A Century of Olympic Posters
Tue May 13, 2008 – 07:00
Original Post:
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Century of Olympic Posters / creative review
Mexico 68 poster by Lance Wyman, with artistic direction from
Eduardo Terrazas and Pedro Ramirez Vázquez, ©
courtesy of the artist/IOC/V&A
Despite the protests, Olympic fever is slowly starting to build, and the exhibitions are beginning. This weekend, at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, a show looking at 100 years of Olympic posters will open which will run (no pun intended…) over the summer to coincide with the Beijing Games. Here are a few extracts from the selection that will be shown - included are posters by artists such as R B Kitaj, as well as much-loved design classics such as Lance Wyman's poster for the Mexico 68 Olympics, shown above.
The V&A is also publishing a book of the posters, by Margaret Timmers, which includes a detailed history of why the official posters were chosen, reactions to them, and how the posters reflected the political and cultural atmosphere of the times. And it's not all about the summer Olympics either, the Winter Games also get a look in too.
A Century of Olympic Posters opens at the Museum of Childhood on May 17 and continues until September 7. More info on the book and exhibition can be found at vam.ac.uk/moc/.
Barcelona 92 poster by Josep Maria Trias, © courtesy
IOC/V&A
Munich 72 poster by R B Kitaj, © estate of the artist,
courtesy Marlborough Fine Art/IOC/V&A
Chamonix Mont-Blanc Winter Games 1924 poster by Auguste Matisse,
© V&A
Los Angeles 1984 poster by April Greiman and Jayme Odgers,
©1984 Olympics/the artists/IOC/V&A
London 1948 poster by Walter Herz, © courtesy
IOC/V&A
Berlin 1936 poster by Franz Würbel, ©
IOC/V&A