Speed Skater is a 1983 work by the American artist Andy Warhol., [1] made for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, then Yugoslavia.
Lazar 'Lazo' Vujic, a gallerist originally from Sarajevo and working in Vienna, invited 16 artists to produce a portfolio of artworks in honor of 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Vujic, who knew Warhol from earlier times, invited Warhol to a project. According to Vujic, Warhol asked who are the other artists and when he heard that Henry Moore was one of them, he immediately agreed to join the team. [2]
Other team members included David Hockney, Piero Dorazio, Henry Moore, Jean-Michel Folon, Giuseppe Santomaso, and Cy Twombly. Vujic's Visconti Fine Art gallery served as an official publisher. Each of the 16 artists produced one work associated with winter Olympics. Henry Moore made an image of Greek masks. Sports Illustrated commented it: "Winter Olympics or not, we shouldn't forget the contributions of the ancient Greeks." [3] Folon depicted a ski jumper jumping against the firmament. David Hockney's produced a photo collage of a figure skater. Glaser drew five rings landing on a Corinthian column. Cy Twombly's work is named Graffiti, with "Yugoslavia" and "Olympics" in Serbo-Croatian. Over the 1983/94 winter before the Olympics, the exhibit 'Art and Sport Edition' was shown by Vujic's Visconti Art Gallery in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Vail, Aspen, Lake Tahoe, Denver, Indianapolis, Madison, and Minneapolis. [3]
Warhol made Speed Skater as a screenprint in colours on wove paper. It was made in an edition of 150 plus ten artist's proofs. He also made some unique variants as trial proofs, each printed with different positions of the colour screens. [4] Speed Skater was also produced in an edition of 10 Publisher's Proofs. [5] Its sizes are 875 x 625 mm. The Speed Skater was used for the official Sarajevo Winter Olympics poster. [6]
Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director, producer, and leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid- to late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane mass-produced objects. One of its aims is to use images of popular culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any culture, most often through the use of irony. It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, or combined with unrelated material.
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Sarajevo '84, was a winter multi-sport event held between 8 and 19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. It was the first Winter Olympic Games held in a Slavic language-speaking country, as well as the only Winter Olympics held in a communist country before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. It was the second consecutive Olympic Games held in a communist country, after the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, from 8 to 19 February 1984. A total of 1,272 athletes representing 49 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 39 events from 10 different sports and disciplines. First time NOCs to enter were Egypt, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Senegal, and British Virgin Islands.
Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. was an American painter, sculptor and photographer.
Jean-Michel Folon was a Belgian artist, illustrator, painter, and sculptor.
Australia competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Eleven athletes participated, competing in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, and speed skating. Australia's best result was 19th in downhill skiing by Steven Lee.
Speed skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics was held from 9 to 18 February. Nine events were contested at Zetra Ice Rink.
Henry Geldzahler was a Belgian-born American curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a historian and critic of modern art. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and for his social role in the art world with a close relationship with contemporary artists.
Thomas E. Ammann was a leading Swiss art dealer in Impressionist and twentieth century art, and a collector of post-war and contemporary art.
Akira Kuroiwa is a former speed skater from Japan, who represented his native country at two consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. In 1988, he won the bronze medal in the men's 500 metres, after having captured two world titles at the Sprints Championships. At the 1984 Winter Olympics, Kuroiwa finished 10th in the men's 500 m.
Erroll Canute Fraser was an ice speed skater from the British Virgin Islands, who represented his native country at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia at the age of 33. There he finished in 40th and 42nd place, in the nation's first-ever appearance at the Winter Olympics.
The Stable Gallery, originally located on West 58th Street in New York City, was founded in 1953 by Eleanor Ward. The Stable Gallery hosted early solo New York exhibitions for artists including Marisol Escobar, Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol.
Michael B. Gallagher is an American painter whose work is associated with Abstract Illusionism.
For the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, a total of nine sports venues were used. The idea for the Games came around from a 1968 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development study on promoting winter tourism in Yugoslavia. After Sarajevo was awarded the 1984 Games in 1978, venue construction and renovation took place between 1979 and 1983. Weather postponed the men's downhill alpine skiing event three times before it was finally run. The men's cross-country skiing 30 km event was run during a blizzard. After the games, all but one of the venues were damaged during the Bosnian War and the siege of Sarajevo. After the war, Zetra Ice Hall was rebuilt and is in use as of 2010.
The British Virgin Islands sent a delegation to compete in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia from 8–19 February 1984. This was the first time the territory had participated in Olympic competition. The British Virgin Islands delegation consisted of a single speed skater, Erroll Fraser. His best performance in any event was 40th in the 500 metre race.
Lucio Amelio was an Italian art dealer, curator, and actor. For decades he contributed to make Naples an international art centre encouraging the dialogue between European and American contemporary arts.
The Mayor Gallery is an art gallery located in Cork Street, London, England. Since its foundation by Fred Mayor in partnership with Douglas Cooper in 1925, it has promoted modern and contemporary art. Since the early 1970s, under the new impulse given by James Mayor, Fred Mayor's son, the Gallery started to focus actively on the work of contemporary American artists from the Pop art movement but also Conceptual art and Abstract expressionism such as Eva Hesse, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. More recently, taking further its interest for Minimal art and Dada, the Gallery has been promoting artists of the international Zero (art) movement, including Heinz Mack, Otto Piene amongst others.
The Daros Collection is a Swiss private collection of modern art owned by the Stephan Schmidheiny family. At its core are comprehensive groups of work by Andy Warhol, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly, Willem de Kooning and Gerhard Richter.