I find it amazing that art existed before written language. We must try to remember that before there was ever an alphabet there were pictographs.
And when most of the human population could not read there were pictures and art to tell the story. We even rely on pictures to talk to intelligent beings from other solar systems.
Soon people from various cultures with multiple languages and numerous alphabets from all over the globe will come together for the Olympics. And even though we now have the internet and translation apps we still rely on universal symbols to communicate.
This is what makes art a truly universal language