Artball playing cards
Artball playing cards created by Don Celender, USA, 1972.
This is a complete pack of 54 playing cards with the head of 1960s art-world celebrities superimposed as a photomontage over football players in action postures and then their name, team and putative positions also pasted over the originals. It was created by Don Celender (1931-2005), an American conceptual artist and professor. See the box►
Several of the then contemporary artists, sculptors, critics and gallerists are world famous (e.g. Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Barbara Hepworth), while others, though notable in their particular field, are less likely to be recognised or remembered today, such as Frank Stella (ace of hearts) portrayed as a running back for the Chiefs; Betty Parsons (queen of spades) as a quarterback for the Saints; Louise Nevelson (queen of clubs)as a linebacker for the Raiders; James Rosenquist (six of spades) as a tight-end receiver for the Dolphins. Time has also made the humorous captions less meaningful. The two jokers are both substitutes: art historian and critic John Canaday for the Cards and the art critic Clement Greenberg for the Jets.
Above: Artball playing cards created by Don Celender, USA, 1972.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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