LONDON 2012

A portfolio of prints in various media and editions, commissioned to mark the 2012 Olympic Games in London and published by Counter Editions. The images will go on show at Tate Britain in a free exhibition as part of the London 2012 Festival in the summer of 2012, full details can be found on the festival website www.london2012.com/festival. The images will also be featured as part of a high profile campaign to promote the London 2012 Games. Since 1912 each Olympic host city has commissioRead morened one or more posters to celebrate the hosting of the Games and since the first Paralympic games was held at Stoke Mandeville posters have also been commissioned for the Paralympic games. Over the course of the last century a body of iconic work has been created and previous artists who have created a poster include David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The official posters of the Games are now themselves a special celebration of the meeting of art and sport over the last 100 years. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has sought to return to this artistic tradition, and has commissioned twelve of the UK’s leading artists to create images to celebrate London hosting the 2012 Games, six for the Olympic Games and six for the Paralympic Games. LOCOG worked with Tate and the Plus Tate Group (a group of 19 regional galleries across the UK), who together compiled a long list of over 100 artists for consideration. This long list was then reduced to a final list of 12 by a panel comprising Nicholas Serota (Tate Director), Tamsin Dillon (Head of Art on the Underground), Judith Nesbitt (Tate - Head of National/International Initiatives), Carl Freedman (Counter Editions) Ruth Mackenzie (Director, Cultural Olympiad & London 2012 Festival) and Greg Nugent (LOCOG Director of Brand and Marketing ). The primary objective of the panel was artistic excellence and some of the UK’s greatest artists have been commissioned (four of the chosen artists have previously won the Turner Prize and five have represented the UK at the Venice Biennale). The brief for the artists encouraged them to celebrate the Games coming to London and to look at the values of the Olympic and Paralympic games. Each image is a distinct interpretation of either the Olympic or Paralympic Games by the individual artists and the diversity of the series demonstrates the extraordinary creative talent that exists within the UK. The individual images are each described below. Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, said: 'We are delighted that British artists have produced such compelling images in response to the Olympic and Paralympic Games'. A set of the images has been given to the Queen for the Royal Collection and to other important British art collections, including the Government Art Collection (which will be displaying the images in 10 Downing St in 2012) and the British Council (which is planning on exhibiting the images across China in 2012 as part of 'UK Now', the largest festival of British arts ever to be shown in China, as well as displaying the posters in British Council’s across the world). Read less