#59: ‘Inside and Outside’ by Joshua Harry George

‘Inside and Outside’ by Joshua Harry George at Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

This thesis was written as part of George’s LSU Masters studies, and it focuses on the influence of the work of George Bellows and Thomas Eakins on his own paintings of boxers.

Completely coincidentally the essay contains a quote by Bellows about why he painted boxing scenes in the fashion that he did, painting the boxers as almost inconsequential compared to those at ringside. A coincidence, as the quote would have sat perfectly in the previous book I posted about, ‘The Harder They Fall’ by Budd Schulberg. The quote is as follows:

I am not interested in the morality of prizefighting. But let me say that the atmosphere around the fighters is a lot more immoral than the fighters themselves.

I don’t know how I came across this thesis but it’s no surprise I did, as I have a very firm interest in any writing that looks into the relationship between visual artists (or writers) and boxing. I enjoyed the essay, but something that annoyed me is the repetition that boxers somehow stand out from other athletes by practicing for months before a bout, devising a strategy and trying to anticipate an opponent’s tactics, and their possible and likely responses to one’s own tactics. I don’t know any athletes, except perhaps short distance sprint runners, who don’t spend a lot of their training focusing on tactics.

This brings me on to a point of frustration, unconnected to this essay, but I hate it when people compare boxing to chess. Every act of sport against an opponent is chess if you want it to be, and especially every martial art. It seems as though this comparison first came about as a way of convincing those who would have boxing banned that there is an intellectual side to boxing, rather than the simple aggression that is so prevalent at first glance. As with Art, if everything is chess, then nothing is chess! Rant over…

George does shortly after this compare the boxer to a craftsman, in much the same way that Bertolt Brecht and other Avant-Garde artists did at the beginning of the 20th Century, though again, this was more to do with a fascination with athletes in general. However, Brecht did have a particular fondness for the solo efforts of boxers.

George goes on to compare the isolation that boxers appear to compete, train and even live in with that faced by ballet dancers, and the paintings in which Edgar Degas tried to capture the loneliness he perceived in practicing dancers. There is of course a number of similarities between boxers and ballet dancers, in the way they train, endlessly practicing simple moves in front of mirrors, the need to endure large amounts of physical pain to master their craft, and an (unhealthy?) obsession with dieting. Again, there is often a gulf between how these two practitioners are received by onlookers, the dancer a committed artist shutting out the world while striving for perfection, the boxer a wild and aggressive person trying to punch their own shadow.

George states toward the end of the essay that it is his intention to paint his boxer-subjects with respect and gratitude, a sentiment easily understood by fans of boxing, but a level of empathy maybe no longer reflected in the attitudes of contemporary artists?