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2012 ‘Artistic’ posters revealed

Posted By: Ray CalderNovember 6th, 2011

A series of 2012 Olympic posters were unveiled recently at Tate Britain. The brief to the artists was to “celebrate the Games coming to London and to look at the values of the Olympic or Paralympic Games” – NOT create actual visual communication for the event. The full list of artists invited are Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Tracey Emin, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Bob and Roberta Smith, and Rachel Whiteread.

I have to admit I had no idea this was happening, and I am not sure if that is my ignorance/lack of knowledge or it was done behind close doors? Did anyone else know this was happening? Moving on, it has happened, so what do we think? I understand that these are artistic and not communication but I can’t say I am impressed if these are in theory the celebrated artists of the UK. Even as art, many have missed their brief with no hint of celebration or the Olympic values.

Swimming by Howard Hodgkin I really like

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two by Martin Creed and Sarah Morris I think are OK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But most I just think ‘what is that’. This one by Gary Hume being a great example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see all 12 posters at the Olympics 2012 online shop by clicking here.

There is some very interesting history to linking art and the Olympics dating back to the Munich Olympics of 1972. In 1972, the organisers created a similar (and very successful) opportunity inviting artists to respond to the idea of the games and celebrate them, and again not produce a promotional poster as such. The series was successful, generating over 2m Deutschmarks for the Organising Committee, however I very much doubt the London variant will be as financially successful. If you would like to see the full range of posters from 1972 follow this link (One example is shown at the start of this blog). My favourite is David Hockney – a great artistic communicator.

Reading a related blog in Creative Review many designers are unhappy with the lack of consultation, involvement and no chance to contribute. As well as firing in many negative comments. In some way I think such comments miss the point, in that if I had known about the opportunity I think my designer’s brain would have found it hard to be this artistically abstract. This was a project for artists not designers. However what I think is a real shame is that more artists were not involved, it could not have been an open entry as this would have been unmanageable, but 100 would have been good. And some lesser known artists as well.

Tags: Artist, posters
Posted in Creative

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