Sports, Fun & Games
in the Würth Collection

About

Les Loisirs (Leisure), a new acquisition in the Würth Collection, was created by the French Cubist Fernand Léger (1881–1955) in 1944. While war was still raging, in other words, the artist devoted himself to the comparatively new phenomenon of leisure time and expressed his yearning for freedom, a carefree life, and leisure for everyone.

Sparking creativity

Now, after the leaden years of 2020–21, inspired not least by Léger's image, we have rearranged the collection at the Kunsthalle Würth to reflect the pleasures (and challenges) entailed by the phenomenon of leisure. Activities we enjoy in our free time, whether sports or games, not only provide exercise and recreation but, giving scope for untrammeled thought, are important sources of artistic creativity. Enjoyment beyond hard and fast rules, innocent pastimes, daydreams, letting oneself go, hanging around, chilling out - all these are aspects of our leisure behavior and can spark creative work.

The art world as the best of all playgrounds?

Might the art world in fact amount to the best of all playgrounds? Our exhibition gives an informal review of such classical leisure activities as going to the park, taking a swim, visiting the circus or stadium, down to enjoying the marina, racecourse or club. It is devoted to play as a creative experience, from childish fooling to social games. It includes puppet and shadow theater and discovers, in the public games of antiquity, when socially accepted competition could even end in death, the roots of today's game and contest culture. It sheds light on why so many artists, from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner through Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Max Ernst, down to Alfred Hrdlicka and François Morellet were as devoted to chess and its cachet of genius as they were to boxing. Finally, the exhibition reflects on the Ars ambulandi, the aesthetic of moving through the world on foot, and offers an opportunity for viewers to participate and test their fitness in Hans Magnus Enzensberger's WorldPlayThings or on the humorous benches of Jeppe Hein.