Claude Garache’s inspiration for his artwork is on the feminine form, and he is the first artist of this series to pay clear homage to the women players. His focus for this creation was to highlight the strength and beauty of the player, using the colors of the tournament.

To celebrate the centennial of the French championships, the tournament committee chose to use an artist of international renown whose life paralleled that of the event. The poster design posthumously used an image by Surrealist artist Joan Miró. Miró had a long relationship with Galerie Lelong. He had declined an offer to design the 1982 poster since he was already commissioned to design for the World Soccer Cup that same year. However, an artwork he created in 1981 evoked “tennis” to Jean Frémon-Lelong. In 1991, Miró’s heirs approved the use of The Street Singer, with its central yellow sphere evoking the frenetic movement of a tennis ball on court to honor the 100th Anniversary.

Creating order amid constantly moving chaos is the common theme of Jan Voss’ art. Utilizing mixed-media techniques of drawings and paintings with collage and 3D objects, he creates multi-layered pieces with diverse colors and textures. The racquet, net, ball, and people moving are all represented in his design for the 1992 tournament.

A representative of the Nouvelle Figuration art movement that began in mid-20th century, Jean le Gac’s fascination with the literary world is expressed in this homage to an imaginary tennis player from the past.

Self-taught, Ernest Pignon-Ernest is recognized as an urban artist, and since the 1960s has used the atmosphere of the street to inspire and display his artwork. His trademark is to capture the history and memories of a place—its essence. In his recollections about this design, he wanted the creation to not explicitly allude to tennis. Instead, the red clay color of the background and the hand posed as if it has just tossed the ball to serve evoke the Roland-Garros championships.

Donald Lipski represents a departure for the French Open poster series. He is the first non-European and sculptor to be commissioned to create the look for the championships. His sculptures are often created from found objects and consist of manipulation of the forms until they create something new and exciting, such as these conjoined racquets. The artist originally designed it with the heads facing upward to symbolize the confrontation of the two players. However, when the sculpture was sent to the tournament committee, it was accidentally reversed, and subsequently became a sentimental interpretation of tennis love.

Jean-Michel Meurice is a documentary filmmaker and painter. In his paintings, he focuses on simplistic figures and the use of cut-outs, basic forms, and rich colors. In this poster, he evokes the grid of the court in his use of a checkerboard effect. The ochre color represents the clay court surface and the white represents the court lines, net, and players’ clothing. The cut-outs represent laurel leaves, a traditional symbol of competitive triumph.

Antonio Saura’s artwork is characterized by abstract styles, surrealist figures, and drawings in a palette of blacks, grays, and browns, with the occasional punctuation of bright colors. Saura is fascinated with distorted, tortured, suffering figures, and his players are represented as striving, powerful athletes during a heated contest. The confines of the court are alluded to by the stark lettering running across the center, representing the net separating the competitors.

Hervé Télémaque works show inspiration from the Analytical Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Surrealism art movements. His poster design features cubic lined court, net posts, and racquets while the fluidity of the yellow symbolizes the speed of the balls moving across court.

Focusing on the spectator and the chair umpire, Antonio Seguí, does not ignore the tennis action on court. Though, not visible, it is implied by the heads of the figures turned to follow the rally; one moment captured in time. Though initially classified as an abstract artist, his later works were more figurative, often featuring men with hats as a tribute to his father’s personal style.

The third female artist to be commissioned by the tournament organizers, Nalini Malani, is known for taking on a role as social activist through her art. Inspired by her personal experiences as a refugee of the Partition of India and the legacy of colonialism/decolonialism, her art explores the themes of gender, race, international politics, national identity, globalization, and consumerism. Her design for the French Open poster celebrates the global nature of the sport of tennis and the courageous journeys players take to achieve their dreams.

Initially trained as a sculptor, Barthélémy Toguo has explored many artistic mediums, turning to watercolor painting in 1998. Intentionally provocative with his art, he often explores the themes of globalization, borders, exile, and displacement and their effects on the ecology, society, and environment at large. To the artist, humans and nature are inseparable. His abstract tennis ball tree, fixated into place on court, represents the means of communication between the players on opposite sides of the net competing in the most global of sports.

Showing influence from graffiti and comic books, leading figure of the Figuration Libre movement, Hervé Di Rosa eschews “high-art,” and his creations often project bright, colorful, brash, and humorous interpretations of life. For his design for the French Open, he interprets the action of the match as viewed through the eyes of his characteristic cyclopean spectators intently following the ball’s movement more so than that of the players.

Creating a 2D artwork for the annual poster for the French Open was a departure for sculptor David Nash, known for his often-large-scale installations that focus on ecological or environmental themes. His inspiration was the red clay court surface and the vibrant fuzzy yellow tennis balls, that are piled balls high into a column as a metaphor for the accumulation of points by a player.

An abstract artist that likes to layer paint to create a diverse, vibrant, and subtle color palette, Juan Uslé chose to explore the theme of drama and civility in tennis. It is a sophisticated game with the players adhering to rules and practicing good sportsmanship, but at the same time, the players themselves are like cages controlling the wild and competitive animal within.

Primarily known for his digital media art, Du Zhenun was trained in classical painting and sculpture. Taking inspiration from his heritage and elements of Chinese calligraphy and painting techniques and his experiences with contemporary Western art, he interprets the service motion in this poster design.

Marc Desgrandchamps, a leader in the French figuration art scene, evokes a bygone era of tennis’ style and grace. He was inspired by the elegance of Brazilian Maria Bueno’s service motion in the creation of a vibrant and modern design for the 2016 tournament poster.

Coming from a tradition of sculpture, but later turning to photography of created artwork made from dust, Vik Muniz was inspired by the red clay dust of the tennis courts at Stade Roland-Garros for this poster design. The rich color and texture of the clay dust is dynamic and constantly evolving as the players move, the wind blows, or the rakes reset the court before every match.

The fourth female artist to be commissioned for the annual poster design, Fabienne Verdier often explores the concepts of energy and movement in her paintings. For her poster design, she fixates on the moment of impact as the ball bounces on the clay court.

For the 40th edition of the poster art series, Jose Maria Sicilia creates a collage of imagery that evokes the sounds of the tennis match. Evoking the creative process of synaesthesia, which associates one sense with another (for example, hearing color or seeing sound), and inspired by memories of listening to tennis matches as a youth, he creates a visual compilation of the aural emanations of the movement on court.