Don Ed HardyStorm Dragon2001
2001
About the Item
- Creator:Don Ed Hardy (1946, American)
- Creation Year:2001
- Dimensions:Height: 47.5 in (120.65 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Lyons, CO
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU32421853403
Don Ed Hardy
In the world of art and fashion crossovers, there likely isn’t a more polarizing figure than Don Ed Hardy (b. 1945), a talented artist whose reputation as a tattoo master was blemished by the adoption of his work into a controversial fashion line. But there’s much more to Hardy’s story than the clothing — it begins with his revolutionizing the tattoo industry and ends with a bout of artistic redemption.
Born in Newport Beach, California, Hardy displayed an aptitude for drawing at a young age; he would go on to earn a degree in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he took illustration classes under the likes of Bay Area figurative painters such as Joan Brown. But rather than pursue a career as a fine artist, Hardy turned to tattooing as his main form of expression, studying under tattoo legend “Sailor Jerry” Collins before traveling to Japan to learn from tattoo master Horihide. These two icons would influence Hardy’s style, which he would develop in his own shop.
Hardy’s first space, Realistic Tattoo Studio, opened in 1974. It was modeled after Japan’s premium tattoo parlors and was the first appointment-only tattoo studio in the United States. (Tattooing was less than low-brow in America at the time. New York City, for example, criminalized the act in the early 1960s, and the law remained in place for the ensuing decades.) Hardy would go on to create elaborate, sprawling back and chest pieces for his private clients and soon opened an additional public studio called Tattoo City. The artist garnered recognition for his work in the academic community, earned the Tattoo Artist of the Year award at the World Tattoo Convention in Houston in 1979, and by 1982, he was copublishing books on tattooing. Hardy played a major role in changing the public’s perception of tattooing from something that had been relegated to the margins to mainstream body art.
Of course, that shift in perception would ultimately lead to Hardy’s licensing of his work in 2003 to fashion magnate Christian Audigier of lifestyle apparel brand Von Dutch fame. Audigier plastered Hardy’s drawings across flamboyant hooded sweatshirts, which found a niche among quite a few controversial celebrities, including cast members of American reality-television series — this tainted the brand with a negative connotation. Some turned against Hardy, decrying Audigier’s apparel as gaudy and tasteless.
“People began globally to know my images, my name and my signature, but they didn’t know there was a real person behind it,” Hardy told CNN. Hardy and Audigier’s partnership ended in a settlement after a court battle in 2009.
Hardy has returned to the world of fine art, with galleries, museums and collectors lauding his drawings and paintings. In 2019, Hardy became the subject of a retrospective at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Although he retired from tattooing in 2008, he still works closely with Tattoo City, which is currently managed by his son, Doug.
Find Don Ed Hardy’s richly illustrated prints and more at 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Lyons, CO
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Sweet Pea IIBy Robert KushnerLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph with metallic leaf, Edition 30 Kushner's use of rich color harmonies and bold, fluid drawing, mark his belief in the importance of beauty in our lives. Kushner ha...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- EntanglementBy Clark RichertLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph, Edition 30 Richert, who was intuitively observing shadows cast by three-dimensional forms, found that one such structure – the rhombic tricontahedron – placed un...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Free Range & HowboyBy Don Ed HardyLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph with gold leaf, Edition 30 Don Ed Hardy is a painter, printmaker and tattoo artist. Fascinated by tattoos since childhood, Hardy has ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- AllBy Emmi WhitehorseLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph, Edition 25. Emmi Whitehorse is a painter and printmaker. Using a private language of symbols and memories, Whitehorse makes 'personal diaries' of her life as an ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- RootBy Rodney CarswellLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph, Ed. 25 The artist describes his work: My work has often been described as belonging to a category of ‘reductive, geometric abstraction’. In the last decade ho...Category
2010s Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- As the Moon RisesBy Susan HallLocated in Lyons, COColor lithograph with pochoir, Edition25 Susan Hall lived and worked for many years in New York City before returning to her childhood home in Point Reyes Station, California. She depicts moments suspended in the mysterious light of this place of marshland, wave-broken coast line and tawny, rolling hills. In Susan's latest prints Solitary Oak and As the Moon Rises...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- David Shrigley, They Were Too Long, 2020 (Discontinued)By David ShrigleyLocated in Manchester, GBDavid Shrigley, They Were Too Long, 2020 Off-set lithograph Open edition, unframed 60 x 80 cm (23.62 x 31.5 inches) Printed on 200g Munken Lynx paper by Narayana Press in Denmark...Category
2010s Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- David Shrigley, Life Is Very Good, 2016By David ShrigleyLocated in Manchester, GBDavid Shrigley, Life Is Very Good, 2016 Off-set lithograph Open edition, unframed 60 x 80 cm (23.62 x 31.5 inches) Printed on 200g Munken Lynx paper by Narayana Press in Denmark ...Category
2010s Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- DREAMFIELDS I: PINK, Hand Drawn Lithograph, Pastel Abstract DrawingBy Sybil KleinrockLocated in Union City, NJDREAMFIELDS I is a hand drawn original lithograph by the artist Sybil Kleinrock (spouse of the renowned jewelry designer David Yurman. It was printed in seven colors using traditiona...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Unexpected Guests - Lithograph by A. Ruellan - 1970sBy Andrée RuellanLocated in Roma, ITImage dimensions: 29.9 x 24.7 cm. Unexpected Guests is an original colored lithograph realized during the 1970s by the French artist Andrée Ruelland. The artwork represents a coupl...Category
1970s Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Little Gangsters - Lithograph by Pino Reggiani - 1970sBy Pino ReggianiLocated in Roma, ITHand Signed. Edition of 110 pieces plus 30 pieces in Roman Numbers. Pino Reggiani ( Forlì, 1937). Italian painter. Many of his works are present in museums and public collections in...Category
1970s Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Untitled - Lithograph by Alexander Calder - Late 20th centuryBy Alexander CalderLocated in Roma, ITUntitled is a Lithograph on paper realized in second half of 20th Century by Alexander Calder. Very good condition including a white cardboard passpartout (32 x 50 cm). Alexander C...Category
Late 20th Century Contemporary More Prints
MaterialsLithograph