Jean Jacoby was a Luxembourgish painter; Alex Diggelmann, a Swiss poster artist; the Danish Josef Petersen was a writer; the Hungarian Alfréd Hajós, an architect; the British John Copley, an engraver; the Belgian Josue Dupon, a sculptor, just like the American Walter Winans. Can you imagine what they all had in common, apart from a profession related to art? Well, they were all Olympic medalists, but not for their participation in any sports discipline but in artistic competition since the Olympics included them between 1912 and 1948.

To be precise, there were five categories of such competitions: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture (there were also discussions about expanding them to include dance, cinema, photography, and theater, although it was never finalized, but mountaineering and aeronautics were added in some years).

This was in line with Pierre de Coubertin’s vision when he decided to revive the ancient Greek Olympic Games in the late 19th century, drawing inspiration from the famous saying ‘Mens sana in corpore sano‘ or ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body.’ It is worth noting that Coubertin, in addition to being a historian, was an educator, and his proposal aimed to link culture and sport.

Pierre de Coubertin in 1925/Image: Dutch National Archives on Wikimedia Commons

In reality, the idea of incorporating artistic competitions into the Olympic Games did not begin to take shape until the mid-1900s. The first Games of the Modern Era were held in 1895 in Athens, focusing solely on physical events. The same applied to the 1900 Paris Olympics and the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. Even the so-called Intercalated Games, which were again hosted by the Greek capital in 1906, did not include artistic competitions. It was in that year when Coubertin proposed to the members of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to introduce the arts, a proposal that was accepted but couldn’t be immediately implemented as intended.

The reason was that the city designated for the 1908 Games, Rome, had to withdraw due to financial problems. The Games were then reassigned to London on short notice, and it was considered that there wouldn’t be enough time for artists to submit their works. The artistic entries had to be original, specially created, and sports-themed. Therefore, it was in Stockholm in 1912 when the five artistic categories finally came into effect, despite initial reservations from the Swedish organizers. However, while thousands of athletes were attracted to the sporting events, the artistic community seemed less enthusiastic about the idea, resulting in only thirty-five entries being registered.

One of them was the aforementioned Walter Winans, who had won a gold medal in shooting at the London Olympics and now, at the age of sixty, won a silver medal. In addition, he also won a gold medal in sculpture with his work “An American Trotter.” He and Hungarian athlete Alfréd Hajós, who had won two Olympic swimming gold medals in 1896 and then won a silver medal in architecture twenty-eight years later, are the only individuals to have won Olympic medals in both sporting and artistic disciplines. There was also a Triumphal March in music and painted friezes depicting winter sports, among other artistic entries.

Walter Winans in 1910/Image: public domain on Wikimedia Commons

However, the most curious case was that of a literary piece submitted under the title “Ode to Sport,” signed by Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach. In reality, it was a pseudonym because the true author was Pierre de Coubertin himself, who, by the way, won the gold medal for that entry. He wouldn’t be the only IOC president to participate in the Olympics in this artistic variant, as American Avery Brundage, who led the committee from 1952 to 1971, also submitted written works in Los Angeles 1932 and Berlin 1936. However, in Stockholm 1912, Coubertin participated in the pentathlon and decathlon.

The outbreak of World War I led to the suspension of the Olympic Games until 1920 when Antwerp hosted the first post-war edition, once again without much interest in the arts. However, things changed four years later in Paris when nearly two hundred artists submitted their works for competition. Part of the increased interest was due to the esteemed jury, which included Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and musician Igor Stravinsky. In the French capital, Jean Jacoby won the gold medal in sculpture. He would go on to win another gold medal in drawing in Amsterdam 1928, establishing himself as the most prominent artistic competitor in the Olympic Games.

The podium is completed by Alex Diggelmann, who won three medals but only one gold (in 1936, with the other two being silver and bronze in 1948), and Josef Pedersen, who won three silver medals (in 1924, 1932, and 1948). Looking at the overall medal count by countries, Germany leads with twenty-three medals, followed by Italy in second place and France in third, both with fourteen medals (Italy is ranked ahead because, although they have the same number of gold medals as France, five, they have three more silver medals). In total, there are 151 awards distributed among 23 nations, all of which are European except for the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Japan.

Avery Brundage in London 1948/Image: public domain on Wikimedia Commons

The number of victories does not reflect the possibilities enjoyed by the competitors, as they were usually allowed to submit more than one entry, and limits were only imposed on rare occasions. It is also true that it was not uncommon for the competitions to be declared vacant, either because no work excited the judges or due to the regulatory confusion that often existed in these disciplines. Each category was subdivided into various modalities, which changed practically in every edition of the Games.

For example, the architecture category included a variant called “City Planning” in 1928 (and the first gold medal was won by Dutch architect Jan Wils with his design of the Olympic Stadium). The literature category alternated subdivisions such as drama, epic, or lyric with a single category, depending on the year. The rules specified a maximum of twenty thousand words, and a translation in English or French was required.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, three subdivisions were introduced in the music category: orchestral, instrumental, and solo/choral. These subdivisions were reorganized in 1948 into choral/orchestral, instrumental/chamber music, and vocal categories. In general, the juries faced challenges in determining the medal winners as it was difficult to judge solely based on reading sheet music. As an interesting anecdote, the renowned Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk won the silver medal in the music category at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

Josef Suk/Image: public domain on Wikimedia Commons

In the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the sculpture category was divided into statues and reliefs. In the same year, the painting category was structured into three subcategories: drawing, graphic design, and painting. However, in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, these subcategories were changed to watercolor/drawing, prints, and painting. Later, prints were replaced by graphic arts, and then by commercial arts, until the cycle was completed in 1948 with applied arts, etchings/engravings, and painting.

The Olympic Games in the Dutch capital marked a significant advancement in the artistic categories, with over a thousand competitors participating. The fact that the regulations required them to be amateurs, although they were allowed to sell their works after the event, contributed to the high participation. Many artists did sell their works, but others donated them to the Stedelijk Museum of modern and contemporary art, which can be visited today at the Museumplein. This growth in artistic participation was not affected by the choice of California as the host city in 1932, unlike the impact it had on sports. The artistic museum in Los Angeles received hundreds of thousands of visitors, just like the museums in Berlin in 1936 and London in 1948.

But in 1949, a report concluded that, contrary to the regulations, the majority of artists participating in the Olympic Games were professionals. This was logical since while sports were often mere hobbies, art was a profession, and artists made a living from it. That’s why Avery Brundage, an advocate for pure amateurism in the Olympics, was extremely hostile towards those categories. It is quite ironic considering that he himself received an honorary mention for a literary work he submitted to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

The situation prompted many members of the IOC to demand a reform that would turn the art competitions into mere exhibitions without medals. After a heated debate, a vote endorsed this decision, and in the subsequent Olympics, the Helsinki 1951 Games, there were no longer art competitions. Art was limited to a parallel and complementary cultural program known as the Cultural Olympiad. One of the last medals awarded was won by John Copley for an etching of polo. He was seventy-three years old, which would have made him the oldest Olympic medalist if it weren’t for the fact that these artistic medals have been excluded from the official count.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on January 18, 2019. Puedes leer la versión en español en Cuando los Juegos Olímpicos incluían competiciones de arquitectura, pintura, escultura, literatura y música

Sources

The forgotten Olympic Art competitions. The story of the Olimpic Art competitions of the 20th century (Richard Stanton)/In search of the lost champions of the Olympic Art contests (Bernhard Kramer en Journal of Olympic History)/Olympic Games Museum: Olympic Art Competitions / Contests 1912–1948 (Juergen Wagner)/The Games. A global history of the Olympics (David Goldblatt)/When the Olympics gave out medals for Art (Joseph Stromberg en Smithsonian)/Wikipedia

  • Share on:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News