Do you think shaping is an form of art?
Give your opinion and arguments.
Gr, Bram
Yes, I’ve had boards displayed in galleries and museums and won artists grants for work with surfboards. (not to sound cocky)
If you have ever seen one of my boards you would say no,it’s not a work of art! 
Yes, it is. Like porn, or class, you know it when you see it.
“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; But, a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist”
Louis Nizer (1902-1994)
For me, in 45 years of surfing, a well crafted surfboard always has had a sensual quality that rivals any work of art. You know right away it was created by an artist (see above).
yes,
some are great forms of art and art expression.
other are just pieces of…damm ,forgot the bags again !
herb
hey herb
do you also have to pick it up in america?
we do too, and it is…
Functional art .... the highest form of art ....
I think of "art" as being unteachable, something mysterious and wild.
I think of "craft" as being teachable, something that gets better with practice and focus.
The craft serves the art. A vision without the skills is a mess. And ultimately surfboards are about surfing, for me anyway, and surfing too is an art and a craft.
C
Look at both photos below. One of them is an officially recognized “art work” by Marcel Duchamp, the other is merely a surfboard made by Bill Thrailkill. Draw your own conclusions…
(Of course, I could have chosen other “artists” and other “shapers”…)
Yes,
Nothing more beautiful than a well crafted board. Shaping a board is like sculpting , your vision, no one else’s.
oh no, not again.
we already had this thread with the violin player at the metrostation.
you shapers are so full of yourselves!
gr erwin
Didn't want to sound agressive, and of course a lot of surfboards are really nice to look at, feel etc. but so is maybe a car or a nice piece of furniture.
Yes, this is a recurrent topic. But it’s not the only one. And I don’t think that “we shapers are so full of ourselves”. Just knowing where we stand. Nothing wrong with being reasonably proud of a well done job, IMHO. And I stick to this: many so-called “art masterpieces” don’t stand the comparison with some of the boards that are currently posted here and elsewhere. Besides, what’s the need of being so aggressive? Or was it humor I didn’t get?
Maybe this is not the place to discuss what art is or is not, but it is funny that Balsa should choose Duchamp’s ‘urinal’ as a counterpoint. That piece is a powerful rejection of the value of the artist’s traditional craft. It declared that the thought of the artist was as important as his choice of colour. It was rejected when first exhibited at the Independants show, New York 1917 as it was not considered art enough! And has since apparently become the most influential art work of all time!
But i think it could not be used as a surfboard, or could it?
Juan
“But i think it could not be used as a surfboard, or could it?”
As evidenced by a (not so) recent video showing Slater, Machado… riding unlikely surf vehicles, you could say that nothing is impossible… Lol.
Balsa,
I really like the gloss polish but would have prefered it clear…
Applied Arts vs Fine Arts.
Call it Fine Art if you’re asking more $$$ for it.
I do see shaping as an form of art, sculpture ore applied arts,
when you think of evry step you take and make the boards with hands hart and soul, these surfboard can realy become pieces of art. like the works Kevin makes (the first post) www.SpirareSurfboards.com they really are works of great design.
and duchamp is an artist who was realy pushing boundaries, in art history i dont think surfboard design can push those boundaries (especially when the body art movement was introduced, those boundaries are not to be crossed), but that doesn’t take away that it can be a form of art!
Gets into semantics here, I think - might be useful to look at the terms for the makers of things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_craftsman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technician
Myself, I think of 'art' as an awfully nebulous term, applied to far too much and far too often. Any artifact ( something made by a human or for that matter, by a chimpanzee) can be art.... but something made with a functional purpose in mind kinda transcends art and goes to another and higher plane.
As an example - back in the '70s, we had a board in the shop, a Plastic Fantastic. Airbrushed to a fare-thee-well, with stars annd moons and galaxies and what have you. People would come in, stoned as rats, and just sit on the floor and stare at it, saying "Whooooaaaa, cosmic, maaan". I'll confess, did that myself.
But as a surfboard, it was a dog...which was unusual for the Plastics, they were usually really great boards. I suspect that when they saw the shaped blank they figured they'd airbrush it and make it ...well....cosmic, maaan. It was a wall-hanger, not a user.
So, is a piece of art the highest classification for a surfboard? Or would a really good, working board with no artistic frills, one that performed superbly for the user be a higher plane? A really good surfboard...as a surfboard.
Me, I go with #2.
doc....