Description
Skis. Original color lithograph, 1983. Edition of 150 signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper.
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.
Jirí Kolář was a Czech poet, writer and painter whose artworks are a combination of both literary and visual art. His writing was the reason he ended up in arrest, due to it being proclaimed subversive under the Stalinist rule, but he continued to write, despite there being a publication ban. At first he continually combined painting and poetry, but later he abandoned his poetic work completely and focused solely to experiments in visual arts. He developed many new techniques in collages one of them being the “Rollage” technique of making collages. This technique is when two images are cut into thin pieces and then glued back together. He also included everyday life in his artwork e.g. items such as zippers, cords, razorblades, etc. Kolar was a very versatile artist and a master of collage and his collages manifest both ironic wit as well as his dismay of the cultural and political disintegration. The skies that Kolář depicted in this poster, as a symbol of one of the sports disciplines, have a white background with Czech words from various texts. There are several constellations on the left ski, and many colorful bird wings that make composition abstract, on the other. On the right side of composition we see a winter landscape of Sarajevo with an effect of a cut mirror on the horizontal lines.
