Rietveld Unplugged
by Ken McKnight
posted 2004-11-15
You've seen Rick Rietveld's incredible and bizarre artwork in magazines and posters for years. Colorful images like giant green melting chocolate drops, sharks ridden by American Indians, beautiful mermaid creatures, women of incredible depth and beauty, strange tandem fantasies, even Albert Einstein in the 90's. The list goes on of his unique and colorful artwork. Rick is an artist who has forged a natural talent (painting/illustrating) with a passionate addiction (surfing/beach), supported them with a "Real Job" (part owner/creative director) with a clothing company, and twisted and formed it all into a lifestyle.
Photo by Ken McKnight
If Rick never paints or draws another picture in his life, his place in surf art pantheon will be forever cemented by the in placelegacy of work he has already completed. From the famous "Flying Sharks" and "Sharkman" of his Maui & Sons days to the "Last Judgment" and "Deluge" of the nineties right up to "Helping Hand", "Always Fresh" and the "Bob Marley-esque-Freedom Rider," Rietveld seems to have no shortage of incredibly bizarre and unique ideas to draw from. His body of work is impressive, the style unmatched, and the ideas often no of this world.
His art MO is simple - Mainlined Stream-of-Consciousness Surrealism with a twist of irony. "The funny thing is," laughs the artist, "people look at my work and say - what is this guy on? And the answer is - nothing but life itself. The ideas just come to me and I have to put them down. I honestly don't know where they come from. Sometimes they'll come as Technicolor dream, while others come from my direct interaction with the ocean on a daily basis. I don't have any control over these ideas and I'm not trying to make any statement. I just love what I do and it comes natural to me."
Artwork by Rick Rietveld
It is important to understand Rietveld's stature in ocean awareness surf art. He is probably the pre-eminent surf artist of our modern era. Picking up where his hero and all of ours, the legendary Rick Griffin, left off, Rick, in many circles, is compared directly to Griffin. His uniquely individual style is bizarre, yet pleasing, with images that are easily assimilated into our psyches, and technically perfect to the eye. We not only see his waves, but also feel their movement, texture, and color. You want to be there. His characters are easily identified with, but they come with thought and that is the true genius of an artist, to make us think, smile, and feel, to become one with the art. Whoa! That is heavy!
At the same time he has successfully transcended the medium from art to art's sake, into a commercial arena without too much compromise. Something that is hard to do.
I hadn't seen Rick for almost another eight years. The last time we spoke was for an interview in an Australian magazine. Staying in touch with his past work was easy as I still had numerous posters of his on my walls in the band room and in the kid's rooms. There aren't many surf magazines around where I haven't seen an ad or someone wearing the shorts. Like thousands of other surfers who own his t-shirts, boardies, and posters, his artwork stared at me and my friends, from my most solitary moments to our mad-hatter parties, asking us all to comment on them - and we did, many times over.
Artwork by Rick Rietveld
Like the surf world we play in, seeing Rick, and his work again up close, was like running into an old friend out in the water. I felt comfortable with his strange paintings and depictions and easily got right into talking with him about them. To view his work however, you will need to think in three dimensions - Sight, Sound, and Touch. You will also need to have a sense of humor because his work will undoubtedly make you smile and want to go surfing.
Rietveld paints the way a Kelly Slater surf, without equal. His style is envied and copied the world over and he is only just starting to hit his stride. In a constantly critical industry, this character stands tall in the barrel and makes it out time and time again. No matter what he does from this point on, Rick Rietveld will always be a presence and a role model. If you don't believe it then check out his royalties, licenses, and design sales in the better surf shops in America and from Hawaii to Europe, Puerto Rico to Malaysia. I posed the penultimate question to Rick, "What would one that is unfamiliar with your work, viewing it for the first time, expect to see in your paintings?" and his answer was - "Their own imagination."
