Surf Collection Book

[spineto studios]

Gerard Decoster has published the most comprehensive surf collection table top book I have ever seen. This book is over 350 pages of images of surf art and surf collectibles on the market. This book truly exemplifies the surf art culture and the surfing scene. This book is also published in many different languages and is sold across the globe. This book features my art along with Remi Bertoche, Alan Casagrande, Ron Croci, Damian Fulton, Wade Koniakowsky, Kevin Short, Ozzie Wright and forwarded by John Severson. This book is truly ground breaking.

Below is a description of the book :

It was the summer of '79: Gérard Decoster ⎯ raised in the North, a man of fashions and trends with a boutique in Paris ⎯ discovered both the Basque coast and surfing. An inverter of trends who emigrated to a land of ex-emigrants (the Basques), he was one of the first, with his surf shop Hangar in Biarritz, to sell posters and tiki torches, surfboards and skateboards, salt water dreams in plastic, bronze, wood, metal, paper our celluloid.

Thirty years later, Gérard Decoster surfing practically more, but surfing still occupies his days, and especially his nights. The man is an insomniac, which comes in handy, as it's in the middle of the night that all the online auctions in the States finish ⎯ on sites dedicated to these "grails" of the sport of the Hawaiian kings that he so stubbornly pursues. His collection is unique because it is figurative and almost completely open: no surfboards or stickers, but other objects ⎯ rare, amusing, unique, tacky, sublime; some worthy of a rummage sale, others of the greatest museums. As soon as they arrive by post in his Basque village, they are photographed, archived, filed, stored or displayed in his home museum. They quickly find a place in one of the display cases of the travelling exhibit he created, as they did in this book. Artist, designer, digital artist, photographer and layout designer of this work dedicated to what he calls his "accumulation", Gérard Decoster is also the creator of the Marché international d'art contemporain consacré au surf in Biarritz (MIACS), an art market bringing together artists whose work is associated with surfing. He, of course, is its principal client, compelled to own the best work of all these artists, of whom he has become the biggest fan and the best ambassador.

It's true, the majority of the pieces in this collection, and so, in this book, come from the USA, and particularly from Hawaii ⎯ places > that have always fed the dreams of this eternal little boy, both in his lifestyle and way of living; places where ⎯ out of fear of shattering a myth, he has never set foot. No matter! It is with relish and passion that I plunged into this unique collection, contributing to it the information and anecdotes gathered during my 'surfing travels', or simply unearthed through reading and research. And what if these collected objects just didn't turn out to constitute the richest and most wonderful history of surfing?

Alain Gardinier

I've always been crazy about 'stuff'! Already as a kid, from Dinky Toys to electric trains, then as an adult, for anything 20th-century… But I admit that when Jo Moraïz (one of the pioneers of surfing in France, and the founder of its first surf shop) gave me his key ring the day I arrived in Biarritz thirty years ago to settle here and to surf, I had no idea that this accumulation of objects depicting surfers would take on such importance in my life.

It's true that I had already had some similar kinds of urges during my first incarnation as a Parisian… We were a bunch of nuts, at the Montreuil flea markets and elsewhere, from Brussels to London, armed with flashlights before dawn, tracking down an incredible range of things: there was François Lopez (tin robots), Léon Khatchikian (posters), Florence Cestac and Etienne Robial (Mickey Mouse), George Kalaidites (enameled advertising signs), Marie-France (1950s glamour clothes), Henri Chauvin (kitchen appliances), Alain Ménard (American shoes), Pierre and Gilles, and other too numerous to mention!

I also used to run into Jean-Claude Dreyfus, but I didn't know at the time that he was mad about pigs...

In the Basque country, my addiction naturally turned toward neo-Basque design, a fantastic mix of art deco and regional decorative tradition. As for surfing, after a few fruitless searches, I wasn't very optimistic about the variety and wealth of the items out there. However, contrary to what I thought, I ended up with the extravagant

total of 1,000 objects, documents and works of art!

My first book was titled Surfing Visual Arts, and I could hardly have been more surprised to find this Surfing Art ring not long ago !

Just a few words to explain how I conducted my searches: I wanted to position myself as an "archaeologist" of surfing, as a "surfologist" (as Alain Gardinier put it); that is to say to look for ALL that had been created graphically around the theme of surfing, a bit more like an archivist than a collector. To my way of thinking, the simple fact of its existence justifies the presence of the object, document or work of art in the collection. I have no personal opinion regarding "beauty", value, era, or authorship, hence the widest possible variety of styles and materials, from the end of the 19th century to the early 21st, from bronze to plastic, from the classiest to the kitschiest!

This accumulation of objects is very visual; it's the point of the book - a material and fantastical image of surfing that I leave you to discover alongside texts by Alain Gardinier, another madman obsessed with the world of surfing. This fellow "surfologist", author of several books and films on the art of 'hanging ten', plunged headfirst into the collection to discover the origin, meaning, and poetry that flows from all this testimony to a unique sport, to an epoch, to a lifestyle.

Gérard Decoster

www.spinetostudio.com

[Ron Croci]

Does anyone know the name of this book, that Tony Spinetto is describing, or where to purchase it?

[spineto studios]

Surf Collection

[Ron Croci]

I just recieved my Surf Collection Book. WOW, what a hell of a compilation. It's amazing how much stuff the surf culture has produced. I even have a picture in it! Yes to Gerard DeCoster who produced this wonderfull encyclopedia of surfing related art and kitch. Also the forward by John Severson will speak to every surfer.
What surprises me is that some of the most beautifull surf related imagery was produced by Detroit , as well as travel agencies in the 60's for car commericals, and tourism.

[spineto studios]

truly an amazing book... our images look great ! not to mention the book weighs about 5 pounds !