Point Break: Raymond Pettibon, Surfers and Waves

A volume dedicated to the punk artist’s work in our favorite subject.

Raymond Pettibon’s wave illustrations have been a motif in his work since 1985. Point Break is a hardbound compilation dedicated to this singular theme accompanied by text from TSJ contributor and Soundings host Jamie Brisick, art historian Brian Lukacher, big-wave surfer Emi Erickson, and eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore.

From the publisher: This book spotlights a selection of more than one hundred surfers from the series, from smaller monochromatic works on paper to colorful large-scale paintings applied directly to the wall. For Pettibon’s protagonist in these works, surfing exists apart from all else. Momentarily he achieves sublimity on the wave, distant yet synced with turbulent reality. We are forced to confront our own scale: small and feeble in the face of the power of nature, what is beyond our control. Pettibon’s lyrical writings on these painted surfaces—both his own and lines taken from literature—reference his own philosophies and the confusions of reality: he critiques and highlights the hypocrisies and vanities of the world he engages.