David Mann

(September 10, 1940 – September 11, 2004) was a California graphic artist whose paintings celebrated biker culture, and choppers. Called "the biker world's artist-in-residence,"[5] his images are often seen in biker clubhouses and garages, on motorcycle gas tanks, tattoos, and on t-shirts. Choppers have been built based on the bikes first imagined in a David Mann painting. Many of his images captured the ‘Easyrider’ ethos – speed, the open road, long flowing hair – freedom." Most of his works were for the motorcycle industry, especially for motorcycle magazines.

Courtesy of The Kansas City Star

Biography

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Mann began drawing and painting at an early age. His first passion was custom cars and his first job was as an automobile painter. After High School, he left Kansas City and settled in California where he became interested in motorcycles. He became immersed in biker culture and motorcycles supplanted cars and pin-up girls in his artwork.

In 1963, Mann brought some of his artwork to the Kansas City Custom Car Show. There biker/artist Tom Fugle took an interest in his artwork, and with Mann's permission, showed a photo of the painting "Hollywood Run" to Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a pop artist who was then the publisher of one of the first custom motorcycle magazines, Choppers. Roth loved the painting and commissioned 10 (or as many as 14 or 20, according to different sources) original posters, which were made available in the back pages of Easyriders for many years. In 1965, Mann joined Fugle's El Forasteros motorcycle club, becoming one of the founding members of the Kansas City Charter. In 1971 he answered an advertisement for a "motorcycle artist" in the back of a new motorcycle magazine called Easyriders.

After 1972 his artwork began appearing regularly in the magazine, and Mann's relationship with Easyriders would continue for the rest of his life. His art was reproduced as the magazine’s center spread beginning in 1973 and continued to be the publication's centerpiece until he was forced to retire in 2003 due to his failing health. A collection of Mann's work was published in 1993 and updated in 2004.

In 2004 Mann was inducted into the motorcycle Hall of Fame by artist Billy Lane.

Mann died a day after his 64th birthday. Just before his death a custom motorcycle was commissioned in his honor from Orange County Choppers, to be featured in an episode of the reality television series American Chopper. The "David Mann Bike" featured custom artwork in Mann's style, but Mann died before it was completed. The vehicle served as a posthumous tribute to the artist, and his work was featured on the show.His ashes were to be interred in the gas tank of a Harley Sportster XLCH painted in his trademark "David Mann Red." Mann is survived by his wife and three children.

Work

Mann's illustrations convey simple, direct messages in much the same way as a Norman Rockwell painting.

One of Mann's frequent motifs was a motorcycle and its rider paired with a complementary or contrasting figure. The simplest form is the iconic image of two bikes on the road side by side, and out of this grew different permutations that spanned 30 years. There are three main variations.

The first is a biker alongside a kindred figure, such as a real (not surreal) trucker or other archetypal, biker-sympathetic character, or else a biker shadowed by a ghostly, mythic figure from the past, such as an medieval knight, or American Old West frontier gunfighter or trapper. The two will have several matching clothing items, or have an identical facial appearance in order to ensure the viewer does not fail to appreciate that the biker is a modern incarnation of the mythic persona.

Secondly, the biker would be seen alongside a social antagonist, such as hostile but foolish police officers, square motorists, or an upper-class caricature of The Man who is irritated by his wife's, daughter's' or son's obvious admiration for and longing to ride away with the biker.

The third variation has a female figure, sometimes surreal or supernatural and watching over the biker from the sky, perhaps looming in the rider's memories, or else a real woman motorcycle passenger or woman in the background watching the biker ride away. Women are almost never depicted as riding their own bikes or taking part in the action; they are observers, sex objects, or motorcycle passengers. Their facial expressions are either vacant or filled with admiration or lust directed at the biker and his bike. Sometimes women are shown negatively as a sexual distraction which causes the biker to neglect his bike or his biker buddies.

Grateful appreciation is given to Jackie Mann for this article. If you are interested in purchasing artwork, check out http://www.davidmannart.com/