Andrea Hamilton, Divers.© London 2012
Exhibition: Olympic and Paralympic Posters Tate Britain until September 23 2012.
While some eyebrows may have been raised when the roster of artists were announced for the Olympic posters commissioned by LOCOG for London 2012, as the Games get going they seem to have acquired a resonance
By all accounts the display at Tate Britain is steadily growing on people and in years to come the set of twelve will surely be seen as a vivid snapshot of British art of the early 21st century.
It's all here: the swirls of Howard Hodgkin, the fragile but tender scrawl of Tracy Emin and, our favourite, the words of sign writer extraordinaire, Bob and Roberta Smith.
In an Olympics that in its run-up withstood a traditional onslaught of British cynicism and support in equal measure his words for the Paralympics seem to sum up what the Olympic ideal should still be all about.
More pictures:
Bob and Roberta Smith summons "the core elements of the athlete experience" in LOVE
© London 2012
© London 2012
Chris Ofili visualises a figure somewhere between a super-athlete and a mythical being in For the Unknown Runner
© London 2012
© London 2012
Martin Creed makes a podium out of five single brush marks using a palette derived from the Olympic colours, handily titled Work No. 1273
© London 2012
© London 2012
Fiona Banner makes a wordscape study of a Paralympic Athlete in her work, Superhuman Nude
© London 2012
© London 2012
Tracey Emin writes a love letter above her trademark winged friends in Birds 2012, taking the Paralympic values of Inspiration and Determination as her starting point
© London 2012
© London 2012
See them all on the Tate Britain website
