John Van Hamersveld

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John Van Hamersveld (born 1941, Baltimore) When he was thirteen his Mother showed him an Art In America magazine article, showing Milton Glaser who had founded Push Pin Studios with his partners in 1954. Glaser's work was characterized by directness, simplicity and originality. He uses any medium or style to solve the problem at hand. His style ranges wildly from primitive to avant-garde in his countless book jackets, album covers, advertisements and direct mail pieces and magazine illustrations. Continuing with the reference as a young student in high school and later went to art school at 19 years old. As a student at 22, he created the Endless Summer movie poster that became the icon for surfing. He later was represented by Push Pin Group in 1974. In 1987 the Endless Summer Poster was collected by the Museum Of Modern Art in New York as a part of their Design Collection. He was responsible for many of the recognizable pop art images of the 1960s and 1970s including album covers, and concert posters including the Pinnacle Shrine Jimi Hendrix Poster.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early Work

[edit] The Endless Summer

John Van Hamersveld’s Endless OC Connection The vivid art of John Van Hamersveld fashioned a generation. His eclectic designs translate into a multitude of languages by evoking a feeling, a place and a period in time. His highly recognizable and sometimes psychedelic art began with an Endless Summer.

He designed the renowned color saturated sunset and surfer poster for the 1966 surfing movie “Endless Summer” from his kitchen table in Dana Point more than five decades ago. Inspired by a sunset photo of a Dana Point beach in Orange County, it was destined to become an internationally recognized icon of Southern California’s surfing scene.

This singular poster may have launched his colorful career, however, John Van Hamersveld is a true renaissance man, who has reinvented himself and his designs to be as relevant and futuristic today as they were in the 60’s. He has been a student, teacher, artist, designer and even created a 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 LA Olympic Games. His treasure chest of retro art reads like a who’s who in the rock world, from famous album covers for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, to concert posters for Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Bob Dylan.

John Van Hamersveld is an authentic art legend and his timeless and iconic art will forever connect Orange County as a symbol of youth, devoted surfers, idyllic climate and endless summers.

[edit] Pinnacle Indian

The Indian Photograph of Thunder Cloud 1967

"I was gradually moving from artist to graphic designer. One of my art school girlfriends, Honeya, was an art student who would stay at the Coronado Studio overnight while she was attending Otis Art Institute. I had a thing at that time for Victorian houses; they were charming, different than the post-war housing that everyone my age was used to. Maybe it was the San Francisco charm I wanted, Art Nouveau, so I rented a room in an old house for $175 a month. It was a block away from Otis Art Institute and there were lots of junk stores and bookstores in the neighborhood. I found the Indian photo there on 7th Street a few doors down from McManus and Morgan, an exotic antique paper seller I had discovered through my design classes at Art Center."

"We were inside the store and Honeya pointed to the pile of photos, suggesting I should take a look. As I shuffed through the images, I found four Indian pictures, thinking maybe they were Edward Curtis turn-of-thecentury antique. There was the one that looked at me in a different way; I liked the man, and he felt good for me. I looked and Honeya said, “John, if you like it, you should buy it.” I decided I would buy it for my collection; it was put in a bag and back to the studio it went."

The Jefferson Airplane Pinnacle Indian Poster 1968

"Later that year I was in the studio looking for an image for the band Jefferson Airplane. As I sat smoking my cigarettes and rolling some joints, I could not think of any one image for them as a band, so I chose to enter from a subliminal level. Their audience was always stoned, so anything I used could be read into as intentional. I decided that I would think of the show as if it were a meeting of the Northern and Southern tribes of the new hippies, and out of the closet came the Indian photo. I puffed and puffed and focused my typography in a myopic process, it eventually emerged like a beaded belt design I saw once at a trading post in the Southwest. You could read it if you were stoned. I left it that way. It was my company, so I could do what I wanted. My partners complained, but the show was a success, they made money, so life went on. And so the 8x10 photo of an Indian is launched into the images of eternity. I positioned it in a new way."

Five Decades Later

"In 2003 I was working in the Abode Suite application developing a geometric of pattern in squares for backgrounds to 12 Digital Indians prints. The images grew into a wall of framed modules hung together in a group. They debuted that the Shepard and Amanda Fairey, Subliminal Project Gallery on March 7th 2009. The original photograph is lost in the many studios of storage, but the image lives on with a new spirit."

[2]

[edit] Album Covers

Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour)
The Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street)
Jefferson Airplane (Crown of Creation)
The Grateful Dead (Skeletons in the Closet)
Kiss (Hotter Than Hell)
Blondie (Eat to the Beat)
Among many others

[edit] Concert Posters

[edit] Other Work

Van Hamersveld has built up a wide-ranging body of work over a career verging on its sixth decade. He has been at various times artist, illustrator, and designer. Among his other creations: an official poster and 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games; illustrations for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Billboard; and branding and logos for Fatburger, Contempo Casuals, and Broadway Deli. The iconography of his oeuvre runs deep, from Day-Glo tones to trippy swirls to the grinning "Johnny face," an icon in itself.

[edit] Post Future Art

[edit] Current Images in the Media

In 1997 he started his own line of products revisiting his work from 1964-1974, which he calls “Post-Future.” With the printmaking of a fine art edition of the “Endless Summer” Poster as one of his most famous works, he moved his design work into his Coolhous studio in Santa Monica and between analog and digital environments has managed to create new works like the spectacular Cream posters for their Royal Albert Hall Reunion in 2005, and a hit line today of tees for Worn Free, his 60s and 70s symbolic designs distributed around the world.

[edit] The Fremont Street Experience

Multidiscipline Artist-Designer John Van Hamersveld Named Official Artist Of Fremont Street Experience’s “Summer Of ‘69: Vegas or Bust” June 1 2009 Posted to Art, Events

Fremont Street Experience is proud to announce John Van Hamersveld as the Official Artist of “Summer of 69: Vegas or Bust.” Van Hamersveld is most known for his prominent 1960s iconic image of the Pinnacle Indian, The Beatles cover for the “Magical Mystery Tour” album and poster for the 1966 surf-genre movie, Endless Summer.

Van Hamersveld’s Official Artist of Summer of ‘69 participation will include the creation of a debut Viva Vision show titled, “Signs of Life,” two custom-painted vintage school buses to be used during the summer-long event series and working alongside Fremont Street Experience in design aspects for Summer of ‘69. Van Hamersveld will also open Hippie Nation™ Gallery & Records, an art gallery located at Fremont Street Experience that will sell custom John Van Hamersveld posters, digital prints, original drawings and hand pulled silk screens, in addition to record albums.

“I feel very grateful and excited to work with Fremont Street Experience on the ‘Summer of ‘69 event series,” said the world-renowned pop-culture artist. “My inspiration comes from a new time introduced to us by President Obama, feeling we need to readjust our needs and values to a time of change. I’ve custom-created four symbols that represent Summer of ‘69: a flower, symbolizing growth; a peace sign, instilling safety within; a heart representing love; and a globe for balance. I feel these emblems truly symbolize the great year of 1969 and bring a fresh, modern approach to these events.”

No stranger to the 1969 time period, Van Hamersveld’s impressive repertoire of art includes album covers of famed musicians Blondie, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and KISS, and custom portraits of Eric Clapton and Bono of U2. Van Hamersveld is also known as the official artist of Jimi Hendrix and celebrates his 50-year anniversary as an artist in 2009.

“In 1967-68, I did the Pinnacle dance concerts at Shrine Exhibition Hall with a team of artists and community people,” said Van Hamersveld. “It was like artists doing a music event and it turned into a happening. What I am doing with Fremont Street Experience is similar. I have brought all of these pieces of my drawings and my symbols to the party and we have created a multi-media event here.”

[edit] References

  1. ^ "'Endless Summer' poster guy makes digital waves", by Tom Berg, The Orange County Register, January 14, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
  2. ^ ["John Van Hamersveld, DECADES"], by Robert Wald, Ocean Magazine, July / August 2008

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Van_Hamersveld"