America’s Cup Modern Art

Veteran marine photographer KOS Evans creates modern art on legendary sails.

This article was written by Bill Springer. Photography courtesy of KOS Evans.

When it comes to the special alchemy that can happen at the intersection of superyachts and the America’s Cup, the Barcelona Superyacht Regatta Gala, held during the America’s Cup last fall, had all the exclusive elegance you’d expect to find at the pinnacle of the yacht racing world.

But this isn’t a story about the party. In fact, I think the charity auction that took place during the gala and featured the extraordinary modern art series created by the award-winning marine photographer KOS Evans was the highlight of the night for several reasons.

First off, her talent as a marine photographer has been obvious since she first blasted onto the scene during the historic 1983 America’s Cup. And as a yachting journalist who’s always depended on talented photographers to help illustrate my stories, I can say with authority that KOS has always been one of the best in the world.

Second, my admiration and respect for her has only grown since I’ve gotten to know her. In fact, I think she’s one of those rare artists who combines talent, fun, passion, hard work, creativity, and community mindedness in ways that can inform, inspire, and delight.

And after learning about her motivation to use pieces of sail from some of the most famous and historic racing yachts in the world to create the stunningly modern art that was up for auction in Barcelona, I love her even more!

“The concept sort of came about by accident when I was offered some old America’s Cup sails,” she says with a smile, over coffee in Barcelona. “I thought how cool would it be to turn them into works of art.”

As you can see, the photographic sculptures she specifically created to be auctioned off during the recent America’s Cup are very, very cool.

And she continues to have rare America’s Cup sails from the 12-meter Stars & Stripes, J class-era Shamrock V, Velsheda, Ranger, and Endeavour donated to the project. Of course, she has some sails from the most recent America’s Cup, while she also has pieces from the record-breaking clipper ship Cutty Sark, King George V’s yacht Britannia, and others.

“I’m excited that I have these amazing America’s Cup sails,” she says. “Turning them into art has been a much more interesting and challenging project than I could have ever imagined. What I found is you can’t just use a straightforward photograph. What I really love about this project is that it’s inspired me to visualize a whole different way of portraying my images.

“For instance, I use some of the graffiti and street art from Barcelona in the team New Zealand piece. It also has an image of Sir Peter Blake I shot in 1992 during their America’s Cup campaign that had a most incredible red sail. For me, the image of the silver sea with a red sail and the graffiti of Barcelona celebrates the Kiwis’ successful defense of the cup in Barcelona.

“It’s been a challenge to work out how to print on the material because these sails have literally been through the wars. And some are covered in salt. And some are delaminated. Some of them absorb water, some of them don’t. But it’s all been worth it.”

And that’s what makes this series so interesting to me. Each piece is not only a one-of- a-kind piece of art. Each also contains a living, breathing piece of yachting history that no one else has. And it doesn’t get any more exclusive than that.

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