Women appreciate painting at the 1932 Olympic Games
Art has been an opportunity for a few decades to win an Olympic gold medal. The inspiration came from ancient Greece.
The American Walter Winans climbed the podium at the Stockholm Olympic Games in Sweden in 1912. He had already received two gold and one bronze medals in the dish-fifteenth-time competition. But what led to the podium this year was quite different.
In fact, Winans was being recognized with a Olympic gold mealha for a sculpture I had done. It was a small horse pulling a carriage made of bronze.
But it was not the only one: for several years (and even relatively recently) the arts were Olympic modalities. As recalls, From 1912 to 1952the juries of the Olympic Games attributed a total of 151 medals to original works of fine arts inspired by sports activities.
And all thanks Ai Barão Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee and Modern Games. Richard Stanton, author of The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitionsexplains that this man “was created and educated in a classic way and was particularly impressed with the idea of what it meant to be a true Olympic athlete – Someone who was not only athletic, but also skilled in music and literature“Says Stanton.” He felt that, to recreate events in modern times, it would be incomplete not to include any aspect of the arts. “
“There is only one difference between our Olympics and the simple sports championships, which are precisely art competitionsas existed at the ancient Greece Olympics, Where sports exhibitions were on equal artistic exhibitions, ”said Baron.
And to satisfy the requirement of sports inspiration, Essential to enter the competition, many paintings and sculptures were dramatic representations of fighting fighting, boxing or other sports.
More than half a century after the culture of the fine arts is lost in the Olympic, there is still a brief tribute. Since 2004, the Committee has organized a sports and art officer before each edition of the summer games.
