Artistic endeavours
London 1948 had a significant cultural dimension, thanks to the last Olympic Games Art Competition of them all and the film, The Glory of Sport.
Inaugurated at London 1908, the Olympic Games Art Competition was held again in the British capital 40 years later. Artists from 27 nations around the world submitted entries inspired by sport in five categories (architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture). Seven London galleries were made available to exhibit them. In all, 32 paintings were put on display along with 20 watercolours and sketches, 25 sculptures, 10 pieces of craftwork and 10 architectural pieces, while 36 music and 44 literature entries were also submitted. The winners were announced at Olympic medal ceremonies at the Empire Stadium in late July 1948.
Though viewed as integral to the Olympic Movement by Pierre de Coubertin – the founder of the modern Olympic Games – the competition was discontinued after the 1948 Games on the grounds that most of the entrants were professional and not amateur artists.
Art is a visible part of the Olympic Games. Providing an opportunity to promote the Olympic values and engage the general public in the arts and culture, a Cultural Olympiad is held in the four years leading up to each edition of the Games. For example, the nationwide programme set up for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad comprised 180,000 activities across a number of art forms and attracted the participation of 43 million people.
Depicting the story of the 1948 Olympic Games, The Glory of Sport is a full-length colour feature film released on 1 September 1948, just over two weeks after the Games ended. The film, which has a running time of 138 minutes, was edited in record time from 12,000 feet of film. It was made by the Rank Organisation, which was granted exclusive filming rights by the Organising Committee. The number of camera operators at each venue was kept to a minimum to ensure costs were low. And to prevent unofficial camera crews from operating inside venues, the company’s film personnel were required to wear a distinctive uniform made up of a red beret, a white jacket with the Olympic badge on the pocket, brown trousers, white shoes, and a special tie.