LOS ANGELES – De Getty announced this week that it has taken over the archive of Raymond Pettibon, whose career flyers and album art span from the early punk scene in South California, videos, artist books and paintings and painting that draws from Talloze Referenties.
The archive consists of drawings, notes, concert flyers, prints, zines, skateboards and a surfboard, with 28 boxes. The Getty Research Institute (GRI) will house most of the archive, while paint pipes, ink pots and material with regard to its process and technology will be in the reference collection of the Getty Conservation Institute.
Pettibon, who is 67, started his art career in the late 1970s and made posters and album covers for Black Flag (founded by his brother, Greg Ginn) and other punk bands located in and around Los Angeles. His early work was characterized by a grim graphic quality and dark, often ambiguous juxtap positions of text and image that pon the quiet surface of American society to reveal the unrest and violence underneath. He continued to explore these themes in layered, enigmatic drawings, prints and paintings that established him as an important figure in contemporary art. In 1992 his work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition Helter Skelter: La Art in the 1990s In the Museum of Contemporary Art.
“As a pioneering voice in art, and someone who has spent many years in South California and has defined his mentality, the gift from Raymond will be a great addition to the extraordinary storage of Getty for Artists,” said Shaun Caley Rain, which has already been founder of Pettib, who already has more than three decesbon projects.
The pristine Hilltop Citadel from Getty may seem like a strange match for the sultry works of Pettibon; As Gri -Head curator Glenn Phillips said HyperallergicThe relationship between the two goes back to the beginning of the nineties, when Pettibon gave 40 drawings to the institute. He has continued to donate the books of artists, photocopied phrases and other material in the years since then. In 2003–4 he was an artist-in-residence at the GRI and he investigated the theme ‘markets and value’. (Pettibon studied economics before he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977 from the University of California, Los Angeles.)
In addition to the archive artwork, books and Efemera that go to the Gri, the Conservation Institute receives materials and videos with regard to the creative process of Pettibon. “People can better understand the steps of how he would make a painting,” Phillips explained. “This can be crucial for a curator along the line.”
Although paintings are not included in the archive, works on paper, which offer unique insights into the methods of Pettibon.
“The archive has cut images from magazines and comics, that he is Xeroxed or used as a basis for drawings,” said Phillips. “If you also record finished prints and drawings, you may have illustrated any step of his process.”
