New stamp issue – Austria: Ski World Championships 2013 – Schladming

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New stamp issue – Austria: Ski World Championships 2013 – Schladming

http://www.romaniastamps.com/

From 4 to 17 February 2013, the famous Styrian winter sports resort Schladming will be host to the 42nd Alpine Skiing World Championships. The venue was selected back on 29 May 2008 in Cape Town (South Africa) by the 46th FIS Congress, where Schladming prevailed in the first round of the vote against competition from Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy), St. Moritz (Switzerland) and Vail/Beaver Creek (USA). Together with Haus im Ennstal, Schladming was already host to the Ski World Championships in 1982, but in contrast to that major sporting event, all competitions in 2013 are to take place on the famous Schladming Planai. The in part different runs will all end in the same finish stadium directly next to the attractive town centre. Thus exciting days entirely dominated by international skiing await the countless fans around the world. In the battle for gold, silver and bronze, we Austrians naturally hope – such patriotism being permitted – that our own ski stars such as Marcel Hirscher, Benni Raich, Marlies Schild and Elisabeth Görgl will be up amongst the winners.
The Austrian post office will be accompanying the Ski World Championships in a variety of ways, including by issuing the present three attractive commemoratives. The motifs of these stamps were created by no less a figure than the internationally famous Austrian painter Christian Ludwig Attersee, who has created impressive works in the typical Attersee pictorial language in his paintings “Freedom in the snow”, “Styrian heart” and “Slalom dance”. Colourful, sensuous and powerful and full of poetry, the artist interprets the sporting event by celebrating the passion, the exuberance and the elegance. Commenting on the artistic poster and stamp series that are an excellent advertisement for Schladming, Peter Schröcksnadel, the President of the Austrian Ski Federation is convinced that “extraordinary Ski World Championships need extraordinary images.”
Alongside his activity as a painter, Christian Ludwig Attersee makes regular appearances as a musician, author, sculptor and designer. His most important exhibitions include “documenta VI” in Kassel in 1977 and the Venice Biennale in 1984, where Attersee designed the Austrian and the first international pavilions. At the beginning of the 1980s, the artist was also present in a number of art galleries n Austria and Germany with his exhibition “Attersee Werksquer”. In 1990, Attersee was appointed associate professor at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 1992, he was appointed full professor for the Masterclass in Painting, Animation Film and Tapestry. Attersee’s works are to be found in many major museums and international collections