Mike Kelley

Dan Graham

Bill Henson

Tracey Emin

Elizabeth Peyton

Jake Chapman

Richard Prince

Gillian Wearing

Dinos Chapman

Robert Gober

Raymond Pettibon

Gavin Turk

Andreas Gursky

Vanessa Beecroft

Richard Billingham

Fourth Sex, The

Lydia Davis

Geoff Bouvier

Victoria Redel

Noon

collected works

Homo americanus

Edward Dimendberg

Gerald Matt

Thomas Mie gang

Whatever It Is You're Looking For, You Won' t Find It Here

In the summer of 2013, Raymond Pettibon took over one of David Zwirner’s gallery spaces in New York, transforming the high-ceilinged, garage-like white cube into his studio in order to prepare a show of drawings and collages within—and sometimes directly on—its walls. Titled To Wit, evoking the Middle English expression that has come to express a certain formality today and is defined as “namely,” or “that is to say,” the exhibition gave new meaning to the term “site specific,” featuring vibrant, gestural works Pettibon created in conversation with his surroundings that operated as a sort of archive, both product and record of his relationship to that space and time. Unified by their bold, vivid lines and unconventional framing, they feature allusions to a wide spectrum of American “high” and “low” culture, from violence, humor, and sex to literature, youth, art history, and sports—embodying the artist’s signature mix of social and political commentary, diary entry, and automatic drawing. This publication, presenting large color plates of the works created over that summer by Pettibon, who also produced an original drawing for its sturdy cardboard cover, explores the intricate relationship between image and language that has long fascinated the artist. Just as the works in the exhibition existed at once as art and document, so too does the book itself have the hefty, physical presence of a work of art. Extensive installation views capture the dynamic combination of visual imagery and text that has come to characterize Pettibon’s practice, and a selection of gritty black-and-white photographs by Andreas Laszlo Konrath offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s working process. Context is provided by Lucas Zwirner, who accompanied the artist throughout this period and contributed the book’s essay, “A Month with Raymond.” As Zwirner describes it, the show functioned “as an essayistic whole held together by imaginative leaps and subtle connections which Raymond has left unexplained and uninterpreted.” That perspective is rounded out in an interview with the artist by Kim Gordon, a visual artist and musician, who first encountered Pettibon’s work in the early 1980s in Los Angeles.

Raymond Pettibon: To Wit

For over twenty years, Raymond Pettibon's drawings have earned an international following for their fluid style and youthful, iconoclastic outlook. His work is acclaimed for its wit and erudite eccentricities, and reveals an affinity for a diverse group of authors -- from Baudelaire to Henry James to Mickey Spillane -- whose quotations abound in his drawings. This book is a catalogue raisonne of his artist books produced between 1978 and 1998, many of which are now extremely rare and highly collected in both the art world and underground music circles. Popularized by small, independent music labels and publishers like SST and Superflux, these booklets and 'zines were originally available only in very small print runs -- edition sizes ranged from 30 to 150 copies, where Pettibon's rough yet cultivated style became synonymous with the late 70s and early 80s D.I.Y. aesthetic. Presenting over a hundred of Pettibon's publications -- 32 printed in their entirety with two of these published for the first time -- this very limited edition hardcover is a valuable look at the development of one of the most significant artists from the last quarter century.

Thomas Miessgang

Based in California, US-artist Raymond Pettibon is one of the most thorough chroniclers of American milieus of popular culture. A Goya of our times, whose "Desastres" depict less the wars actually waged than the confrontations taking place inside people's heads, the battles between youth cultures, and the cops-'n'-robbers games transfixed into durable and quotable shape in the repertoire of images provided by film noir. While a detailed catalogue presents all 500 works shown in the exhibition "Whatever it is you're looking for you won't find it here," an extensive interview with Raymond Pettibon conveys an idea of his intellectual microcosm and the productive energy unfolding in his work.

Marcel Dzama

Let Us Compare Mythologies

Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon

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