Naomi Vanderleest, School Programs Coordinator
As the 2024 Summer Olympics wrap up in Paris, I have read multiple articles chronicling past Olympic events. Most haven’t stuck with me, per se, until I found mention of Olympic art competition! As an art museum employee, I was baffled: They held Olympic art competitions? How were artists selected for entry? How was the art judged? Why is it no longer included in the present Olympic games?
The Olympic Art Competitions occurred from 1912-1948. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded by French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin on June 23, 1894 (two years prior to the inaugural Games). The IOC is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that is the supreme authority of the modern Olympic Movement. Coubertin, inspired by the ancient Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece, wanted to revive them for contemporary athletes. In 1904, Coubertin suggested the arts as a new addition to the games, arguing that it wasn’t entirely new to the ancient Olympic tradition, which included herald and trumpet contests during the 96th Olympiad in 396 BC. He suggested naming this event The Pantheon of Muses to highlight the writers and artists that gathered in Olympia long ago.
Ultimately, this proposal took time to make into a reality; on May 23rd, 1906, the Consultative Conference on Art, Letters and Sport convened. This conference officially organized the arts involvement in the Games; 60 people attended, including 30 artists and 4 IOC members (including Coubertin). They decided that five Olympic competitions would take place: architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, and music. The only requirement was the subject matter must be inspired by the idea of sports but a regulation was recorded related to sculptures (objects were not permitted to exceed 80 cm in height, width, or length).
This decision was not enough time for the 1908 London Games to organize a proper art competition; therefore, it was pushed back to the fifth Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. Even so, Swedish national art institutions didn’t show much interest. Coubertin decided to organize the event himself. In fact, he even took part, submitting Ode to Sport, which received the first prize of a gold medal in literature (the only work of literature to win a medal at these Games). The popularity of the contests grew with each Summer Olympic Games. While a dozen nations took part in Sweden and only five competed in Antwerp in 1920, at the 1924 Games in Paris 23 nations entered a total of 189 works. In Amsterdam in 1928 artists from 18 nations submitted 1,150 works in architecture, painting, and sculpture, with 62 musical or literary works entered. The exhibition was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and was attended by over 100,000 visitors. In Los Angeles, in 1932, 31 countries took part in the contests, with 1,100 works exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum, drawing 384,000 visitors. At the Games in Berlin, in 1936, 740 works were submitted. This was almost half the number of the previous editions as numerous countries withdrew from the Games owing to the political climate.
As with the sports competitions, medals were awarded; although, sometimes, when art submitted did not find favor with the jury, no medals were distributed. One such instance occurred in 1924 when 8 composers submitted works but none were awarded. This could be attributed to the fact that jurors were expected to judge work by reading sheet music; it wasn’t until 1936 that the music category was performed to an audience. Judges were selected by the IOC (in a similar way that judges are selected today) and could not be affiliated with a single country. Not much else is recorded about the judging process.
Some notable winners include Luxembourg artist Jean Jacoby, who was given two gold medals, one for his 1924 painting Étude de Sport and another for his drawing Rugby in 1928. Swiss artist Alex Diggelmann won three medals, a gold in 1936 (for his poster Arosa I Placard), and a silver and bronze in the 1948 applied arts & crafts class, both with commercial posters. Danish writer Josef Petersen won a silver medal on three occasions: in 1924, 1932, and 1948. Only two people have ever won both medals in sports and art competitions: In 1912, Walter W. Winans won the silver medal in the running deer team competition and then proceeded to win a gold medal in the sculpture category for his work, An American Trotter. The other Olympian with successes in both fields is Alfréd Hajós of Hungary. As a swimmer, he won two gold medals at the 1896 Athens Olympics and then, twenty-eight years later, he was awarded a silver medal in architecture for his stadium design. Germany won the most medals awarded in art, a total of 23.
The 1948 Olympics in London was the last art competition, which could be attributed to several factors including lack of entrants, an increased number of subcategories, and controversy surrounding artists selling their entries. At the IOC Session in Rome in 1949 it was decided that the art competitions would be replaced by art exhibitions, as it was considered illogical to allow professional artists to take part and receive medals. In 1952, the IOC ruled that all art competition medals were to be removed from official national medal counts.
Looking back on the arts in the Olympics, I don’t believe a competition of this scale can exist, at least without a lot of checks and balances. The beauty of sports is that most events have a clearly identified winner, unlike the subjectivity of art. Thinking about FWMoA’s involvement in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, I can’t imagine replicating that on an international scale. Hypothetically, if art judging did take place during the Olympics, they could learn from the Scholastic judging criteria of personal voice/vision, originality, and skill. For the first time, breakdancing will be included during the 2024 Olympics. Does this performing art have a place among athletes? Will we see more dance and other visual arts at upcoming Games? We at FWMoA certainly hope so!