LJ Rader is the genius behind the Art But Make It Sports social media accounts, which you can find on Instagram and Bluesky, among other sites. He’s compiled some of his best posts with some new material for his book, Art But Make It Sports: Epic Matchups Where Art and Sports Collide, with a foreword by my colleague Charlotte Wilder. I spoke with him about the book, his social media accounts, art and Vanderbilt baseball.
I’ll ask the one obligatory question first: How did the account begin?
When Instagram started becoming popular in the early 2010s or so, people would post pics of themselves or food they ate. I wasn’t really about that; I wanted to post something dumb or unique, so on my own personal account, whenever I’d go to a museum, I’d post artwork but caption them with sports-related tags. Sometimes I’d actually write on the art photo itself, like ‘this is the triangle offense’ when Phil Jackson was coaching. Over time, (I) had friends tell me you should make this its own thing. (In) December 2019, I started a separate account; it was just basketball for a month. (I) realized I was running out of material, took a year, year and a half, started realizing that a caption on top of Francis Bacon’s ‘Screaming Pope’… this looks like Philip Rivers, I should just put a photo of (Rivers) screaming next to the artwork. Then it took off (and) coincided with lockdown and quarantine. Nice way to kill time.
What’s your history with art? Did you grow up loving it? Did you catch the art bug later in life?
I took a class in college, Art History 101, Professor (Sheri) Shaneyfelt, and I thought it was super interesting. My grandparents owned a parking garage in the Village that was used by a lot of artists, and none of them would ever pay — they’d barter, so (my grandparents) had impressive, interesting art in their house. I was always a fan of their collection. And I grew up going to museums. I told my parents, “What if I minor in this?” and they said, “Do you want to work in art?” I said “No,” so I learned it myself by reading books and falling down Wikipedia wormholes. I’m not classically trained. The best way is just going to museums and reading, so I amassed a significant amount of knowledge. I’m lucky in that I don’t have a true photographic memory but have a strong memory for pattern recognition and storing things. Ask me how to pronounce certain artists’ names, that’s not my forte, but I can look at a painting and know what artists might have inspired that.
So art is a real passion for you. Is that for all types, eras, or schools of art, or do you have certain styles or perhaps artists you feel more strongly about?
My passion is for art in general, but I have favorites within there. In a similar fashion with the account, I’m just a fan of seeing new things, then making new posts. One big reason why I keep the account going is discovering art and then being able to bank that and reference and use it. It keeps me sharp. I get a lot of feedback from folks who say things like “this account helps bridge the gap between my spouse and I,” or “I’m a teacher and I use it to get kids into art.”
I love new museums. Whenever I would — I don’t do it as often now — travel for work, I’d take an extra day to sneak in a trip to that museum in that city. To go see a museum in a city is a great way to learn about that city and culture, the architecture of the buildings, the new paintings. To see artwork in real life that I’ve only ever seen online is super rewarding, kind of a little bit of a drug.
That makes me think of Crystal Bridges, the free museum of American art in Bentonville, Ark. Have you ever been?
I have. One of my good buddies works at Wal-Mart, so I got a chance to go down there. It’s a super impressive contemporary collection. They have Kusama’s Infinity Room (“Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Dancing into the Universe”). The building itself is impressive. I haven’t spent a ton of time in Arkansas, but my buddy lives on 10 acres, has a farmhouse and fields, then we drive down the street (and) there’s this modern museum.
Any other favorite museums, in the U.S. or elsewhere?
So my favorite thing I used to do is — I don’t want to give too much away — there’s a certain entrance at the Met you can go to that takes you right up to European paintings. I’d go at 9:59 a.m. and I’d get about 10 minutes or so alone in the galleries before the crowds come in on a weekday. That was my go-to.
The Frick Collection is slept on, the Morgan Library & Museum — I’m naming all New York (City) places. I’ll blitz through a museum taking photo after photo, then spend a lot of time afterwards consuming what I’ve photographed.
The biggest hack is the auction houses, people don’t realize. Sotheby’s and Christie’s, they’re big names, and people get intimidated, but they’re auctioning artwork for tens of millions of dollars, and it’s free to go to see. They’re constantly rotating new art, sometimes pieces that haven’t been seen for maybe hundreds of years, sometimes it’s sold and goes into private hands. Their buildings are super cool, and there’s always something new. Sotheby’s will have artwork but recently had Scottie Pippen’s memorabilia in the same building.
Rader saw an image of Geraldo Perdomo sliding into home plate as reminiscent of “Suprematist Design for a Façade” by Russian artist Vera Ermolaeva. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)
Do you ever go for a connection between the sports photo and the artwork beyond just the visual similarity?
Oftentimes I try to build additional layers into the matchups that extend beyond the visual, such as a play on an artist’s name or nationality. I’ll use a French artist for a Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) photo. There are no good Bulls players now, but I would do a Michael Jordan image with something (from) the Art Institute of Chicago. Whenever I have time, I really look through vintage photos for the book and take my time to think through what extends beyond what I can see so I can be deliberate in that fashion. Any time I can, I put in Easter eggs. Sometimes I’ll call them out, sometimes I’ll let people figure them out themselves.
You went to Vanderbilt – what a great place to go to school.
My heyday was Sonny Gray, he was our star. We had Jason Esposito at third, Ryan Flaherty at second, Mark Lamm, Russell Brewer. Gray was such a good pitcher but also every game he would pick somebody off. If you have the agility and wherewithal to do that, you’re just a star. Games were so much fun, we’d hang out in the outfield, bring in a flask and just chill.
Tell me more about the making of the book.
It was fun to write. Social media doesn’t give you the best canvas to explain yourself, so having that real estate was fun, and I could (add) a little bit of a spin so it’s not just regurgitating myself. There’s a lot of text in there to digest if people want. This thing has always just been something I do for fun. The only time I extend that is when I get pressured. Getty Images was super helpful making it financially feasible.
(Rader notes in the intro that all art in the book was from the public domain, so it has very little art from the past hundred years.)
Has anyone from the art world reached out about the account or the book?
I’ve done a few collaborations with museums, and over the course of the next few months I’ll do a mini-book tour. I’ll be at the Art Institute, I’ll be at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and I’ll be at the Dallas Museum of Art during the World Cup. I’m taking the show on the road for a little bit and reaching a little bit of a new audience, getting folks exposed to it that are lucky enough to not have Instagram or Twitter. If I use a picture I took, I’ll tag the museum on Instagram, so if they accept, it shows up on their feed. The Musee d’Orsay is so helpful on social media. The Louvre can’t be bothered.
Yeah, well, they should worry about keeping their stuff safe.
Heh. I do get feedback from the community, too. People say, “Oh, I saw this painting yesterday,” or “I live in this city, I’m going to see that painting.”
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