August Issue
State of the Art
"...we assembled this cast of eight contemporary and cutting edge surfer artists, all visionaries within their mediums..."
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State of the Art
By Ross Garrett, Surfer Magazine
Art, Mesopotamian to Modern, has saltwater running through it. For artists and collectors alike, the ocean provides fathoms of inspiration, meaning and substance. Nineteenth-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai etched Jaws-like waves in his printmaking whereas famous French impressionist Claude Monet (who incidentally collected Hokusai's work) often turned his eyes and brush toward a flatter ocean. And early 20th-century American painter Winslow Homer became known for his depiction of the unyielding northeastern seaboard. Today, not only do myriad artists illustrate the sea, but a host of popular contemporary artists are surfers as well.
For these surfing artists, even if they don't always depict the sport, surfing's influence is in their lives and work. Wry cartoonist Raymond Pettibon slip-slides the South Bay while his work sells at Sotheby's. Graffiti-based fine artist and urban legend Barry McGee aka "Twist," finds corners at Pacifica even while illustrating San Francisco's concrete wilderness.
But many argue the act of surfing is an art itself. Certainly it's hard to deny the poetry in a J-Bay high line or a Backdoor barrel. Perhaps all surfers, drawing lines in temporal canvases, are artists. Then again, perhaps all artists are surfers. (Next time you're in The Met, check out Winslow Homer's Moonlight from 1866 - an oily, three foot right peels behind his Victorian subjects.)
In our effort to display all things "state of the art" in surfing, we assembled this cast of eight contemporary and cutting edge surfer artists, all visionaries within their mediums, and all with salt water in their veins.
