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The Arts Intel Report

Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body

Robert Delaunay, The Runners, c. 1924.

July 19 – Nov 3, 2024
Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1RB, United Kingdom

The Paris Olympics arrive exactly a century after the games were last hosted in the French capital. It was 1924 and Paris was the artistic center of the world. Gertrude Stein’s salon was up and running at 27 Rue de Fleurus, and everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso to Coco Chanel swanned by, talking politics, literature, and art. That summer, a hot one, the world’s greatest athletes competed in Paris and the art world painted them. In a cacophony of color, Robert Delaunay pictured runners on the track at the Paris Stadium. Alexander Calder created a 1927 wire model of the tennis champion Helen Wills. Flaunting taut torsos and muscular physiques, the subjects were sexy—symbols of youthful prowess in the wake of W.W. I. This startling imagery comes together at the Fitzwilliam Museum. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © National Museum of Serbia