Vintage posters capture a century of Olympic Games

More than 100 posters charting a century of the Olympic Games will go on show in London tomorrow.

The collection, which includes a poster advertising the July 1948 games in London, will be exhibited at the Europa Gallery in Sutton’s Central Library.

The oldest poster displayed dates back to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. While Franz Würbel's design for the Berlin Olympics in 1936, where Jesse Owens won four gold medals, will also feature.

Click here or on the image on the right to view the gallery.

A Soviet-era design for the 1980 Moscow Games is among the highlights.

Memorabilia, including the torch from the London Olympics 1948, will be on show alongside the posters for both the winter and summer games.

"I think people who come to the exhibition will be inspired,” remarked Sutton Councillor Graham Tope.

“Even people not normally interested in sport will enjoy the exhibition because the posters are snapshots in time - a visual record of sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture.”

The posters have recently been exhibited in Bejing and are due to go on show in Mumbai and Adelaide over the the next two years, returing to London in 2012.

Another show hailing British Paralympian David Weir will also open tomorrow to accompany the ‘A Century of Olympic Posters’ exhibit.

Oil paintings, photos and sculptures will pay homage to Weir, who won four medals in Beijing 2008 and two medals in Athens 2004.

‘A Century of Olympic Posters’ opens at the Europa Gallery in Sutton's Central Library from 1 September to Sunday 31 October 2010.