There’s no doubt Juan Uslé will remember this year’s French Open forever…
The 60-year-old Spanish artist created the official poster for this year’s Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros— the 35th poster of its kind.
Uslé, the sixth Spanish artist to produce the poster for the tournament, offers a work evocative of “the battle the players engage in” on the court.
The artist explains that his “inspiration for the painting began with the net, the ball and the action”, adding that he “did not want to depict any particular character, not even his countryman, Rafael Nadal.” The poster represents, then, an allegory of Roland Garros in three round shapes: yellow for the ball, ochre for the beaten clay and one representing the net. However, this last one represents not only the net, but also “the drama of the game and the fight, the connections and the dialogues” which take place on a tennis court, explains Uslé.
The tradition of selecting artistic posters for Roland Garros goes back to 1980. Daniel Lelong, director of the gallery of the same name, suggested that the French Tennis Federation should entrust the design of the poster to a contemporary artist of international repute. From David Nash to Hervé Di Rosa, the posters have always been a hot talking point.
Uslé has had regular exhibitions over the past decade in California, New York, London, Berlin and his native Spain.
