Noosa Longboards signed Endless Summer lithograph winner - plus some insights into Van Hamersveld himself

"The world’s greatest living pop artist." It’s 60 years since the movie’s release, yet John Van Hamersveld’s artwork for The Endless Summer remains the most recognised and revered image in surfing and an emblem for the culture itself.

 Along with the licence for Bruce Brown films, Noosa Longboards is the exclusive Australian stockist for Van Hamersveld’s works. 

Only three signed Endless Summer pieces have come to Australia, and Noosa Longboards agave this one away to a lucky punter - valued at $1200! 

FROM THE WINNER:

“Thanks heaps to Noosa Longboards and John Van Hamersveld, it will be admired for ages!” says Rob Vass, the Noosa Longboards promo winner. “Having this as a centrepiece I'll now need to fetch out my other 10 or so surf film posters!”

MORE ON THE ARTIST:

Born in 1941, Van Hamerveld is arguably the world’s greatest living pop artist, and shortly before travel became so difficult Michael and Ash Holmes from Noosa Longboards got to visit the vibrant 80-year-old in California.

“We thought we were meeting an agent and got such a shock when we arrived at the address and he greeted us at the door and invited us into his home. We spent four or more hours there and he was full of great yarns of course. Like, Tom Blake taught him to swim, he hung with the pre Dog Town skate scene, he was a grom around the late ’50s Malibu scene with Dora and Tubesteak and crew, and went to art school (where his creative skills were viewed as ‘off the charts’), before becoming the artist for so many rock and pop and psychedelic bands from the mid ’60s onwards. He was charming, charismatic, modest . . . it was just an incredible afternoon really.”

Along with a bunch of great stories, Michael and Ash came back to Noosa with a stash of posters and signed album covers, and best of all, “This special and amazing relationship we’ve started with JVH”.

A little more on the poster:

The photo was taken in 1963 by Bob Bagley who was a cameraman for Bruce Brown Films, and Van Hamersveld who was at the shoot, told Michael and Ash that he convinced Brown himself that he had to get into the photo (he’s closest to the camera) as he had an idea in his head on how the finished image could look. He then converted the original into an abstract design by reducing each colour to a single tone and giving each image a single, hard edge. 

A little on the rock stuff:

Among many, Van Hamersveld designed concert posters and/or album covers for Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Cream, The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour), Bob Dylan, Steve Miller, and later Kiss, Blondie and Public Image, along with the Rolling Stones epic double album Exile on Main Street  - of which Noosa Longboards has a few signed copies in store.

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