Since antiquity, sports have long served as a subject for art, from the ancient Greek Apoxyomenos of Lyssipus to the Wrestlers of Thomas Eakins.
This proud tradition of aesthetic athleticism is currently on display with The Art of the Olympics, a new exhibit presented by Gagosian and the Olympics Museum.
According to Yasmin Meichtry, the associate director of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, this intertwining of the physical and the artistic traces back to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the man commonly credited as ‘the father of the modern Olympic Games.”
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“Coubertin’s vision of the Olympic Games, it was not only sports but also a global philosophy merging arts, sports, and education together,” Meichtry explained during a recent interview with Gagosian Quarterly. “For him, human beings needed sports for their physical health but also arts for their mental well-being and development.”
The pieces showcased in “The Art of the Olympics” reflect the diversity of the games themselves, which this year features 33 different sports. Jeux Nocturnes, a whimsical soccer ball-based sculpture by the Dadaist Man Ray, is juxtaposed with Andreas Gursky’s panoramic aerial photograph Amsterdam, Arena I. Duane Hanson’s polychrome bronze sculpture
Bodybuilder echoes the idealized masculine physique of “Apoxyomenos.”
Avantgarde darling Christo not only shares a drawing for his monumental sculpture Running Fence, but also collaborates with this year’s Olympics by donating the fabric from Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, to be repurposed into tents for the Games. (For those unfamiliar with Christo’s oeuvre, he infamously ensconced Paris’ iconic landmark with silvery-blue polypropylene fabric.)
For Meichtry, the talents of artistic superstars in this show, like Keith Haring and Andy Warhol,l overlap with those of the likes of Tom Daley and Brittney Griner.
“Our mission as the museum’s cultural and heritage division is to further blend culture and sport. That is also the role of each organizing committee: to build the Cultural Olympiad around the sports Olympiad. For Paris, we are seeing incredible vitality in this effort.”
