an exhibition devoted to boxing – winners, losers, and everything in-between.
Sherman says the show explores a host of different aspects about this most accessible of sports: "It's rare to encounter a human of a certain age on this planet that doesn't have an understanding of the sport of boxing," she said.
Artists do seem to gravitate toward boxing. There are more than 100 works on display here – paintings, photographs and sculptures – including many by and about women. One work by Zoe Buchman features frilly fabrics on boxing gloves. Sherman said. "She's someone who is consistently standing up for female rights and female empowerment."
Sherman says the exhibit comes at a very auspicious time: "I believe, as humans, we find ourselves fighting for something or defending another thing. It is a contentious moment we live in, and what better way to express that but through the symbolism granted to us through the sport of boxing."
So, the give-and-take in works like this, by George Bellows, perhaps America's best-known painter of boxing, seems to take on new meaning.
This 1916 work, called "Introducing John L. Sullivan," depicts not just a famous boxer and the announcer, but also the promoters, money makers, and wheeler-dealers behind all of it.
The exhibit features some heavyweight artists: There's Roy Lichtenstein's "Sweet Dreams Baby!" from 1965, and Keith Haring's late 1980s painted steel sculpture.
Sherman says the artists are "thinking about love, violence, fantasy, death. … I think the artists are thinking about being alive. I think they are thinking about their own identity, and how they navigate that in this world."
Among the most recent works is a pair of paintings from 2023 by Jared McGriff. "One of the things about boxing and this act of being in a battle is that it can be disorienting," he said. "The thing that I think about with these two works is this idea of internal struggle and the idea of what it takes from an internal determination and focus standpoint to reach this level of athleticism."
There are also flashes of humor, such as Michael Halsband's 1985 photo of artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat in boxing gear:
... or Harry Benson's famous shot of a very young Muhammad Ali meeting the very young Beatles in a Miami gym on their first trip to the U.S., in 1964:
Sherman said, "Who would have thought that these five would be inside of this ring together, and this would become this iconic image of boxing and fame?"
For more info:
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hamilton Spectator
7 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Jazz legend Chuck Mangione, known for ‘Feels So Good,' dies at 84
NEW YORK (AP) — Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single 'Feels So Good' and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy 'King of the Hill,' has died. He was 84. Mangione died at his home in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday in his sleep, said his attorney, Peter S. Matorin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. The musician had been retired since 2015. Perhaps his biggest hit — 'Feels So Good' — is a staple on most smooth-jazz radio stations and has been called one of the most recognized melodies since 'Michelle' by the Beatles. It hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart. 'It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist, even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,' Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008. He followed that hit with 'Give It All You Got,' commissioned for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and he performed it at the closing ceremony. Mangione, a flugelhorn and trumpet player and jazz composer, released more than 30 albums during a career in which he built a sizable following after recording several albums, doing all the writing. He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for his album 'Bellavia,' which was named in honor of his mother. Another album, 'Friends and Love,' was also Grammy-nominated, and he earned a best original score Golden Globe nomination and a second Grammy for the movie 'The Children of Sanchez.' Mangione introduced himself to a new audience when he appeared on the first several seasons of 'King of the Hill,' appearing as a commercial spokesman for Mega Lo Mart, where 'shopping feels so good.' Mangione, brother of jazz pianist Gap Mangione, with whom he partnered in The Jazz Brothers, started his career as a bebop jazz musician heavily inspired by Dizzy Gillespie. 'He also was one of the first musicians I saw who had a rapport with the audience by just telling the audience what he was going to play and who was in his band,' Mangione told the Post-Gazette. Mangione earned a bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music — where he would eventually return as director of the school's jazz ensemble — and left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He donated his signature brown felt hat and the score of his Grammy-winning single 'Feels So Good,' as well as albums, songbooks and other ephemera from his long and illustrious career to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2009.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Paul McCartney describes Spinal Tap song as ‘literature' in first sequel trailer
Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to 'literature' in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Sir Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert in the film, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, Sir Paul says: 'Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really.' The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (played by real life director Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for 'an evening with Stormy Daniels' which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: 'Would you settle for a coma?' Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas in the UK on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. As Spinal Tap, the film follows the group as they release the album Smell The Glove, which retailers refuse to sell due to its sexist cover, and plan a large-scale, Druid-themed glam rock show, but a replica of Stonehenge which was supposed to be 18ft high, ends up being 18 inches after they get the measurements wrong. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe real bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase 'turn it up to 11' after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Watch Coldplay Honor Ozzy Osbourne With Cover of Black Sabbath's ‘Changes'
Coldplay paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne during their concert in Nashville Tuesday night following the musician's death. Frontman Chris Martin dedicated the performance to Osbourne before the band showcased a cover of Black Sabbath's 1972 ballad 'Changes.' 'We'd like to dedicate this whole show to the incredible genius, talent, and character-full gift to the world who was Ozzy Osbourne,' Martin told the audience at Nissan Stadium. 'We send our love to his family.' Coldplay then showcased a stripped down rendition of 'Changes,' which opens with the lines, 'I feel unhappy, I feel so sad/ I've lost the best friend that I ever had.' More from Rolling Stone Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs After the song, Martin added, 'Ozzy, we love you, wherever you're going.' Black Sabbath released 'Changes' as part of their album Vol. 4. In his 2011 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, Osbourne noted that the song was inspired by the end of guitarist Bill Ward's first marriage. In 2003, Osbourne and his daughter Kelly Osbourne released a duet version of the track with revised lyrics. Earlier this month, Yungblud performed a cover of 'Changes' live at Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning benefit concert at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. Yungblud paid tribute to Osbourne in a lengthy Instagram post, writing, 'I will never forget you — you will be in every single note I sing and with me every single time I walk on stage. Your cross around my neck is the most precious thing I own. You asked me once if there was anything you could do for me and as I said then and as I will say now for all of us the music was enough. You took us on your adventure — an adventure that started it all. I am truly heartbroken. You were the greatest of all time.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword