"We thought we were creating something; we thought we'd conquered the surf world and we did in a way."
Surf culture has taken a hit to the guts with the news that the Australian artist Peter Webb has died of the blood cancer myeloma, aged sixty-seven.
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Webby, who grew up in Geelong in Victoria but soon moved to nearby Torquay, HQ of the world’s surf industry, was the artist who redefined Quiksilver in the nineteen-eighties with radical hand-painted and wildly coloured prints that became the measure of cool not just within surf, but within fashion.
Where surf graphics had long been sunsets and waves, blues, yellows and reds, a continuation of the Endless Summer dream from 1966, Webby’s Ghetto Dog, Warpaint and Surfers of Fortune graphics for Quiksilver shifted the game a hard left.
In 2012, and after twenty seven years, Webby split from Quiksilver.
“It’s like being kicked out of the house and you didn’t fall out of love,” Webby told ABC. “They’ve cut down and I guess I was an indulgence for them.”
He sure wasn’t precious about his ability to throw paint on canvas.
“It’s a hard thing to say, ‘you’re an artist’. It’s such a wank! It’s not like you’re a doctor saving lives.”
However,
“Society without art is morally bankrupt. I just hate talking about it, explaining paintings. I don’t like doing it. I like hearing other people doing it though.”
About his iconic prints he said,
“We thought we were creating something; we thought we’d conquered the surf world and we did in a way.”
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I will make this the sad announcement in my breathy condolence voice on my next Lineup and will pretend to know who he was to prove how core I am. I would like to acknowledge that this comment was written of the ancestral homelands of John Cena.
Wrote him a letter in primary school. He responded to me with a handwritten story. I kept that letter for 10 years, then turned up at Quik Newport and showed it to him, asked for a job. Started my career that did, Webby just being an awesome person.
Webby was such a great bloke, I have fantastic memories of good times with him from the early 90’s I guess. Was super saddened to see this.
Sending love & best wishes to his family.
RIP brother
Very, very sad.
While the surfing has improved drastically since the 80”s the “ art “ and “ soul” of surfing has never been so small and insignificant, perhaps that’s why the “ brands” have all gone broke?
They sold paradise and built just another parking lot.
Sincere condolences to family and friends
The man was a incredible artist and really did make QS a household name with some of the designs. Sad part of history is that all the brands lost their way after the GFC. Now surf gear is not the anti establishment it was once.
When Quiksilver was cool. When Quiksilver was The Brand. If QS doesn’t go back to their iconic roots and promote their brash bad ass heritage the kids won’t know and the brand will be in the grave.
Condolences to his family and friends.