Jammie Holmes’s Untitled (2024) is a painting that explores the fleeting nature of beauty and success through the depiction of a child emerging from morning glory flowers. As I write this, a giant version of the work, which has been painstakingly hand-painted onto strips of football field turf, is on a plane flying from New York City to Paris. 

The turf version of Holmes’s Untitled was commissioned by the NFL for a new initiative called Color Field. The supersized artwork will be rolled out on the end zones of a flag football field beneath the Eiffel Tower on October 23 and 24 for NFL Experience Paris, a free event that will hype the NFL’s first-ever regular season game played in Paris, on October 25.

In December, another iteration of the Color Field concept, featuring a different artist, will roll out on a field at the Art Basel Miami Beach annual show. According to Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s senior VP of global social, creator & content, more giant murals could start popping up on fields throughout the season, depending on the reaction to this initial launch.

This season features the NFL’s most heavily international game lineup ever, with nine games played across Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City, the first three of which are entirely new markets. As the league expands its footprint globally, its marketing team is looking for ways to broaden its digital audience reach. With Color Field, the league is tapping into an unexpected crossover between the worlds of football and fine arts.

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