In 2024, the Olympic Games have returned to Paris after a hundred years. To celebrate, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge is hosting a fitting exhibition titled ‘Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body’.
The 1924 games, held between two World Wars, had a significant impact on art, film, photography, fashion, and other forms of visual culture. Here’s a glimpse into artworks on display and 3 things we learnt.
‘Paris 1924 : Sport, Art and the Body’ runs July 19 -November 3, 2024
Musée National du Sport, France
According to the curators, Professors Caroline Vout and Chris Young, the Paris Olympics of 1924 were “breakthrough that forever changed attitudes toward sporting achievement and celebrity, as well as body image and identity, nationalism and class, race and gender.”
#1 : Ireland’s first Olympic medal was in Painting!
It turns out that in 1924, you could win an Olympic Medal for art — in five categories (architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture), for works inspired by sport-related themes.
“The Liffey Swim” by Jack Butler Yeats won a Silver in the Painting category.
From the exhibition label : Over 100 international jurors judged Paris’s
Arts Competition. Jack Yeats, whose brother, W.B. Yeats, had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, entered two paintings, and won silver with the one on the wall to the right, of Dublin’s annual swimming race on the River Liffey. Its brushstrokes suggest a speed of execution that conveys excitement: we look with its spectators. A journalist claimed if you owned a Yeats, ‘you would never wish you were dead’.
The Expressionist style contrasts with the ancient inspiration of the medals he received.
#2: Germany was not invited to the 1924 Olympics
Germany did not receive an invitation because of its role in the First World War. But this was not going to stop German artist Renée Sintenis from creating this masterpiece. Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi (1897–1973) aka ‘Flying Finn’ was the stand-out athlete of the 1924 Games, making history by winning five golds – in the 1500m, 5000m, the 3000m team event and the individual and team cross country.
#3: 1924 was a significant moment for black identity and racial attitudes
DeHart Hubbard became the first black athlete to ever win an individual gold medal in Paris. In a letter he wrote to his family says “Tell him I’m going to do my best to become the first Colored Olympic champion”. He achieved this goal in the long jump before setting world records in this event and the 100-yard dash in 1925 and ’26.
The footballer, José Andrade of Uruguay was referred to as the ‘Black Marvel’ by the press.
In another caricature, he was depicted with five legs, emphasising his coordination and skill but also making him appear insect-like, exacerbating this image’s already racist stereotyping.
The Roaring Twenties: Body, Fitness and More.
The 1920s, were referred to as the Roaring Twenties in the West. In America and Europe, it was a time of cultural, technological and economic growth. The Paris Olympics in fact, were the first to transmit live radio broadcasts of events. Access to modern technology brought changes in lifestyle and fashion that encouraged everyone to be active. Women for example, were seen in body-fitting swimwear for the first time. This would have influence on women’s fashion, open up many activities once closed to them.
At this time, when ‘athletic’ bodies came into focus, the idea and practice of eugenics advanced rapidly. The idea that human biology could be transformed to create stronger, healthier people, was both a hopeful and a disturbing prospect in the context of post-war recovery.
Text adapted from ‘Paris 1924: Beyond Chariots of Fire’ / by Tom Almeroth-Williams, CC BY NC SA.
