The 1936 World Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany during the reign of the National Socialists. The Nazis built an impressive Olympic Stadium and extensive facilities, and they provided lavish food and amenities for the visiting Olympians (the men, anyway; women received inferior treatment). Anti-Semitic propaganda was hidden from visitors. Swastika flags and banners fluttered all around the city, and Hitler himself presided over the opening ceremonies. Overall, the grand spectacle of the Berlin Olympics (famously documented in Leni Riefenstahl's documentary, "Olympia") proved to be a public relations triumph, softening the world's feelings toward Hitler and the Nazism of Germany.

Toni Merkens took the Gold for Germany in the men's 1000 meter cycling sprint. The man depicted in "1936-A" is not Toni, but rather was painted from my imagination, as was the bicycle. The jersey, however, is accurate to that worn by German cyclists during the 1936 Olympics.

The desire to make this painting developed from more than one line of thought.

The first line of thought was inspired by seeing shiny, reflective technological objects in old photographs. Most of the time, when you see in person an iron or steel tool or vehicle that is several decades old, it has succumbed to rust and wear. When captured in a contemporary photograph, however, the object can be seen with its original luster, in the full bloom of technological prevalence, possibly accompanied by its proud owner. This lustrous newness often draws me into the photos, perhaps merely appealing to the pack rat portion of my brain. Tricked in this way, I then find myself deeper immersed in that other time and place. It makes me think about the presence of industrialism in that world, the drive for new technologies, the social and environmental alterations taking place to serve production, how many things were the same as they are today.

I also chose to do this painting out of a desire to address some of my more cynical and critical views on bicycles and cyclists. Though I ride a bike, am involved in bicycle advocacy, and think a bicycle-based metropolis is superior to a car-based one, I think it's a mistake to get all starry-eyed about bikes and call them "eco-friendly" and ascribe utopian potential to them. They are industrial products that emerged from nations that had railroads, mines, steel mills, tire factories, machinists, welders, and roads to ride on. Bicyclists were a significant early force in the development of roadways in the United States. Bicycle production cannot be separated from numerous terrible industries, or the social and ecological ills that accompany them. My vision of a healthy society does not resemble cycling capitals such as 1970s Beijing or today's Amsterdam. It is far more liberated and open to the rest of the natural world, and far less dependent upon human fabrications and forced labor.

I therefore have difficulty respecting hot shit cyclists. In all cycling scenes - fixed gear, road warrior, trail shredders - you have large numbers of people who think their fucking bike endows them with superiority. It is natural to be competitive and seek status, but it is small-minded and lame to base one's judgment on such flimsy criteria. I am more prone to have diminished regard for a person on the newest, fanciest bike, rather than to worship their financial might and consumer cleverness. I pretty much hate professional competitive cycling because it is necessarily so technologically focused and dependent.