To celebrate the upcoming Olympics in London, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich is staging two related exhibits, “The Olympic Games: Art, Culture & Sport and “The Games: The Science of Sport”.
By Arthur Stampleman
To celebrate the upcoming Olympics in London, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich is staging two related exhibits, “The Olympic Games: Art, Culture & Sport and “The Games: The Science of Sport”.
The first covers the breadth of Olympic history, focusing on the six original sporting competitions that remain at the core of the games – foot races, wrestling, boxing, discus, javelin, and the long jump.
Each gallery section presents the scientific aspect of a particular event, related art and memorabilia, photos, a featured athlete, athletic equipment, and a video or interactive display. Also included is the Paralympics – the major international multi-sport event for athletes with a physical disability.
For this viewer, the highlight is a 6-foot by 3-foot diorama of an ancient Greek stadium. Based on images found on ancient terracotta bowls, descriptions in literature and archaeological findings, the diorama features more than 1,200 athletes, judges, and spectators, each no more than 5/8” tall, plus buildings, tracks, pits, and other trappings of ancient competition, as it might have been in 700 B.C.
Featured in each section is the work of Eadweard James Muybridge (British, 1830-1904), known for his pioneering work in stop-action photography. In addition to Muybridge’s stills, each section has a zoetrope, the device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of Muybridge’s static pictures.
The athletes in the six sections are Jesse Owens (running), Muhammad Ali (boxing), Bruce Robert Baumgartner (wrestling), Robert “Bob” Beamon (long jump), Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias (javelin), and Alfred Oerter Jr. (discus). Several Para-Olympians are covered as well.
The range of objects include:
Sports equipment: An ancient strigil, a small, curved, metal tool used in ancient times to scrape dirt and sweat from the body; a discus used by Al Oerter; Mel Sheppard’s spikes from 1908-1912; and a Paralympics racing prosthesis.
Art from antiquity: Several terracotta bowls from 600 to 400 B.C. with illustrations of athletes, and a life-size plaster cast copy of a sculpture of a Greek discus thrower.
More recent art: Wrestlers, an oil by Thomas Eakins; Boxing, an abstract bronze by Alexander Archipenko; and several realistic sculptures of athletes in action.
Memorabilia: trading cards, two gold medals and several replicas, an extraordinary trading pin collection, coins, and relay torches from three Olympics (Sydney, Atlanta, and Athens).
The smaller exhibit, “The Games: The Science of Sport”, explores the physical attributes of athletes, the science that drives equipment design and the intensive training for every elite athlete. It features an array of equipment used by Olympians and Paralympians, 3D animation and original video of athletic performance, and a display from The Olympic Museum that reveals how the body works best and what materials help equipment perform better and pinpoint measurements to help judges and coaches make the right decision.
“The Olympic Games: Art, Culture & Sport” runs through September 2; “The Games: The Science of Sport” is on view through August 12. Museum hours are 10 to 5 Tuesday to Saturday and 1 to 5 Sundays. Docent tours are offered most Fridays at 12:30 pm.
For information, contact 203-869-0376 or www.brucemuseum.org.
