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The history of the Olympic Poster

Rare & Limited Rare Sports Posters David Hockney Josef Albers Martin Puryear Michael Leunig Anthea Hamilton Bridget Riley

First taking place in Athens in 1896, the modern Olympic Games fast became the world’s foremost sporting competition. When they next took place six years later, the host city of Stockholm commissioned the first official poster and the art form has played an essential part in the Games ever since.

Featuring original artworks by leading artists, the Olympic poster melds the world’s of art and sport into triumphant pieces of cultural history. We take a closer look at some of the artists behind the artworks, including Josef Albers, David Hockney and Martin Puryear.

Josef Albers – Olympic Games Munich, 1972

Pioneering twentieth-century artist Josef Albers (b.1888) was among the first students of The Bauhaus to be appointed as a master in 1925. In 1933 the Bauhaus faculty, Albers among them, elected to close the school rather than comply with the Third Reich. That same year, Albers accompanied by his wife and fellow Bauhaus artist Anni Albers moved to America, where he was invited to teach at the newly-formed Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

At the time of the Munich Games, Albers – now in his 80s – was living in Connecticut and working on his acclaimed Homage to the Square series, which had occupied him since 1950. Titled ‘Cinetic Window’, his commission for the Munich 1972 Olympic Games greatly resembles his long running investigation into colour theory. At the centre it features a large field of cobalt blue, enclosed by geometric structures using organised tones, suggestive of an Olympic Swimming pool.

Despite the overriding memory of the events of the Munich Games, the story of a renowned member of The Bauhaus – who had long since fled Germany – reconnecting with his homeland in celebration of the world-wide event, is the perfect example of how art has the enduring power to bring together cultures, promoting peace and unity.

Olympic Games Munich, 1972

£770, framed rare poster

New Rare & Limited Josef Albers Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Abstract Modern Art Sport

David Hockney – Olympic Games Munich, 1972

David Hockney (b.1937) was another international artist to be selected by the Munich Olympic Games Organising Committee.

Living and working in the balmy climate of California since the early 1960s, Hockney had long been obsessively producing his now iconic and dreamy pool paintings when he was invited to create an artwork for the Munich Games. It was perfectly fitting that he, like Albers, also chose to paint a swimming pool. Featuring a diver piercing through the multifaceted and glistening surface, Hockney’s painting captures the spontaneous motion of the aqua water, emoting the pure joy and refreshment of a summertime swim.

Olympic Games Munich, 1972

£1,790, framed rare poster

New Rare & Limited David Hockney Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Abstract Modern Art Sport

Martin Puryear – Los Angeles Olympic Games, 1984

One of the most important American sculptors working today, Martin Puryear (b.1941) has been devoted to traditional craft since his youth, when he would make tools, boats, furniture and even musical instruments. Best known for his large-scale sculptural works, which he constructs himself by hand, he is also a very accomplished paper based artist, highly skilled in drawing and printmaking techniques.

In 1963, Puryear spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, where he educated himself on the region’s crafts, spending much of his time with local carpenters and making woodcut prints.

The multidisciplinary artist’s natural progression led him to Stockholm in 1966, where he studied printmaking at the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts, exploring further printmaking techniques including etching, aquatint and drypoint. The incising element of his printmaking practice had captivated Puryear, so much so that upon his return to the United States, he undertook an MFA in sculpture at Yale University, from which he graduated in 1971.

Puryear’s artwork commissioned for the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games depicts an athlete holding the Olympic torch, shadow-like, running across the Los Angeles coastline.

Los Angeles Olympic Games 1984

£300, framed rare poster

Rare & Limited Martin Puryear Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Black & White Modern Art

Micheal Leunig – Sydney Olympic Games, 2000 – Greco Roman Wrestling

Australian cartoonist Micheal Leunig (b.1945) started his first role at a Melbourne daily newspaper in 1969, where he would create humorous and satirical columns.

In 1999 Leunig was awarded the Australian National Living Treasure prize, and in 2000, his characterful piece ‘Greco Roman Wrestling’ graced posters for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Leunig often played with the idea of contorted forms, his Greco Roman wrestlers interplay in an endless circle of movement that feels both chaotic and synchronistic.

Sydney Olympic Games 2000

£320, framed rare poster

Rare & Limited Michael Leunig Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Black & White Illustration Graphic & Illustration

Anthea Hamilton – London Olympic Games 2012 – Divers

Anthea Hamilton (b.1978) shortlisted artist for the Turner Prize 2016, works with sculpture, painting, moving-image and performance using the iconography of popular culture and history to create her own form of contemporary pop art.

Informed by the history of physical prowess and representations of the human, her work especially focuses on the female form. In ‘Divers’, a pair of legs pose upright, balancing the Olympic rings over the backdrop of the tiled floor of a swimming pool.

The piece is suggestive of the elegance of a synchronised swimmer, a sport that at the time of the London 2012 Games was the only Olympic competition to be exclusively contested by women. A decade later, the sport has seen some welcome changes by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Gaining the new title of artistic swimming, as of late 2022 the IOC now allow men to be a part of competing teams, making a huge splash in the world of the mesmerising sport.

Divers – London Olympic Games 2012

£400, framed rare poster

Rare & Limited Anthea Hamilton Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Iconic 21st Century Artists Sport

Bridget Riley – London Olympic Games 2012 – Rose Rose

Celebrated for her pioneering Opt art, leading British artist Bridget Riley created ‘Rose Rose’ exclusively for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Using a harmonious pastel palette, Riley utilises her iconic horizontal lines to represent the swimming lanes, track and grass on which the Games are partaken.

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Rose Rose – London Olympic Games 2012

£800, framed rare poster

Rare & Limited Bridget Riley Rare Sport Posters Rare Posters Unique Modern Art

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