"A grand, explosive, creative talent."
Big, beautiful Art Brewer, the Californian photographer whose work defined surfing over five decades, and who created the legend of Bunker Spreckels via his ionic imagery, has died.
“Without all those incredible Brewer photos, we wouldn’t even be talking about Bunker Spreckels,” the surf historian Matt Warshaw told me a few years back. “Bunker in many ways was Art’s muse. He made Art a better photographer, helped bring out the genius.”
Art, who was seventy-one, had been in UCLA’s intensive care unit since July following a liver transplant. You’ll remember a couple of weeks back the GoFundMe that was set up to help cover his exorbitant medical bills; the first invoice he received was for quarter-of-a-million dollars despite being fully insured.
Referred to “as the sport’s most naturally gifted surf photographer”, Art owned the seventies, eighties and nineties in the American surf mags before splitting to do more lucrative commercial work, although his surf spirit still soared.
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But also: “Brewer’s eye for color and framing is unmatched in the surf world, and much of his best work has been done as a portraitist, when he has unfettered control over light, texture, and mood.”
The Hawaii-based photographer Brian Bielmann, another long-serving great, wrote,
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There are many folks who have this line attributed to them, including Jon Kabat-Zinn, the spiritual teacher. I cannot find Pee Wee on that list. I’m familiar with “the final line from Lord Buckley’s monologue known as “Jonah and the Whale” which dates from the 1050s. It goes:
“Which only goes to prove, as Confushi said, ‘If you get to it, and you can’t do it….? There you jolly well are, aren’t you!'”
Met Art years ago at a signing of his 2001 book of photos. I purchased a great print of Cunningham body surfing. Thanks, Art, for all you did in your long and incredible life as an artist.
i didn’t know him.
Cudos to all photogs ’cause before I could read surf mags or playboy all I did was look at pics and spreads. Stoner was my muse ’cause one peek at Stoner’s Point and I caught the next train…In The Search. Twice! Couldn’t read the weather maps and did not know the difference between the ‘on’ season vs the ‘off.’ But jeebus, San Blas and Matachen Bay and the sweltering heat and riding thousand miles of rails with goats, chickens, mothers & children…alone at age 14?
Be careful about showing surf mags to vulnerable teens. Not gonna talk about Hustler pics!
Or in Aus, Ribalds was very much Hustlers equivalent.
Surfermag should have ran with that cut apart & stapled shot of him.
Mo…?
I really want to hear all the stories of beefs with the man.
he was more than an Icon of sport of surfing……….he was the “Art” of Surfing!
is that De Sanctimonious ?
Have a look at your profile. You have it also.
I didn’t know Art, but I know what I like. Boom tish!
I am not a big political person but I voted and that’s all that matters. If you want to keep prodding at the technicalities of my original post go for it. Obviously I hit a sore spot.
I think that what has clearly been proven here is some morons when it comes to politics are devout to one team or another, like a sports fan for their favorite team as opposed to inteligently considering policy and strategic direction. Quick to label others as Leftist of facist when differences of opion surface, the same morons will quickly turn an orbituary into some form of political spectical.
RIP Art. This sad story highlights the embarassing state of affairs of the American Selective Health System.
Yeah. We are all a bunch of morons.
Art once told an anecdote about being Bunker Spreckles personal photographer for a few months, as Bunker worked his way through his inheritance.
In South Africa, there had been a flat spell and Bunker was on mandrax, a common drug in South Africa at the time, and drinking heavily. He came into Brewer’s room at the Beach Hotel, the only hotel in Jeffrey’s Bay, waving a loaded .40 calibre pistol, also common in South Africa.
After pumping three rounds into the plaster wall next to Brewer’s head, he growled “Don’t look at Ellie again, or I’ll blow your fucking head off” Ellie being Bunker’s girlfriend.
Brewer said he liked the job and it paid well – Bunker was ok when he wasn’t drunk or high, which wasn’t very often anymore and an asshole when he was and overall, this job wasn’t worth getting killed.
He packed his bags and left early the next morning, taking a taxi to Port Elizabeth while Bunker was still sleeping off another binge of dope and booze.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
Who gives a fuck about the election. This was about a great photographer and his life. Please fuck off.
What a great thing to bring up in the comments of someone’s obituary. Real class act, fucko.
He’s a D.
Rick Wilson’s book Everything Trump Touches Dies was some solid foreshadowing to anybody he backed in this weeks primaries.
“the first invoice he received was for quarter-of-a-million dollars despite being fully insured.” The USA is the only rich nation where this could happen. UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, NZ, South Korea… free health care is a human right.
RIP, I hope his family can find peace.
What is Brewer’s most iconic shot? The Bunker Sprekels red board portrait is probably the shot everyone thinks of, but I’ve always liked the Herbie Fletcher cheater 5 at Maalaea.
Those film pics look so much better than digital