Author(s): Margaret Timmers

Design

As four-yearly snapshots through time, Olympic posters provide a fascinating record of our world, a lens through which we can explore links between sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture. They offer an intensely visual representation of the modern Games, sometimes heralded as the 'Greatest Sporting Show on Earth'. A Century of Olympic Posters draws largely on the V&A's poster collection and shows the evolution of the Olympic Games poster, from the first official poster for Stockholm in 1912, right up to the present. This diverse collection of images includes official posters for the Summer and Winter Games set in their historical context, and linked to pervading themes such as politics, commerce, the Olympic symbols, cultural and physical diversity, and urban regeneration. This revised edition includes new material on the London 2012 Olympic Games.