Art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics

1948 London Olympic medals being minted at the works of John Pinches in Clapham

Art competitions were held as part of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain. Medals were awarded in five categories (architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture), for works inspired by sport-related themes.[1]

The art exhibition was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 15 July to 14 August, and displayed works of art from 27 countries. The literature competition attracted 44 entries, and the music competition had 36 entries.[2]

The art competitions included multiple subcategories for each of the five artistic categories.[3] The judges declined to award any medals for dramatic works in literature, and no gold medals in another five subcategories. Alex Diggelmann of Switzerland won both a silver medal and a bronze medal for two different entries in the applied arts and crafts subcategory, a feat unlikely to be duplicated in any event in the current Olympic program.

These were the last Games in which art competitions were held, after being in the official program for all Games since 1912.[4] At a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in 1949 it was decided to hold art exhibitions instead, as it was judged illogical to permit professionals to compete in the art competitions while only amateurs were permitted to compete in sporting events.[5] Since 1952 a non-competitive art and cultural festival has been associated with each Games.

  1. ^ "Art Competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 August 2020.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ (ed.) Lord Burghley (1951). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad (PDF). London: Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. pp. 195–198, 535–537. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Wagner, Juergen. "Olympic Art Competition 1948 London". Olympic Games Museum. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
  4. ^ Kramer, Bernhard (May 2004). "In Search of the Lost Champions of the Olympic Art Contests" (PDF). Journal of Olympic History. 12 (2): 29–34. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
  5. ^ Bolanaki, A. (June 1951). "Report on Art Exhibitions" (PDF). Bulletin du Comité International Olympique (27). Lausanne: International Olympic Committee: 34. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.