Olympic art
March 14, 2010 6:22 AM Subscribe
Pierre de Coubertin is well-known as the father of the modern Olympics. What is less well-known is that he pseudonymously won an Olympic medal - in
poetry (PDF)
Although now superseded by the
Cultural Olympiad, some of the early modern Olympic Games included
art competitions alongside the more conventional athletic pursuits, in keeping with the spirit of the
ancient Olympic Games. Medals in artistic pursuits were awarded at
Stockholm in 1912,
Antwerp in 1920,
Paris in 1924,
Amsterdam in 1928,
LA in 1932,
Berlin in 1936 and
London in 1948. The awarding of medals for art was finally abandoned because of concerns about the dominance of professional artists, which was felt to be contrary to the Olympic spirit of amateurism. Despite such concerns, many of the winners were
relatively unknown (PDF), and some of the winning works have been lost to history.
Medals were awarded for works in the fields of
architecture/town planning, literature, music, painting and sculpture. Sadly, despite widely circulated reports, Ms. Avril Lafoule did not win gold at the 1900 Paris Olympics in
poodle clipping; this was an April Fool (Avril Lafoule, geddit?) run by the
Telegraph that somehow ended up shorn of its context and taken at face value by some proud poodle owners looking to be a part of Olympic history.
posted by iwhitney at 6:24 AM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]