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Suite: Olympic Centennial Untitled
Peter Saul1990 - 1992
The Olympic Museum
Lausanne, Switzerland
Peter Saul transforms athletes into zoomorphic characters in bland and pneumatic forms neatly rendered with a spongy, semi-pointillist touch in green. Turtles with one or two heads take part in Olympic sports - boxing, wrestling, skiing, pole vault, long jump, and high jump - in a humoristic manner.
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Details
- Title: Suite: Olympic Centennial Untitled
- Creator Lifespan: 16 August 1934
- Creator Nationality: American
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Birth Place: San Fransisco, California
- Date Created: 1990 - 1992
- Location Created: United States of America
- Physical Dimensions: w890 x h630 cm (Complete)
- Painter: Peter Saul
- Description: From the 50 original works of the Olympic Centennial Suite, the IOC printed 250 lithographs of each work, all measuring 63/90cm, on Arches vellum paper (270 grams), signed by the artist and numbered.
- Collection information: The "Olympic Centennial Suite ", brings together 50 works by international artists who are representative of the variety of contemporary artistic tendencies. It was created on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the International Olympic Committee in 1994. For the choice of the works, the IOC brought in two prestigious French art critics, Gérard Xuriguera and Francis Parent. More than two years were necessary to constitute this Suite, with the aim of representing, in just 50 works, the multiplicity of creative work produced over the last five decades, from the figurative to the abstract, from hyperrealism to minimalism, from the new figurative school to abstract expressionism, as well as geometrism, conceptual art, and body art. It was decided that each international artist selected should create a work on a two-dimensional support. Some of these artists, aware of the importance of the message of the Olympic Movement, have rendered this spirit a special homage, while always remaining faithful to their own personal style. This "Suite" can be qualified as the jewel of the art collection of The Olympic Museum.
- Artistic school or movement: Peter Saul studied at the California School of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1952, and at Washington University from 1952 to 1956, before travelling to Europe. During this time, from 1956 to 1964, he was living in relative isolation in Europe. In Paris, he met a few career-shaping figures, including the Surrealist painter, Roberto Matta, and the American art dealer, Allan Frumkin, who would represent Saul for more than 30 years. Inspired equally by comic books as by the Surrealists, Saul was constantly mocking mass-media culture, and comments mordantly on aspects of contemporary life with grossly exaggerated forms, puns and odd perspectives. He has frequently been associated with the Pop Art movement, though he was radically separated from it by the clearly political impact of his subject matter. Saul’s early paintings combined Expressionism and pop culture with a stream-of-consciousness approach. His works both influenced and were influenced by the underground comic books of the early 1970s. But Saul eventually abandoned this style in the early 1970s for more sharply defined forms and day-glo colors that, at least in reproduction, look like they could have been painted with an airbrush. In 1981 he relocated to Austin, Texas to teach, and stayed there for almost 20 years. He then moved again to New York, at a time when political art, including political painting, was finding a new audience. Many of Saul’s later pieces take on the mechanisms of the art world, providing an apt depiction of the necessary evil of the marriage of art and commerce.
- Type: Paintings
- Rights: International Olympic Committee, 2005, ©IOC/G.Peter
- Medium: China ink and pastel on paper
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