Art competitions at the Olympic Games
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Art competitions were held from 1912 to 1948 at the Olympic Games. The competitions were an idea of Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Movement. Medals were awarded in five areas: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture, to works of art inspired by sport.
The art competitions were abandoned in 1954 because artists were contended to be professionals, while Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs. Since 1956, the Olympic cultural programme has taken the place of the art competitions.
Competition
From 1912 to 1948 rules of the art competition varied, but the core of the rules remained the same. All of the entered works had to be inspired by sport, and had to be original (that is, not be published before the competition). Like in the athletic events at the Olympics, gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded to the highest ranked artists, although not all medals were awarded in each competition. On a few occasions, no medals were in fact handed out at all.Generally, it was allowed for artists to enter multiple works, although this number was sometimes restricted. This made it possible for an artist to win multiple prizes in a single competition.
Art competitions have been held in the five areas of architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. At one time or another, there were suggestions to also include dancing, film, photography, or theatre, but none of these art forms was ever included in the Olympic Games as a medal event.
Architecture
Two categories existed for architecture. In the general architecture category, prizes were awarded from 1912 to 1948; the town planning category was added in 1928. The division between the two was not always clear, and some designs have been awarded prizes in both categories.
Entries in this category were allowed to have been "published" before the Olympics. A notable example of this is the architecture gold medal awarded in 1928 to Jan Wils for his design of the Olympic Stadium which was actually used at the same Olympics.
Literature
The categories in literature have varied over the years. Until 1924 and in 1932, there was only a single literature category. In 1928, separate categories were introduced for dramatic, epic, and lyric literature. These classes also existed in 1948, while the drama category had been dropped for 1936.Entered works were limited in length (20,000 words) and could be submitted in any language, provided they were accompanied by English and/or French translations or summaries (rules varied over the years).
Music
A single event for music was contested until 1936, when three categories were introduced: one for orchestral music, one for instrumental music, and one for solo and choral music. In 1948, these categories were slightly modified into choral/orchestral, instrumental/chamber, and vocal music.The juries often had trouble judging the pieces, which were entered on paper. Possibly related to the problematic judging, juries frequently decided to award only a few prizes. On two occasions, no award was given out at all (in the 1924 music category and in the 1936 instrumental music category).
1936 marked the only occasion when the winning musical works were actually played before an audience.
Painting
As with the other art forms, a single painting category was on the programme until 1928, when it was split out into three sub-categories: drawings, graphic arts, and paintings. The categories then changed at each of the following Olympic Games. In 1932, the three categories were: paintings, prints, and water colours and drawings. Four years later, the prints category had disappeared, and had been replaced by graphic arts and commercial graphic art. At the final Olympic art competition, the three categories were applied arts and crafts, engravings/etchings, and oils/water colours.
Sculpture
The sculpture class had only a single category until 1928, when separate competitions were designated; one for statues and one for reliefs and medals. In 1936, this was split up further, creating separate categories for reliefs and medals.Competitors
While several of the Olympic art medallists have achieved at least national fame, few of them can be considered well-known artists globally. In fact, the 1924 Games featured better known jury members than artists, with artists like Selma Lagerlöf and Igor Stravinsky judging the entered works.Judging by the medals won, Luxembourg painter Jean Jacoby is the most successful Olympic artist, winning the gold medal for his 1924 painting Étude de Sport, and for his drawing Rugby in 1928. Swiss artist Alex Diggelmann won three medals, a gold one in 1936 (for his poster Arosa I Placard), and a silver and a 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 persons have won Olympic medals in both sport and art competitions. Walter Winans, an American who lived in England, won a gold medal as a marksman at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the running deer (double shot) competition. In 1912, he won another shooting medal — silver this time — in the running deer team competition. By then, he had already won a gold medal for his sculpture 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. Twenty-eight years later, he was awarded a silver medal in architecture for his stadium design, co-designed with Dezső Lauber.
Two presidents of the International Olympic Committee have also been among the entrants in the Olympic art competitions. In 1912 Pierre de Coubertin, under the pseudonym "Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach", entered Ode to sport, which won the gold medal. Avery Brundage, who competed as an athlete at the 1912 Games, entered literary works at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, earning an honorary mention in 1932. He would serve as the IOC's president from 1952 to 1972.
Britain's John Copley, winner of a silver medal in the 1948 engravings and etchings competition, was 73 years of age, making him the oldest Olympic medallist in history. The oldest Olympic medallist outside the art competitions is Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, who won his last medal at age 72.
See also
References
- Kramer, Bernhard (2004). In search of the lost champions of the Olympic art contests. Journal of Olympic History 12 (2), 29–34.
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