Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Dr., Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Contact: Christina Limson, 949.494.8971, ext. 208
949.494.8971, extension 200 for general Museum information; Fax 949.494.1530
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Web site, http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org
Special Summer Hours from June 24 – September 03, 2007
Mon.-Wed. & Fri.: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thurs.: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Sat. & Sun.: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
(Laguna Beach, CA) Rick Griffin (1944-1991), a cult figure who has set the iconographic terrain for three distinct subcultures, has had a significant impact on our culture overall. Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence was organized by Laguna Art Museum and will be Griffin’s first major retrospective and first solo museum exhibition. The exhibition, which opens on June 24, 2007, and will include 140 paintings, drawings, posters, album covers, and artifacts, surveys thirty years of Griffin’s work from the 1960s until his death in 1991. The accompanying 156-page catalogue, published in association with Gingko Press, will be the first publication to address Griffin’s impact on the surf, rock and Born Again Christian movements.
Before Griffin begins to revel in the art and politics of the counterculture, he is a surfer. A teenager during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Griffin develops the well-known cartoon-strip character Murphy, which is regularly published in Surfer magazine (the preeminent surf magazine of the era), where Griffin becomes an art director at age 20. Though Mad magazine influences Griffin’s early work from this period, the artist’s innate graphic sensibilities immediately appeal to young surfers, setting into motion a new genre now recognized as the surf cartoon. Griffin’s defiant and mischievous cartoon character helps set the tone for the look and voice of the incipient surf culture.
Griffin is renowned as a "surfer artist" when he arrives in San Francisco in 1966, just in time to earn a poster commission for the first Human Be-In, setting into motion the Summer of Love. Creating a simple, yet powerful design for that event, he quickly makes a name for himself with his brilliant lettering, nineteenth-century graphics, breathtaking color combinations, and humorous approach to advertising motifs. Griffin’s new media is the psychedelic rock poster and his artwork permeates urban cores, where emerging bands that he designs for, such as Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, give concerts. In recognition of his growing influence Life magazine featured Griffin as one of the premier psychedelic artists of "The Great Poster Wave" sweeping the country in September 1967.
While Griffin establishes himself as a lucrative poster artist during the mid to late 1960s, he is simultaneously working as a preeminent artist in the underground comics’ scene. Along with Robert Crumb, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Kim Deitch, and Spain Rodriguez, he establishes the avant-garde Zap Comix.
As the heyday of the sixties is fading, Griffin moves back to Southern California where, in 1970, he is reborn in the Christian faith. As a Christian, Griffin takes a change of direction. He illustrates The Gospel of John and other faith-based work for the just-forming Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. However, when Griffin converts to Christianity, he does not completely leave behind his former life as a member of the psychedelic counterculture. The work he produces after his conversion reflects a mixture of lifestyles, as his new Christian imagery incorporates aspects of psychedelic art, including its intricate lettering and drug-related iconography. Griffin is one of the first artists to express his personal feelings toward Jesus without drawing on conventional iconography passed down from the Renaissance and Middle Ages.
The art of Rick Griffin, whether in cartoons for Surfer magazine, psychedelic posters, Zap Comix, or Christian imagery, mirrors the values and spiritual yearning of a whole generation of youth.
Rick Griffin is killed at the age of 47 in August 1991 while riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle in Petaluma, California. The artist’s last published work in a San Francisco magazine seems to prophesy his early death. It is a self-portrait of him kneeling at Heaven's Gate with a pen and ink in his hand.
Heart and Torch is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essays by Doug Harvey, Greg Escalante, Jacaeber Kastor, Chaz BojÓrquez, and with an interview with Chuck Fromm, and a chronology by Gordon McClelland.
Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence is organized by Susan M. Anderson for Laguna Art Museum and co-curated by guest curators Greg Escalante and Doug Harvey.
RICK GRIFFIN LECTURE SERIES
All lectures are free with museum admission
Sunday, June 24, 2007- 1:00 p.m.
Psychedelic Moment: The Big Five and Zap Comix in the 1960s
This panel on Griffin and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury features the artist’s widow and internationally respected artists who initiated the psychedelic art and underground comic movements. With Ida Griffin, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, Spain Rodriguez, and Robert Williams. Moderated by Jacaeber Kastor, founder of Psychedelic Solution Gallery, New York.
Sunday, July 15, 2007- 1:00 p.m.
Chronicles of a Subculture: Rick Griffin, Murphy, and Surfer Magazine
This panel highlights Griffin’s popular cartoon character, Murphy, featured in Surfer magazine in the 1960s, with artists and designers Art Brewer, Jim Evans, Hyatt Moore, Randy Nauert, John Van Hamersveld, and Mike Salisbury. Moderated by Steve Pezman, publisher of The Surfer’s Journal.
Sunday, August 19, 2007- 1:00 p.m.
Typographical Transcendence: Tales from the Griffin Vault
Carl Rohrs, artist and instructor at Cabrillo College, discusses Griffin’s unique contribution to graphic design featuring rarely seen works by the artist.
Sunday, September 16, 2007- 1:00 p.m.
Evangelism, Music, Art, and Visual Faith: A Confluence in the Art of Rick Griffin
Chuck Fromm, publisher of Worship Leader magazine and patron of Griffin’s The Gospel of John, discusses the influence of the born-again Christian movement on the artist’s life and art.
RICK GRIFFIN CATALOGUE
The long anticipated book, Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence, will be available at the Laguna Art Museum Store by mid July.
The book Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence accompanies the 2007 exhibition at Laguna Art Museum and is a compilation of essays and images surveying thirty years of Griffin’s work from the 1960s until his death in 1991. The 156-page catalogue was designed by Jeff Girard and co-published and distributed internationally by Gingko Press. It includes essays by guest curators Doug Harvey and Greg Escalante, as well as essays from Jacaeber Kastor, Chuck Fromm, Chaz Bojórquez, and Gordon McClelland.
Order your advance copy now!
The exhibition is presented by Hurley and Surfer magazine.
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About Laguna Art Museum
Laguna Art Museum is well-known for breaking new ground in the study of American art and pop culture from a West Coast perspective. The Museum has made unprecedented studies of the impact that car and surf culture have had on American art. LAM’s exhibitions, which travel nationally and internationally, are accompanied by publications exemplifying the scholarship of the Museum’s staff and associates and are valuable reference works on the history of art and culture in the United States.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions at Laguna Art Museum
Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence (June 24-September 30, 2007)
Hurley Show of Hands (June 24-September 30, 2007)
Festival of Arts: The First Decade, 1932-1941 (June 24-September 30, 2007)
California Art from the Permanent Collection (continuing)
Greetings from Laguna Beach: Our Town in the Early 1900s (continuing)
Museum Information
Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free. The Museum is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days.
Special Summer Hours from June 24 – September 03, 2007
Mon-Weds & Fri.: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thurs.: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Sat. & Sun.: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Become a member! Join at http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org/cart/membership.html
