A Century of Olympic Posters

Lecture:

Talk on A Century of Olympic Games
To go with the exhibition of A Century of Olympics Games, we organised a lecture at the Capital Museum, given by Ms Beth McKillop, Director of Collections and Keeper of the Asian Department, Victoria & Albert Museum.
Speaker: Beth McKillop (UK)
Time: 2-4pm Tue 15 January 2008
Venue: Room A, Basement, Capital Museum

About Ms Beth McKillop
Beth McKillop is Director of Collections and Keeper of Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Previously a curator in the Asian Collections of the British Library, her publications include Korean Art and Design, 1992, and North Korean Culture and Society, 2004. Her contribution to the 2003 British Library exhibition catalogue Chinese Printmaking Today reflects a longstanding interest in the book and print cultures of East Asia. Current projects include Chinese and Korean elements of the V&A’s new ceramic galleries (opening 2009), and research into the V&A’s outstanding collection of early Chinese sculpture. Please click here to read more.

Exhibition: A Century of Olympic Posters
Please click here to read more and download poster label caption.

Dates: 15 – 28 January 2008
Venue: Hall M, Basement, Capital Museum
Opening hours: 9:00 – 17:00 (closed on Mondays; tickets are not available after 16:00 each day)
Tickets hotline: 010 63370491/010 63370492

With the support of the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy, the Victoria & Albert Museum, in collaboration with the Capital Museum, will be successfully opening an exhibition in January 2008 on “A Century of Olympic Posters. This exhibition presents a unique perspective of the modern Olympic Games exploring their inception and evolution through the powerful medium of the poster.

Posters are an important means of communication for the Olympic Games, whetting our appetite and shaping our expectations of the Games to come. As snapshots through time, these works provide a fascinating record of our world – a visual document of sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture.  Their broad popular appeal and ability to relay messages through eye-catching and memorable imagery means that many of them are now prized souvenirs or collectable works of art and design.

The Olympics – and the posters which accompanied them – often celebrate new beginnings, as when war-ravaged London looked toward a bright new future in 1948, or Melbourne in 1956 celebrated the arrival of the Games in the southern hemisphere with an unashamedly modern design. In more recent times the Games have brought the regeneration of the urban environment, the stimulation of economic growth and improved infra-structures, the promise of which have elicited intense competition from would-be venues.

Highlights will include the first official Olympic poster, produced for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and important works by David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Andy Warhol and Victor Vasarely.  

Preface
Posters have been a prime means of communication for the modern Olympic Games. Heralding the event, they whet our appetite and shape our expectations of the Games that are to come.  Their broad popular appeal, and ability to relay messages through eye-catching and memorable imagery, makes them effective both as announcements and as metaphors. Official posters have been commissioned by Olympic Organizing Committees since the early 20th Century. They continued to play a key role in publicity campaigns as interest in the Olympics flourished in the inter-War years.  From the 1960s they became an important element in sophisticated visual identity programmes, and even in today’s world of instant multi-media communication, they help to establish the look and feel – the ‘brand’ – of a Games. As periodic snapshots through time, they provide a fascinating record of our world – a visual document of sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture.  This exhibition shows a variety of posters generated by the modern Games, many of which are now prized souvenirs or collectable works of art and design.