Edmond Shumpert
This is my favorite sculpture in the Honolulu airport, which I passed through recently. It's in the corridor connecting the terminal for inter-island flights with the rest of the airport. It depicts a nude man paddling a canoe. I was curious to find out more about it.
The sculpture was made by sculptor Edmond Shumpert in 1998, depicting Toots Minvielle, the patriarch of Hawaiian outrigger canoe racing.
A rear view of the sculpture. Edmond Shumpert was born in Mississippi in 1942. He studied art in Pasadena, California, and spent most of his career in California.
Shumpert is best known for his statues of surfers in Huntington Beach, California. This 2002 statue depicts Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, at age 18. Kahanamoku was a native Hawaiian and an Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer. Between his Olympic competitions, starting in 1912, he popularized the sport of surfing, previously known only in Hawaii, introducing it to southern California and Australia.
Huntington Beach calls itself Surf City USA. Shumpert made small statues of naked surfers (above) that were given to winners of surfing competitions there.
In 1971, Huntington Beach commissioned Shumpert to create a life-size surfing statue. He traveled to Italy where he sculpted the statue above and had it cast in bronze.
It's now the most famous artwork in Huntington Beach. It's officially named The Ultimate Challenge, but locals call it the Nude Dude.
The sculpture is based on Shumpert's memory of a surfing maneuver that he saw performed by world-class surfer Mike Doyle, who taught Shumpert how to surf.
So, if you happen to pass through Huntington Beach or the Honolulu airport (above, another view of the Toots Minvielle statue), be sure to check out Shumpert's work.
10 comments:
great artworks!
Great stuff. How many times have I been to So Cal and never knew about these???
Terrific sculptures!
No wonder he moved from Mississippi to California. His great homoerotic work would have been banned in Mississippi & he would have possibly been jailed too
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I've admired the HNL Airport sculpture for over 20 years. Good to see it here!
You're to be commended for this expansive post. The sculptures are inspiring as is the work you put into assembling the pictures and writing the commentary.
Makes me wonder how often (and where) people surf naked...
Back in the day - about 20 years ago - I and two buddies actually surfed naked in SoCal for a whole day. It was fantastic, but oh dear we didn’t use enough sunblock! Never been able to repeat the experience, sadly.
I seem to recall that Sydney, Australia, used to sponsor nude surfing championships, but not sure about the particulars. I do enjoy viewing photos of hunky Aussie lifeguards wearing microscopic speedos. Perhaps a future post could feature these awesome lifeguards!
I think the sculptor moved back to Eupora, Mississippi in later years, maybe maintaining residences in two states. Earlier in this century he sculpted the bulldog mascot of Mississippi State University in Starkville, which is not very far from Eupora. (I’ve driven through that little town a lot, going to and from an annual family gathering in Grenada, MS.)
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