The Artist on Deck
There aren't a lot of art bargains, but they happen all the time at Supreme, the haberdashery/skating goods emporium on Lafayette Street in NYC, North Fairfax in L.A., and hither and thither in Nippon. James Jebbia, the mastermind of this brand, which he founded in 1994, has commissioned skateboard decks from a variety of artists, from 1998 to the present. Among them: Ryan McGinness, who did an ultracool Pantone series; the always gnarly and inscrutable theoretician of Iconoklastic Panzerism, Rammellzee; realist supreme Dan Colen; Peter Saville, who did variations on his record sleeve for Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures; Public Enemy; Larry Clark, who worked nudity, sex, and violence into his two decks; and, now, Jeff Koons.
I picked up a Koons deck for my son Oscar, who at six is still riding a Razor, and it's hanging on his wall. The kid has a pretty good art collection at this point. The Koons was the bargain of the lot at $68 (cheap).
I figure that eventually Oscar will want to ride it, so I think I'll pick up what we book collectors call "a riding copy." I remember my first board had metal wheels and a small, plain-wood, flat deck. My ass remembers, too.
I'm assuming "Artist" in quotes is a clue.
G.
gqstyleguy
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Any idea who the first "Artist" to do a skateboard deck was?
BorisVian
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