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Author: [Original Comic Art] Griffin, Rick
Title: Original RICK GRIFFIN Drawing Published in Surfer Magazine
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: 1965
Description:

Pen and ink drawing on paper, measuring approx. 2x7¼", signed "Griffin," matted and framed to 10½x15½". Excellent condition, art tipped to mat.

Rick Griffin drew this piece for Surfer magazine vol. 6, #1 (March, 1965), to illustrate Duke Boyd's "Pipeline" column, which featured a story about artist/surfer Pat Curran. According to Boyd's column, Curran painted a masterpiece and then destroyed it. Griffin drew Curran to resemble another temperamental artist, Vincent Van Gogh; Curran's pose and duds harken to Van Gogh's 1887 "Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat."

Like Curran, Griffin was a perfectionist capable of destroying his work when he felt it missed the mark. "Severson asked Griffin to design a poster for his new surfing film, Pacific Vibrations, and to appear in the movie as well. The poster took longer to make than the film. 'He painted for months with brushes and it was great. I was thrilled. It's done, we all agreed.' The poster, depicting an idyllic ocean landscape, was exactly what he wanted, he told Griffin. 'That night he painted it out and started over in air-brush, for the first time, painting several more months. I had imagined the job taking a week or two. 'But you're getting a masterpiece,' explained Rick. And he was right. Two actually; one on top of the other.'" – Patrick Rosenkranz, Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975. Fantagraphics: 2002, p. 147.

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