The Fall Of King James
By Luis Vargas

Original: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30 X 40 in.

New Approach To Noblest Form of Art

I am creating, “Historical Sports Art”, a new approach that brings greater value and meaning for the owners, the warriors, the game and the fans. After the Mavs win in game six against the Heat in 2011, I let my creative juices flow into a painting.  I composed a piece that would capture the Mavs’ very special historic victories in the playoffs and finals. An epic, historic sports painting unlike any other.

Historical painting was traditionally regarded as the highest form of Western painting, occupying the most prestigious place in the hierarchy of genres, and considered the equivalent to the epic in literature. In 1436, Leon Battista Alberti (Renaissance humanist polymath) had argued that multi-figure history painting was the noblest form of art, as being the most difficult, which required mastery of all the others, because it was a visual form of history, and because it had the greatest potential to move the viewer. He placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression.

To turn this Historic Mavs Championship into Historical Sports Art, I combined the elements described by Alberti with the anatomical rendering of Michelangelo, the dramatic expression of Caravaggio and surrealism of Dali. The composition consists of the five Mavs placed in a Roman gladiator-like sports arena surrounded by an ominous thunderous Texas sky. The setting sun’s rays highlight “Dead Mans Hill” with symbolic surrealist figures representing the playoff victories over Portland, Lakers, and OKC. With intense life-like facial expressions and muscularity, the players interact with fine detailed tattooed symbols and a “trophy” glistening from the sweat that embellishes their individuality. King James running away as the shot clock ticks down while his court, Bosh and Wade, collapse at the Mavericks’ feet.