AUTHORS OF THE SEA - 1979

Eight cast concrete walls, two on each of the building’s four sides. Made using Van Sant’s signature cast concrete technique, the eight Authors of the Sea murals each comprise a sea-related quotation with a related intaglio illustration.

By 1979, having worked with the intaglio process for ten-years, Van Sant was using a complex layering system and sandblasting to enhance the illusion of his images. For example, in the intaglio of a sailing ship, depicted right, it may look as though more of the small white stones in the aggregate have been positioned in the stripes on the sails. However, the paler tones resulted from more use of a sandblaster in those areas.

For more information about the individual panels, please click on the links below. With “Panel 1” located at the building’s frontage on East Coast Highway, the list moves in sequence around it counterclockwise.

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL ONE, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL TWO, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL THREE, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL FOUR, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL FIVE, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL SIX, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL SEVEN, C. 1979

TOM VAN SANT, AUTHORS OF THE SEA, PANEL EIGHT, C. 1979

  • "FRESH WINDS ON A CHOPPY SEA CUTTING THE CORNER FINE." - Chichester

    The text on this panel is from the 1964 autobiography of British adventurer Sir Francis Chichester, the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe. It is accompanied by an image of Chichester’s yacht, the “Gipsy Moth IV," in full sail.

  • "OUT OF THE WATER HE CAME TO HANG MOTIONLESS IN THE SKY." – HEMINGWAY

    The text is from U.S. author Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, published 1952. The book reads: “He had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky.” It is accompanied by an intaglio image of a leaping marlin.

  • "I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN FOR THE CALL OF THE RUNNING TIDE IS A WILD CALL AND A CLEAR CALL THAT MAY NOT BE DENIED." – JOHN MASEFIELD

    Writing of “seas” rather than a “sea,” British writer John Masefield published his poem Sea Fever in 1902. A dynamic intaglio of a single rower in powerful waves accompanies the quotation.

  • " KING OF CREATION. OH IMPIETY AND BLASPHEMY TO HUNT HIM MORE." – MELVILLE

    The text on this panel is from U.S. author Herman Melville’s Moby Dick; or, The Whale, published 1851. It is accompanied by an intaglio of two whales. The back of one of the whales appears to breach the waterline. Neither whale has a dorsal fin, suggesting they are grey whales.

  • "YOU HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE YOURSELF. YOUR TRUE SELF HERE AND NOW. AND NOTHING CAN STAND IN YOUR WAY." – RICHARD BACH

    A quotation from U.S. author Bach’s novella Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, published 1970, accompanies intaglio images of seven seagulls that appear to fly from right left side in front of a full sun.

  • "HEARKEN TO THE DOLPHIN YE HUMANS. WE CALL FROM THE LIQUID DEEPS. AND THE LONG LONELINESS. SPEAK WITH US." – JOHN LILLY

    From the late 1950s, U.S. neurophysiologist and inventor of the isolation tank, John C. Lilly pioneered research into interspecies communication that focused on bottlenose dolphins and involved extensive experimentation with psychotropic substances. The quotation accompanies an intaglio depicting five dolphins that appear to be swimming, or leaping, from the right to the left of the viewer.

  • "AND LIKE THE WINGS OF SEABIRDS FLASH THE WHITE CAPS OF THE SEA." – LONGFELLOW

    A quotation from U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1850 poem Twilight accompanies the intaglio images of four pelicans, which appear to fly from the viewer’s left to right.

  • "THE FAIR BREEZE BLEW THE WHITE FOAM FLEW THE FURROW FOLLOWED FREE WE WERE THE FIRST THAT EVER BURST INTO THAT SILENT SEA." – COLERIDGE

    British Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner provided the quotation. It accompanies an intaglio image of two people aboard a boat in full sail.

  • 2101 East Coast Highway, Corona Del Mar, CA 92625

  • 1979

  • Ficker & Ruffing

  • Integral color exposed aggregate concrete

  • Van Sant's records state that all panels are 8 x (15’ x 15’ x 4")

  • $90,000

  • Bank of Newport, Newport Beach, CA

  • Extant, in situ, in good condition.

  • Photographer: Janet Owen Driggs

  • Van Sant had previously worked with architect William Ficker in 1969, when he made Bird of Wisdom for Ficker’s Hoffman Motors showroom.

    The Bank of Newport was established in 1972 and failed in March 1994. The interior of thebuilding is currently divided into suites that are occupied by finance, real estate, and medicalcompanies; with a gym in the basement. The exterior retains its original characteristics, including Van Sant’s eight cast concrete walls.

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