From the London 2012 Olympics Shop:
Howard Hodgkin - Swimming
Howard Hodgkin describes his paintings as representational pictures of emotional situations. For his Olympic print Hodgkin has created Swimming – a deep, swirling mass of blue flooding across the page. The fluidity of the brushstrokes perfectly captures the movement of water and the sensation of swimming.
Format: premium poster 60cm x 80cm printed in the UK on 200gsm FSC paper.
[Link]
6 comments:
I'm always afraid to criticize art for fear of appearing "uncultured"... but I'm with you. This is... I mean, I guess it's... good.
The dark spot sort of looks like a frog. A nod to Muffat, Agnel and the other french freestylers? :)
In 1972 the Germans got it right:
http://www.1972municholympics.co.uk/Posters/Poster_Sport_Section.php
British Designer Alan Clark design some amazing posters but there is no evidence the London committee chose of any of them since I don't see them at the London Olympics store:
http://kottke.org/09/05/nice-posters-for-the-2012-olympics
My city, Los Angeles, had a few nice ones that reflected the Zeitgeist here in 1984:
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/03/13/a-century-of-olympic-posters-at-the-va-museum-of-childhood/
that's what people see when they watch swimming. kind of sad. lots of flailing
Sugardaddy, I did a post about that 2008. I suggested that pools have glass bottoms that magnify the size of the athletes and that spectators view the race from beneath the pool.
Here is a snippet:
Solution: A new governing body has to step up and embrace all the economic opportunities that the "old boy" governing bodies resist. This includes tech-suits, gambling, and even venue changes where traditional races held in rectangle pools suddenly take place in beautiful and exotic locations like a bay in Fiji or a hot springs in Iceland while it is snowing.
Pools have to be redesigned for better spectator viewing pleasure so the fans and gamblers can enjoy the swimming from beneath the water instead of above it. i.e. A pool with a glass bottom in the shape of a contact lens so the swimmers look like mighty giants as they swim above you.
All of the above would make swimming exotic, sexy, marketable, profitable and compelling. I envision fans paying top dollar to see a twelve-foot-tall, three-foot wide Chloe Sutton racing an equally statuesque Laure Manadou in a 400-free. Imagine an Milord Cavic racing an Ian Crocker and seeing the expressions on their faces as gasp for the wall!
And a post before that one:
http://scaq.blogspot.com/2007/11/people-want-to-experience-swimming-and.html
I should have saved my kindergarden fingerpainting! I could be a famous artist.
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