The Paris Olympics has brought the world together. We are one as we cheer our athletes with hopes and dreams of those gleaming trophies reaching our shores. Like humanity, all fields of human endeavours were linked together in the years before compartmentalisation took over. The Olympics were not just for athletes back when it all started, but also for artists, architects, musicians, and writers too. Impossible to imagine now, in a world where categorisation reigns!
When American marksman, Walter W. Winans participated in the Olympics, he won two medals — a gold for sharpshooting in 1908 and a silver for the same in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. He also won a gold at Stockholm but it wasn’t for any sport. It was instead for his small bronze sculpture of a 20-inch horse tugging a chariot. The work was called ‘An American Trotter’. He was the only individual to have the medal for both athletic and artistic achievements.
As unbelievable as it may sound today, art was very much an Olympics sport and this is how the story goes — The Olympic games date back to around 776 BC and were held every four years at Olympia in honour of Zeus, the king of the Gods for the Ancient Greeks. In 393 CE, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympics, terming it a pagan festival.
When the games were later revived in 1896 by Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who set up the International Olympic Committee, he was determined to include arts as an integral part of the competitions. Educated with an emphasis on the classical, he was of the opinion that a true Olympian should not just be athletic but also skilled in some form of art. Implementing the plan was not as easy though.
Art simply could not be seen through the same lens, and its practice was largely devoid of any competitive spirit, unlike sports. It took until the 1912 Olympics hosted by Sweden for Coubertin’s persistence to see the light of day, after a mild threat to the Swedish contingent that the IOC would boycott the games, worked in his favour.
So, it was decided to include five categories of art — painting, sculpture, music, architecture, and literature and submissions were solicited with just one condition that the entries had to be inspired by sports. In the early years, 12 rooms were allocated to display the artworks. Fearing the lack of participants initially, Coubertin himself participated under a pseudonym and won!
The outbreak of WWI led to the cancellation of the 1916 Olympics, but the art competitions were back with the 1920 Olympiad, hosted by Belgium. The journey to acceptance was not very smooth,however. Although the games slowly became a reputed international event, the art segment continued to remain a sideshow. There were instances when no award could be given because of the lack of quality work.
Besides, the art world viewed the competitions with a tinge of disdain as they felt that competing for an award would tarnish their reputation. Many felt that the caveat that insisted on sports-inspired themes being the criteria for inclusion, was a limitation, set to their artistic freedom. It was indeed a struggle to ensure the participation of acclaimed artists.
The public however was generous with their appreciation and response. Their enthusiasm multiplied with the passing years and the 1932 Games had 4,00,000 visitors and a few established names in art as participants.WWII once again resulted in the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 events, with most countries embroiled in the war.
When the world gradually limped back to normalcy and the Games were held in 1948 in London, the art competitions faced stiff resistance from an American Avery Brundage, the new IOC President. Brundage believed in amateur athletics and maintaining the Olympics in its purest state. He was of the opinion that since art was a livelihood for artists, an Olympic win would only serve as an advertisement to market their qualifications. His campaign against the arts being included in a competitive context led to several heated debates and in due course, the art contests were done away with.
What then, happened to all the artworks that emerged as medal winners in those decades? While Winans donated his sculpture ‘An American Totter’ to the Swedish Museum of Athletics, another silver winner, ‘The Liffey Swim’, is housed in the National Gallery of Ireland. Painted by Jack B. Yeats in 1923, it captures spectators leaning forward to cheer the swimmers of the Liffey Swim, an important part of the Dublin sporting calendar.
Discobole or Discus Thrower, a nude seven-foot bronze sculpture by Greek artist Kostas Dimitriadis, which won the gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics, was initially displayed in the Grand Palais and then moved to New York’s Central Park two years later. After a decade, it was shifted out and soon faded into oblivion. Most of the artworks have been forgotten by time or can be found in museums or parks, uncelebrated and unrecognised.
The notion that art and sports must coexist can be seen even today at the Olympics. Multidisciplinary exhibitions of art and culture, termed the Cultural Olympiad, are conducted alongside the Games, and host countries are required to hold cultural events. This year, Marjane Satrapi created tapestries while Alison Saar installed a public sculpture in Paris, as part of the Olympic Art Visions Initiative.
The competitions may have been abandoned, the awarded medals may have been officially stricken off the Olympic records, but art continues to colour this prestiious sporting event!