Boxing Gets Its Close Up in 'Strike Fast, Dance Lightly'

Requiem for a heavyweight, a featherweight, a welterweight and everyone in between, will be on view at The Church in Sag Harbor, beginning this week. The sport of boxing dates back to the earliest civilizations. In the 20th century, names such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Johnson ring a bell as iconic and historic figures in the sport.

The Church, in collaboration with The Flag Art Foundation in New York City, will present a boxing themed exhibition titled “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” opening on June 24 with a reception from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and running until September 4.

This new exhibition explores boxing as both a theme and metaphor, evoking multifaceted cultural meanings. Developed in tandem and curated independently, the exhibitions at the two organizations feature over 100 works, including historical and contemporary pieces as well as newly commissioned work for the shows.

At The Church, “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” is co-curated by the organization’s co-founder, Eric Fischl, and its chief curator, Sara Cochran. The exhibition underscores boxing’s expansive place in human life and the varied ways it is perceived by a diverse array of artists.

During the inception of the exhibition, Fischl thought about “The Boxer at Rest,” the famous Greek bronze sculpture of a nude boxer, sitting, resting, and wearing leather hand-wrap.

“It’s one of the few bronzes remaining. It’s a naked male boxer sitting down after a fight,” explained Fischl. “He’s got some cuts on him, his hands are bound for boxing, he looks exhausted. He looks like maybe he’s being called back out. But he’s at that point in his life where the question of whether he should go back out or keep doing it is very present. It’s an existential moment.”

It is shorthand for the existential question “What is worth fighting for?” and themes of struggle, defiance, victory, martyrdom, and brutality. Contemporary work particularly questions its traditional symbolism of masculinity by challenging male domination of the sport, and brings up issues of race, poverty and violence.

Jack Johnson was the first African American boxer to beat a white boxer and become a heavyweight champion at the height of the Jim Crow era. His 1910 bout against James J. Jeffries was coined by the press as the “fight of the century” and has gone down in history as a pivotal moment in civil rights.

Over a third of the artists in The Church exhibition are female, and half are artists of color. Female artists tend to look at the boxer either as female empowerment, or a metaphor for domestic violence, Cochran noted.

“It’s interesting to see that idea of the triumphant and this idea of the attack,” she added.

One of Fischl’s favorite Pierre Bonnard paintings is titled, “The Boxer.” The painting depicts a self-portrait in the bathroom mirror. Fischl interprets that Bonnard could be fighting with himself in the painting.

“It made me think of boxing as a metaphor,” he explained.

Cochran expanded upon the idea of boxing, and it turns out the boxing genre is enormous.

“It became this kind of metaphor for the artistic struggle and keeping going as an artist,” she said.

A Pierson High School student, Emily Squires, will be featured in the exhibition with other local and famous artists. Squires, a senior — and boxer as well, photographed a friend of hers boxing.

“We’re continuing the tradition of trying as much as possible to include both local artists with major well-known artists,” Cochran said.

Artists to be featured at The Church include Derrick Adams, Zoë Buckman, Jim Campbell, Cassils, Carroll Dunham, Fab 5 Freddy, Jules Feiffer, Eric Fischl, Barry Flanagan, Jeffrey Gibson, Ralph Gibson, Michael Halsband, Lyle Ashton Harris, Lonnie Holley, Judith Hudson, Rashid Johnson, Howard Kanowitz, Martin Kippenberger, Ansel Krut, Stephen Laub, Glenn Ligon, An Te Liu, Robert Mapplethorpe, Delilah Montoya, LeRoy Neiman, Ed Paschke, David Rathman, Deborah Roberts, Ellington Robinson, Carlos Rolón, Rozeal, Alison Saar, David Seltzer, Gary Simmons, Charles Waller, Carrie Mae Weems, Darius Yektai, Joe Zucker, and many others.

“The idea of a thematic show is a way of being inclusive. Contemporary art can be frightening. When it’s thematic, people come in the door with knowledge,” Cochran noted, adding that The Church has hosted exhibitions on cars, guitars and water, to name a few topics.

The curators have photo portraits on view of some very famous boxers, including one of Muhammad Ali as an old man. Fischl described Ali as covering a part of his face with aging features, and people may not recognize the athlete at first. Their earliest piece in the show, from 1957, is a sculpture by William King.

“Charles Waller had made a piece of a wedding dress plastered on it and boxing gloves on it. It’s a compelling piece,” Fischl explained. He added that Zoë Buckman, a well-known artist and reproductive rights activist, created a neon outline of a uterus and fallopian tubes with the ovaries as boxing gloves.

Fischl even has a painting in the show, the first time the artist has had his own work in one of The Church’s exhibits.

“I made it for the show,” he said. “I was specifically inspired by the moment in my life in terms of the life of a creative person.”

“The boxer is a figure caught alone in the crosshairs of choice and fate in a moment that can change everything,” Cochran explained. “Perhaps this is why the boxer is a poignant metaphor for our turbulent and uncertain times.”

“This show is a sermon about the belief and value we put on the struggle to be, to live, to understand, to love, to try, and to never give up,” Fischl said. “I believe everyone walking through our door holds these values to be true and will recognize and appreciate all the creative ways artists have found to deal with the monumentality of meaningful living.”

Extensive public programming will accompany the exhibition in Sag Harbor, including lectures by artists with work in the show. Robert Lipsyte, sports journalist and former Sports and City columnist for The New York Times, will give a talk at The Church on Saturday, July 1, at 4 p.m. Lipsyte will discuss the sport and art of boxing, having covered it for The New York Times during the Muhammad Ali era.

Other artist lectures are slated for Friday, July 14, with Zoe Buckman, and Sunday, July 30, with Darius Yektai. On Saturday, July 29, The Church hosts a lecture on the relationship between Parkinson’s and boxing led by Sarah Cohen, administrator of the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Center for Parkinson’s Disease, and Michelle Del Giorno, founder of Epic Martial Arts in Sag Harbor, who offer Rock Steady Boxing, a program that has helped over 200 Parkinson’s patients since 2017.

In addition to the programs at The Church, the Sag Harbor Cinema is curating a series of boxing-related films in conjunction with the exhibition.

For more information on the programming and The Church, which is located at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor, visit thechurchsagharbor.org.

The FLAG Foundation’s presentation will run from June 16 to August 11. Intended to be viewed in dialogue, The Church is encouraging their visitors to see both shows. Artists at FLAG will include George Bellows and Eadweard Muybridge, along with contemporary artworks by John Ahearn, Andrea Bowers, Rosalyn Drexler, Curran Hattelberg, Rashid Johnson, Vincent Valdez, Yvonne Wells, and many more.

FLAG is located in the Chelsea Arts Tower, 545 West 25th Street, 9th Floor. For more information, visit flagfoundation.org.