The program for the 2024 Paris Olympics featured some unusual ‘sports’, but it had nothing on the 1924 Paris Olympics, which included competitive art events across five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture.
The works – all of which had to be sports related – were exhibited in the Grand Palais and more than 20 artists (representing a total of 24 countries) competed in each of the five categories. Among them were three artists from the Soviet Union, even though the country officially did not take part in the 1924 Games because they considered it to be a “bourgeois” festival.
Art competitions continued to be part of the Olympic program from 1912 to 1948, then that was it.
The sculpture category attracted a large number of entries and plenty of sculptors submitted more than one piece (some entered as many as five). The gold medal went to Konstantinos Dimitriadis of Greece for his big bronze piece Discobole Finlandais (The Finnish Discus thrower).
The silver medal went to Frantz Heldenstein, a sculptor and interior architect from Luxemburg for his piece Vers l'olympiade (Towards the Olympiad). (Frantz’s brother Willy Heldenstein was also an Olympian, taking part as a bobsledder at the 1928 Olympics in St. Moritz.). The sculpture was a 1.85m plaster model and was only cast in bronze in 2008 for an exhibition. Apparently, it’s now exhibited in the Luxemburg’s Sports and Cultural Center Coque.
The bronze medal was shared by Jean René Gauguin representing Denmark for The Boxer, and Claude-Léon Mascaux from France, for Seven Médailles Sportives/Cadre de Medailles (Seven Sports Medals).
French born Gauguin was the son of famous artist Paul Gauguin (and his Danish wife Mette Gad). He spent most of his life in Denmark where he was educated as a carpenter, but made his career as a sculptor.
Little is known about Mascaux but I’ve managed to find five of the medals and they are a dream. (Makes me want to make medals for something.)
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