Yolanda Sousa Hammermeir: Painting as Match Commentary

Yolanda Sousa Hammermeir, Lara's Theme (2003)

The above is not a portrait of a footballer, clearly, but rather the West Indian cricket player [Brian] Lara. The painting is by Goan artist Yolanda Sousa Hammermeier. I love it, just for the colors & graphic sensibilities.  She's also done fantastic paintings in response to 2002 World Cup matches. Turns out she made headlines in the late 70s and (very) early 80s as a prolific striker - I came across her name as I was looking for women footballers in Goa, and was thrilled to learn she was also an artist.

We had a fantastic conversation last week. I write about her football paintings here: Players Painting. She recalled playing against a US team in the 1981 pre-FIFA women's world cup - she said she thought they were all, like, 15. I believe that was the tournament in which she said India started off with an amazing 2-2 result against Germany - the women partied all night to celebrate and basically got destroyed in the next match.  "Our coach wasn't used to winning," she said. She's always painted, made art, and until a knee injury sidelined her, played soccer. Sport & art have had a fluid relationship in her life, a relationship now sustained on canvas.

Yolanda Sousa Hammermeir, Rüştü Reçber, 2002

This is her lovely portrait of Turkish keeper Reçber, who just had a fantastic game playing for his club side Besiktas - against Man U at home (0-1).