Description
Original poster Francesco Clemente “Olympia” – XIV Olympic Winter Games, Sarajevo. Original offset color lithograph. An archive, vintage poster, printed in 1984, now collectible and in short supply.
Art and Sport portfolio: The Yugoslav Olympic Committee of the Winter Olympic Games Sarajevo 1984 wished to give a certain cultural-artistic accent to this world festivity. The admire of the Olympic idea, those who have a liking for the Olympic winter sports and the art connected with them will be, in agreement with the art publisher Visconti Art Lazo Vujić, honored by creations contributed by world known prominent artist. A portfolio containing sixteen original prints, handsigned and numbered by the artists, is published in a limited edition of 200 originals by each artist. Names like Dorazio, Folon, Greco, Helnwein, Hodgkin, Hwang, Kolar, Moore, Paladino, Pistoletto, Rosenquist, Santomaso, Stupica, Twombly and Warhol guarantee the high quality of the artistic idea and its realization. The size of the original print is 85 x 62 cm. The edition of the original graphic portfolio will be accompanied by limited editions of art posters of the same size, not numbered, but each of them carrying an impression of the inscription “Olympic Games Sarajevo 1984” and its logotype.
The themes proposed by the artists are either winter sports, the Olympic idea or the town of Sarajevo. All the artists remain faithful to their own specific expression, using the formal elements of the language developed through the years of their creative presence in world’s art. So every print included in the portfolio is at the same time a particular contribution to the continuity of their artistic orientation, the theme being an additional iconographic impulse to their visual research. The symbiosis of the Olympic idea and art is certainly an interesting creative proposal that will fascinate art-collectors and sport-lovers as well.
Francesco Clemente is a contemporary Italian artist, who has lived in Italy, India, and in New York and these countries had a big influence on his art. He has adopted a vast variety of supports and mediums for his work, exploring, discarding, and returning to oil paint, watercolor, pastels, and printmaking. Clemente was among the principal figures in the Italian Transavanguardia movement of the 1980s, which was characterised by a rejection of Formalism and conceptual art and a return to figurative art and Symbolism. Dreamlike paintings based on esoteric themes of sexuality and spirituality are characterized by their formal experimentation with symbols, portraiture, and the human figure. “I believe there is such a thing as an imagination shared by the different contemplative traditions. My goal is to collect images and references from these traditions and connect them with the emotions from the present-day, and common experiences.” – the artist said. In this Olympics poster Clemente depicted a human personification of the mountain where the first Olympic games began, in the artist’s characteristic style. The mountain is also depicted on the top of the head, as the highlight of the artwork.
