LOS ANGELES — The Getty announced this week that it has acquired the archive of Raymond Pettibon, whose career spans flyers and album art of the early Southern California punk scene, videos, artist books, and drawings and paintings that draw on myriad references from American history, culture, politics, and literature.
The archive comprises drawings, notes, concert flyers, prints, zines, skateboards, and a surfboard, filling 28 boxes. The Getty Research Institute (GRI) will house the majority of the archive, while paint tubes, ink jars, and material related to his process and technique will be located in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Reference Collection.
Pettibon, who is 67, began his art career in the late 1970s creating posters and album covers for Black Flag (founded by his brother, Greg Ginn) and other punk bands based in and around Los Angeles. His early work was characterized by a stark graphic quality and dark, often ambiguous juxtapositions of text and image that peeled back the placid surface of American society to reveal the turmoil and violence underneath. He continued to explore these themes in layered, enigmatic drawings, prints, and paintings that established him as a significant figure in contemporary art. In 1992, his work was included in the seminal exhibition Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
“As a seminal voice in art, and someone who has spent many years in Southern California as well as defined its mentality, Raymond’s gift will be a terrific addition to the Getty’s extraordinary custodianship for artists and the history of art,” said Shaun Caley Regen, founder of Regen Projects, who has worked with Pettibon for over three decades.
The Getty’s pristine hilltop citadel might seem like an odd match for Pettibon’s brooding works; however, as GRI Chief Curator Glenn Phillips told Hyperallergic, the relationship between the two goes back to the early 1990s, when Pettibon donated 40 drawings to the institute. He has continued to donate artists’ books, photocopied zines, and other material in the years since. In 2003–4, he was an artist-in-residence at the GRI, researching around the theme of “Markets and Value.” (Pettibon studied economics before receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1977.)
In addition to the archival artwork, books, and ephemera going to the GRI, the Conservation Institute will receive materials and videos related to Pettibon’s creative process. “People can better understand the steps of how he would make a painting,” explained Phillips. “This can be crucial for a conservator down the line.”
Although paintings are not included in the archive, works on paper are, providing unique insights into Pettibon’s methods.
“The archive has images clipped from magazines and comics, that he’s xeroxed or used as the basis for drawings,” Phillips said. “When you include finished prints and drawings as well, you might have every step of his process illustrated.”
