Athletes

Additional texteExhibition text: In the early 1900s, Eugène Jansson’s artistic focus shifted from landscapes to nudes, centering on muscular men engaged in gymnastics. With only one hand, an athlete lifts another man into the air as if he were weightless. The undefined background enhances the impression that the two bodies interact beyond time and space. Jansson was clearly influenced by the vitalist movements of the time, while his studies of the male nude also express a homoerotic desire.