The French Open tennis championship has been held since the late 19th century (and in its current format since 1925), but one of the beautiful traditions of Roland Garros, as the competition is known to all, was born only 42 years ago.
In 1980, the official poster of the tournament was first prepared, and the idea was so popular with all parties involved - from the organizers through the players to the spectators - that it was decided to invite him every year from a different painter.
In doing so, the tennis championship joined other French institutions, such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Tour de France bicycle race, for which an annual poster became a must-have accessory and a symbol of prestige.
For the French who love aesthetics and design, this is a very serious matter.
Organizers are looking for not only a visual business card, but a means to express the soul of Roland Garros.
And the soul, as the way of souls, does not freeze on its yeast.
Therefore, in order to find the most suitable painter, a special tender is held every year.
By the way, the candidates who approach him do not have to be game experts or avid fans.
Joan Miró's Surrealism.
Roland Garros 1991,
Parisian clay and sun
Louise Surtor, creator of the 2022 poster, admitted that she came for the first time to watch a tennis match at Roland Garros after she had already been notified of winning the tender a year earlier.
According to her, then she was captivated by the magic that unfolded before her eyes and chose for herself the theme of the future poster.
The painter (34) decided to place in the front of the stage precisely the person who is usually in the shade and should remain invisible - the boy submitting the balls.
Anyone who looks at her painting will immediately recognize, as if by magic, the special color combination of the clay and the Parisian sun, which is typical of Roland Garros.
Interestingly, until 2018, most of the painters who were honored to create the official Roland Garros poster came from outside France.
The organizers sought to bolster the international fragrance of the competition, looking for big names and brilliant ideas away from home.
Thus, in 1991, on the occasion of the 100th edition of the tournament, they managed to do the unbelievable: to recruit a one-of-a-kind star for the poster, who was no longer alive - the late Catalan painter Joan Miró.
The poster, created on the basis of an existing painting by Miro, of course embodied the abstract surrealism associated with his style and works.
In 1981, a year before Miro's death, he was offered to illustrate the annual poster, but he refused, because he was preparing the design line for the 1982 World Cup symbols. In contrast, Miro's heirs actually welcomed Roland Garros.
A little romance.
The 1995 poster,
A review of the competition's posters from 1980 is similar to a colorful visit to the Museum of Modern Art.
You will find in them all styles, from the straightforward and restrained lines of the Belgian Jean-Michel Polon to the imitation of the comics by his compatriot Pierre Alshinsky, from the celebratory colorful celebration of the Italian Nicola de Maria to the minimalism of the "dots style" of the French Jill Io.
As expected, the posters have become a sought-after item for masses of tourists who come to Paris each year ahead of the competition, and a hunting ground for collectors.
For example, the posters from the original print of 1991 are sold in bookstores in the city for hundreds of euros, a hundred times their price in the year of publication.
The poster that marked a decade for the project, 1990,
Also on the list of most wanted are the first poster, painted by the Italian Valerio Adami and commemorating the blow of submission, and the second poster, in which the Spanish painter Eduardo Arroyo predicted the identity of that year's contestant, when he painted Bjorn Burg's familiar back.
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