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The Curious True Story of How One Overly Determined Teacher Hustled to Elevate The Arts to Olympic Event Status


Painting in Progress | Via Pexels
Painting in Progress | Via Pexels

Did you know that the arts were a rather significant part of the Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948? They were conceived by French educator and historian Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, founder of the Olympic Movement, as part of the original lineup for the event. And even though they didn’t make the cut when the modern era of the Games kicked off with the 1894 founding of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), they were added shortly thereafter and remained a staple for over three decades. 


The forward thinking Baron finally witnessed the fulfillment of his ideals — men applying both their minds and bodies, and competing in sport as well as intellectual pursuits instead of engaging in war — in 1906. Though he advocated for them from the start, the addition came on the heels of a meeting he organized with both IOC members and the art reps of hopeful participants, after which attendees agreed to feature five categories of art works inspired by sport: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.   


The implementation of the program had a rough start. Preparations were underway for the new event scheduled for the 1908 Summer Olympics in Italy when they got derailed due the Vesuvius eruption of 1906. So, the IOC awarded the organization to London the following year, but because of the short notice and the sheer scope of the required planning, it was canceled for the entirety of the Olympic Games. But Pierre de Coubertin was an optimist, and looked forward to his next shot at including the artistic events as he’d always hoped. 


The program was finally implemented at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. Although the Swedes initially objected to its inclusion, they eventually gave in and the program was added to the roster. But the number of entrants, a total of 35 artists, didn’t make them any happier about their decision. Still gold medals were awarded to the artists in all five categories. To the Baron, it was a small but significant personal victory on two fronts; he realized his long-held dream, but he also won the gold medal for literature for his poem Ode to Sport.


The 1916 Summer Olympics were scheduled to be held in Berlin, the capital of the German Empire, but were canceled due to the outbreak of World War I. The first post-war Olympic Games, however, were held in war-ravaged Belgium in 1920, where the art contests were on the programme, but were nowhere the biggest or best organized event to take place. All of this changed just four years later, during the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, when 193 artists submitted their work for judgment and elevated the event in the eyes of the public.


The prestige of the arts program continued to grow, with over 1,110 works of art being entered for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, which did not include the submissions in the literature, music and architecture categories, four out of five of which were further divided into subcategories, thereby creating more events. The Great Depression, however, lowered participation numbers for athletic events during the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The art program, though, remained stable, with 384,000 visitors attending the LA Museum of History, Science and Art. 


Reasonably successful art contests were also held in Berlin in 1936 and London in 1948, although the number of the works submitted significantly dropped by the latter date. But real trouble followed in 1949, when the IOC were presented with a report, which concluded that practically all contestants in the art competitions were professionals, and that the competitions should therefore be abolished and replaced with an exhibition without awards or medals. The Olympics were supposed to be for amateurs, and these participants clearly weren’t.


The end of the artistic program was hotly debated since 1949, to the point of being briefly reinstated by the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, but it was quickly downgraded to an exhibition instead of a competition. In their honor, however, the Olympic Charter still requires organizers to include a programme of cultural events, to "serve to promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and others attending the Olympic Games." While several attempts to reinstate them have been made, none have been successful thus far.


The rules of the art program varied throughout the years, but the core of the rules remained the same: all entered art works must be inspired by sport and must be original. Furthermore, artists were allowed to enter multiple works, although a maximum number was sometimes established, making it possible for an artist to win multiple prizes in a single competition. On a few occasions, however, no medals were presented at all. Even though several of the Olympic art medalists have achieved national fame, few can be considered well-known international artists. 


Only two Olympians have won medals in both sport and art competitions. The first is Walter W. Winans; the England-based American won a marksmanship gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the running deer (double shot) competition. In 1912, he won a silver medal for shooting in the running deer team competition; by then, he had already won a gold medal for his sculpture An American trotter. The other is Hungary’s Alfréd Hajós; as a swimmer, he won two gold medals at the 1896 Athens Olympics. Twenty-eight years later, he was awarded a silver medal in architecture for the stadium he co-designed with Dezső Lauber.


But for a good while the arts were a major Olympic Event.

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