Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), founder of the modern Olympics, once said, “Art enlightens the intelligence, captivates thought, and incites ambition.” The rich 3000-year history of the Olympics is not a linear one; it began with the Games’ inception in ancient Greece, followed by its modern revival centuries later in Athens in 1896, with the Paralympic Games beginning in 1960. This evolution can be traced not only through medals, athletic records, exceptional displays of sportsmanship and unparalleled vigour but also through art. As the Paris Olympics 2024 animate the Parisian streets, Gagosian, a global network of art galleries, collaborates with the Olympic Museum, situated in Lausanne, Switzerland, to realise a two-part exhibition that celebrates the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Titled The Art of the Olympics, the exhibition presents modern and contemporary art alongside historical artist-designed posters from the Olympic Museum collection. Artworks in various mediums adorn the galleries at Rue de Castiglione—visible from the street 24 hours a day—and Rue de Ponthieu in Paris.  The art exhibition, fostering a rich dialogue between art and sports is on view through the summer, from June 6 - September 7, 2024, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Olympic Museum harbours the world’s most comprehensive treasure trove of Olympic heritage—artefacts, archives, images, books and films. Through international exhibitions and programmes, the museum aims to bridge publics, irrespective of age or background, with the legacy of the globally esteemed Olympic Games. The Art of the Olympics extends the museum’s initiatives that draw from Olympic values—aspiring to connect athletes, visitors, students, artists and museums around the world.

The first part of the exhibition takes place in the gallery at Rue de Castiglione, laying bare an ensemble of artworks drawing from sport’s cultural, iconographic, social and emotional tapestries. Works such as Amsterdam, Arena I (2000), an iconic photograph by Andreas Gursky and Jeux Nocturnes (around 1970) by Man Ray present distinct visions of football; the former showcases a panoramic aerial view of a football match while the latter renders the soccer ball mysterious. Duane Hanson’s polychrome bronze sculpture, Bodybuilder (1989–90), recalls his encounter with a muscular, shirtless man at a gym in Hollywood, Florida—the minute details like the sheen on the sculpture suggest deep self-immersion.

Jonas Wood’s Scholl Canyon (2005) presents a golf course as an abstract composition, reimagining an Olympic sport through the artist’s lens. Christo’s drawing for Running Fence (1974), a 39.4-kilometre temporary public sculpture made of woven white nylon fabric hung from a steel cable strung between steel poles, conveys the unifying spirit of a marathon. The fabric from the artist’s Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped (1961–2021) is repurposed by Parley for the Oceans, a global environmental organisation and network, into tents for the Paris Olympics—expanding on his legacy. Besides tents, the fabric and ropes from the monumental structure are recycled into shade structures and barnums, while the wood and steel from the installation have also been distributed for reuse. Legendary artists Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Marc Newson, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol round out the exhibition.

The second half of the show, taking place in the gallery at Rue de Ponthieu, spotlights posters from the Olympic Museum’s collection; the selected posters were all designed by seminal international artists through the years to promote the Games. One of the highlights is David Hockney’s design for the 1972 Games in Munich—an image of an athlete diving into the blue-green waters of a pool. The British pop artist’s distinctive style, a propensity for bright swimming pools and landscapes, a sense of hyperactivity, photographic effects and deconstruction are foregrounded in the poster. The official poster for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Robert Rauschenberg’s Star in Motion (1982), presents a fragmented photographic collage. Cy Twombly’s poster for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on the other hand, traces the Games’ origins in a distinctive scrawl.

From the London Olympics in 2012, the show brings British artist Rachel Whiteread’s poster—a playful interpretation featuring a cluster of bright, overlapping rings. Works by artists including Christo, Michael Craig-Martin, Tracey Emin, Howard Hodgkin, Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Moore and Nam June Paik are also part of the exhibition. An array of correspondence and artefacts from previous editions of the Olympic Games are juxtaposed with the posters.

The show underlines the cultural significance of sport in contemporary society, actively responding to the events unfolding in its home city. A dynamic intersection of art and sports, recurring throughout history, takes centre stage in the two parts of The Art of the Olympics. Artworks conceived in different mediums, with sports and the Olympic spirit as common muse, bring forth an ever-evolving dialogue between the two disparate realms—in the end, delineating an expanding web of countless intersections where one inspires the other.