Olympic posters blend beauty, symbolic style

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Olympic posters blend beauty, symbolic style

Published: 20 Feb. 2018, 20:24

Besides the promotional posters, all the official art posters for the Olympic and Paralympics chosen by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

This winter’s PyeongChang Olympics seeks to be more than just a sports competition, but also a cultural gathering. As such, 12 of the official 18 posters for the event are art posters, eight for the Olympics and four for the Paralympics. The other six are promotional. The posters have been chosen by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism from an open competition among Korean citizens and were displayed at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary (MMCA) art last year.

They have been added to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) archive, which dates back to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. The eight Olympic posters were unveiled on Nov. 2 at MMCA Seoul, and were selected from among 205 submissions made from May to July of 2017.

The posters include a work of abstract calligraphy with thunderous bold lines, a Pollock-esque landscape painting, a brilliantly kaleidoscopic quilt and a careful photographic study of a moon jar. All the posters take on a unique ambience of their own, expressing various Olympic themes such as speed and strength, while imbued with the beauty of the Korean soul and the snowy landscape of Gangwon province.

The Paralympic posters are more abstract, using an interplay of color or chiaroscuro that highlights the power and passion of the Paralympic Games.

From Feb. 7 to March 18, the 12 posters will be on display at Culture Station Seoul 284 along with about 300 official posters in the IOC archive, while print copies will be sold at the MMCA Seoul gift shop.