MSA 11: Boxing and Modernism
This panel seeks to explore the historical and aesthetic connections between boxing and modernism, or early 20th century arts more broadly conceived. From Gene Tunney's Alpine hikes with George Bernard Shaw to Jack Johnson's 1916 fight with poet Arthur Cravan, or Djuna Barnes' early boxing reportage to Hemingway's stints as a sparring partner for professional heavyweights in Paris, many modern writers and artists evinced not only a delight in boxing, but a deep situation in sporting circles such that the distinction between modern art as an aesthetic formation and boxing as popular sport becomes productively fuzzy.