Reflecting on how the gallic love of art has fused with our love of football to create the modern game John Hillman arrives at the conclusion that there are above all three Frenchmen we have to thank for this.

Fans of art and football have not, historically, been placed in the same pigeon hole. In fact, until quite recently, the perception was that the only time an average football supporter appreciated a work of art was when he was using it to club someone over the head.

But thankfully those days are long gone. 21st Century concepts of art and football have blurred to the point where football is perceived to have transcended sport to become an art form in itself. Meanwhile movements such as Brit Art have seen the art world invaded by people who have more in common with the football terraces than the Saatchi Gallery.

Thinking about this idea it quickly becomes apparent how much France has contributed to this sea-change in football’s perception of itself. Amongst the many characters that have influenced this process, three Gallic figures really stand out from the rest.

Chief amongst those is the French man whose intelligence and commitment to the high principle of football-as-art has made him many enemies in the club backrooms and sporting press desks of the English game – for so long the domain of the chauvinist, hard drinking, ex-playground bullies that characterised the sport in this country. I speak of course of Arsene Wenger.

Arsene Wenger’s high principles, so quick to be attacked by the dinosaurs of the English football, finally appear to be bearing fruit this week, as the team he has been patiently sculpting for years at last looks like it is reaching its much anticipated potential; proven by clinical demolitions of two hardened British sluggers, Everton and Celtic, in as many days.

It is no accident that in the decade since he’s been managing Arsenal we have witnessed the game evolve into the modern fast-passing phenomenon that we know and love.

Zinedine Zidane, the greatest footballer of his, and some would say any, generation, evolved a style of play in the centre of the park so mesmerising, using delicate and intricate skills of such awe inspiring complexity, that watching him play in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, in Madrid, one of the most dramatic stages anywhere on the planet, was more akin to a night out at the Royal Ballet (but with much better bar snacks).

This ability was encapsulated in the 2006 film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which used 17 synchronised cameras to film every moment of the match in real time, rising dramatically to the point where he gets involved in a brawl in the dying moments then sent off.

This film was made by a Scott, Douglas Gordon, and the renowned French artist and filmmaker Phiippe Parreno, whose exhibits have found huge success around the world for his use of multi-media generated imagery to focus on his unique interrogation of nature. His film is a milestone on football’s journey from working class pastime to international phenomenon, making any chance to see his work pretty much unmissable for true football enthusiasts.

You can see Parreno’s latest exhibition until September 7 at the Pompidou Centre, Paris; a combination of short films and installations from the 1990s to the present day. Arsene Wenger’s latest work of art, on the other hand, promises to be widely available for mass consumption in almost every bar, sports club and living room on the planet for the foreseeable future.

France:its revolutionary contributions to the world just keep on coming.
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Image Credit: jamiejohndavies

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