#50: ‘Hook to the Chin’ by Lev Kreft

‘Hook to the Chin’ is an article originally published in Physical Culture and Sports Studies and Research, written by Lev Kreft, from the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts – University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

(DOI: 10.2478/v10141-009-0005-1)

This article focuses on how artists of the Avant-Garde during the 1920s and 30s held sport, and specifically boxing, in high esteem, and believed art could benefit from adopting aspects of pugilism, a sentiment captured in this quote from Brecht: Mehr Guten Sport / More Good Sport. (See previous posts about Bertolt Brecht and Djuna Barnes.)

The article contends that many of the Avant-Garde, notably Dadaists, believed that societal and artistic progress could only be made by laying one’s own body on the line, so it’s no wonder that they saw equivalence in boxing. As with film, they believed that boxing audiences were more democratic, and this in direct contrast with High Art’s desire to pacify and control its audiences. (However, this is something that modern sports fans are having to fight against in an age of media saturation.)

The article also looks at the parallels, or rather the shared starting point, of WWI and the rise of new artistic movements, as well as that of Fascism and National Socialism; but also, importantly, their differences. It’s interesting to read how such differing philosophies and their followers could be attracted to boxing for such similar reasons, in the cultural vacuum created by the tragic and catastrophic loss of lives during WWI.