Stoners Point by Ken Auster, oil, 20 x 30 inches, print just as often Severson filled the spaces in shifting fields of coral, lemon yellow, or lavender. Seal Beach Locals, his 1956 semi-abstract oil—in which three surfers watch another surfer bomb down a jagged wave, under a bruised red-orange Cezanne sky—is sometimes identified as surf culture’s original work of art. Severson founded Surfer magazine in the early 1960s and was joined by other surfer-artists such as Rick Griffin, an acid-dropping designer of psychedelic posters and album covers, and John van Hamersveld, who created possibly the most iconic surf design of all time—the cover art for the Endless Summer film. It was surfer artists such as these who translated their physical and spiritual experiences of surfing into colorful posters, airbrushed surfboards, and advertisements. Over time these became unintended collectible fine art in a new genre called “surf art.” Enter Here by Ken Auster, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches 28
SEA HISTORY 175, SUMMER 2021