‘Go to a Nuetral Corner!’. 

Arthur Sarnoff painted ‘Go to a Neutral Corner!’ sometime in the mid-twentieth century, but the exact date is not known. The painting offers a fascinating look at the imagery of sport and its place within American society. The location is given away by the ‘Las Vegas’ banner. Here the drama of the boxing ring meets the spectacle of the casino city. The painting is full of coded markers of gender, class and race. The audience is largely male, white, and formally dressed, signifying both the spectacle of sport and the high-roller lifestyle of Las Vegas. In the ring, we see the fallen fighter who is Black, and the victor who is not. It is easy to see why Sarnoff's work was so popular; the image perfectly reflects the way the institutions of sport helped to reinforce social divisions in mid-century America. To fully understand a painting like this, we need to look into the social history of sport, the political culture of mid-century America, and the art market of the time. These all help us to understand the complex cultural dynamics that shaped Sarnoff's art.