Our Secret Spot

This online-only presentation debuts a limited-edition lithograph featuring Raymond Pettibon’s most notable motif: the iconic wave, a subject the artist has explored in his practice for nearly three decades.

The new work is published by David Zwirner’s fine art print publisher, Utopia Editions, and coincides with the release of the artist’s latest publication, Point Break: Raymond Pettibon, Surfers and Waves.

A six-color lithograph on Rives BFK paper by Raymond Pettibon, called No Title (Our Secret Sport.), dated 2022.

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022
Six-color lithograph on Rives BFK paper
44 3/4 x 30 3/4 inches (113.7 x 78.1 cm)
Edition of 35, 10 AP


No Title (Our Secret Spot.) is the latest work in Pettibon’s ongoing series of drawings, paintings, and prints that depict surfers and waves, begun in 1985 when he was living in Venice Beach, California.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022 (detail)

Raymond Pettibon’s new edition, No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022, at Derriere L’Etoile Studios in New York, 2022. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Raymond Pettibon’s new edition, No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022, at Derriere L’Etoile Studios in New York, 2022. Photo by Max Burkhalter

“In a favorite motif, a tiny surfer rides a monstrous wave, as philosophical thoughts attend: ‘The sand and water to which we are reducible are as a rock to me’ or ‘Don’t complicate the moral world.’”


—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker

Photo by Baptiste Lignel, 2011

Photo by Baptiste Lignel, 2011

Photo by Baptiste Lignel, 2011

“[Pettibon] did a spectacular series of surfing pictures, all big blue waves.… Figures are reduced to specks or eliminated. Texts are so small as to be barely visible. Experimentation with color and line is the story here … finally art that invites maximum looking and requires minimum reading.”


—Holland Cotter, The New York Times

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, New Museum, New York, 2017. Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, New Museum, New York, 2017. Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio 

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, New Museum, New York, 2017. Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio 

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon, MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 1999. Courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo by Brian Forrest

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon, MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 1999. Courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo by Brian Forrest

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon, MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 1999. Courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo by Brian Forrest

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, The Bonnefanten, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2017.  Photo by Peter Cox

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, The Bonnefanten, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2017.  Photo by Peter Cox 

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, The Bonnefanten, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2017.  Photo by Peter Cox 

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: Frenchette, David Zwirner, Paris, 2019

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: Frenchette, David Zwirner, Paris, 2019

Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: Frenchette, David Zwirner, Paris, 2019

The six-color lithograph No Title (Our Secret Spot.) was printed at Derriere L’Etoile Studios in New York, where Pettibon has collaborated with master printer Maurice Sanchez for more than two decades. Photo by Max Burkhalter

The six-color lithograph No Title (Our Secret Spot.) was printed at Derriere L’Etoile Studios in New York, where Pettibon has collaborated with master printer Maurice Sanchez for more than two decades. Photo by Max Burkhalter, 2022

The six-color lithograph No Title (Our Secret Spot.) was printed at Derriere L’Etoile Studios in New York, where Pettibon has collaborated with master printer Maurice Sanchez for more than two decades. Photo by Max Burkhalter, 2022

Ink is prepped for the printing of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) at Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Ink is prepped for the printing of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) at Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Ink is prepped for the printing of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) at Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

The rollers of an offset lithographic press are inked to pull an impression of Untitled (Our Secret Spot.). Photo by Max Burkhalter

The rollers of an offset lithographic press are inked to pull an impression of Untitled (Our Secret Spot.). Photo by Max Burkhalter

The rollers of an offset lithographic press are inked to pull an impression of Untitled (Our Secret Spot.). Photo by Max Burkhalter

Ink drips as the printing press is cleaned. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Ink drips as the printing press is cleaned. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Ink drips as the printing press is cleaned. Photo by Max Burkhalter

A layer of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) is printed. Photo by Max Burkhalter

A layer of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) is printed. Photo by Max Burkhalter

A layer of No Title (Our Secret Spot.) is printed. Photo by Max Burkhalter

The new edition also shares similarities with Pettibon’s first waves of the 1980s and 1990s, which were more graphic and vertical in nature, such as the 1987 works No Title (We have seen…) and No Title (Dont complicate…)the latter of which is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and was shown there in 2000.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (We have seen...), 1987

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (We have seen...), 1987

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (We have seen...), 1987

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Don't complicate the...) 1987

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Don’t complicate...), 1987

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Don’t complicate...), 1987

Pettibon’s new prints on the wall of Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Pettibon’s new prints on the wall of Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

Pettibon’s new prints on the wall of Derriere L’Etoile Studios. Photo by Max Burkhalter

A detail of Raymond Pettibon, called No Title (Our Secret Spot.), dated 2022

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022 (detail)

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Our Secret Spot.), 2022 (detail)

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