LONDON.- The original preparatory painting for the acclaimed British painter, sculptor and printmaker Allen Jones’ poster for the ill-fated 1972 Munich Olympics is to be sold at
Bonhams, Knightsbridge, as part of the Vision 21 sale on 16 March 2011. It has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £7,000 – 9,000.

Jones was one of 35 leading contemporary artists commissioned to design a poster to promote the 1972 Olympic Games in 1970.

In the same year, Jones, who is better known for his ‘human and highly-sexualised furniture’, was approached by film director, Stanley Kubrick, to design a set for his new film, A Clockwork Orange. Jones refused the offer as there was no fee involved.

This Olympic poster exhibits Allen’s Pop Art influences and echoes the tangled bodies he used in paintings such as 1963’s Hermaphrodite.

The 1972 Olympic Games were a success for design in general: they also saw the introduction of the now-universal sports pictograms designed by Otl Aicher.