Raymond Pettibon: Noir

Noir features a rarely seen group of drawings from the 1980s by Raymond Pettibon, made while the artist was living in Los Angeles amid punk rock’s heady, breakout atmosphere. Filled with counterculture references, from skinhead lovers and doomed jets to stickups, nocturnal propositions, careening cars, and the Sunset Strip, these works mark the emergence of Pettibon’s singular hand and the origins of techniques and motifs that have proved important throughout his career. Noir evokes the Hollywood genre that flourished in the 1940s and ’50s, providing both mood and subject matter to draw from—sometimes literally, as seen in some of these pieces—and remains a potent theme in Pettibon’s work.

The artist’s simultaneous address to wider sociopolitical topics, among them global warming and US imperialism, affirms this period as foundational for his practice in its astute, kaleidoscopic rendition of contemporary culture.

Ripe with punk subversion and a certain sublime quality that is truly cinematic, these drawings resonate into the present day. As gallery director Andrea Cashman explains, “The iconography of these works speaks to intense moments for our own cultural reckoning, with subtle undertones of the Reagan era and how that may, in some ways, relate to our current sociopolitical climate. Without being heavy-handed, Pettibon’s finger is always on the zeitgeist, exploring ways to appreciate and critique it in one stroke.”

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“Pettibon is a great wit—his subjects, whether serious or tongue-in-cheek, convey a sense of agency. While they might appear cynical or dark, I think there is an invisible thread connecting them that is also, in some ways, celebratory or redemptive.” —Andrea Cashman

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (The new acrylic...), 1984

Ink on paper

10 1/2 x 14 inches (26.7 x 35.6 cm)

Available

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (The cake going...), 1986

Ink on paper

8 1/2 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm)

”In an offhand way my art of this period was influenced by film noir, because the average Bette Davis film of the time was just one medium shot, reaction shot, over-the-shoulder shot after another. In film noir, there are more complex scenes going on, not just two talking heads.”

—Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon

No Title, 1981

Ink on paper

12 1/4 x 17 inches (31.1 x 43.2 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Madball Fundy P...), 1986

Ink on paper

13 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (33.7 x 24.8 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (We know that...), 1988

Ink on paper

11 x 17 inches (27.9 x 43.2 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Past La Brea...), 1988

Ink on paper

8 1/2 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm)

“I always liked this one. This is a black and white cop car; she's walking down the street with her bikini on, ‘Just keep walking, the Sunset Strip falls into the ocean,’—you know, you take it all the way to the ocean from West Hollywood. The police are following her.”

—Raymond Pettibon

“The words ‘not so innocent’ in this work [describe how] Americans have a relationship to nature which is that they destroy it, whether it’s global warming, or whatever. We're complicit sometimes. Being from LA, you’re always expecting a motherfucking earthquake, you know?” — Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Not so innocent...), 1988

Ink on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (The family crypt...), 1986

Ink on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title, 1981

Ink on paper

10 x 14 inches (25.4 x 35.6 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title, 1983

Ink on paper

9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches (24.8 x 34.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Call me when...), 1985

Ink on paper

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (I can't help...), 1985

Ink on paper

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.8 cm) Framed: 15 1/8 x 12 1/8 inches (38.4 x 30.8 cm)

“Pettibon engages with the subversive qualities of punk, but he is not too tied up in the idea of anarchy being the way to solve the world’s problems.” —Andrea Cashman

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (With my good...), 1986

Ink and collage on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Los Angeles spread...), 1986

Ink on paper

5 1/4 x 8 inches (13.3 x 20.3 cm) Framed: 7 1/4 x 10 inches (18.4 x 25.4 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (You didn't love...), 1981

Ink on paper

11 x 8 1/4 inches (27.9 x 21 cm)

“My father was a navigator in the Second World War and we went to a couple of air shows. Why have these planes? America has never been invaded, never in two hundred-plus years, so that's what this work is about. It’s the suicidal nature of American imperialism.”

—Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Taking a bath...), 1986

Pen and ink on paper

11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Road of death!), 1981

Ink on paper

11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

“Pettibon’s attention to the formal qualities of the page shows his deep appreciation for, and understanding of, art history in an extremely erudite way. He has been looking at Goya and at Daumier, and his grasp of classical literature and art comes through on paper.” —Andrea Cashman

Raymond Pettibon

No Title, 1982

Ink on paper

12 x 8 1/2 inches (30.5 x 21.6 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Torturemos Las Monjas...), 1982

Ink and colored pencil on paper

11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Framed: 14 x 11 1/4 inches (35.6 x 28.6 cm)

“Vavoom. He's in the Alps, he's an Estonian. He's got a huge voice that could break through mountains. He's like [the poet] Friedrich Hölderlin, like the beginning of language—he doesn't speak English, he doesn't speak German, he speaks his own bellowing tongue. That's the reason he appeals to me and why I go back to him again and again.”

—Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Vavoom, you see...), 1989

Ink on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm) Framed: 17 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (45.1 x 37.5 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Gripping it so...), 1985

Ink on paper

10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (26.7 x 21.6 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (That summer was...), 1985

Ink on paper

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Elvis took to...), 1986

Ink on paper

8 1/2 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm)

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Cocky the chimp...), 1986

Ink on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm) Framed: 17 x 14 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches (43.2 x 35.9 x 3.8 cm)

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