Studio: Raymond Pettibon

Text description reading Raymond Pettibon has returned again and again to the subject of surfers swallowed by colossal waves, a motif he exploits for all its sublimity and allegorical resonance. Regarded by ancient Polynesians as a spiritual ritual, since the 1960s surfing has taken on valences of stoner counterculture, allowing Pettibon to plumb its depths and shallows. Pettibon’s eternal return to his wave works across media is a practice that helps him to reach a “flow state” in the studio, without leaving it.
A detail of a painting by Raymond Pettibon titled No Title (Big gun pen.), dated 2020.
A detail of a painting by Raymond Pettibon titled No Title (Big gun pen.), dated 2020.
A detail of a painting by Raymond Pettibon titled No Title (Big gun pen.), dated 2020.
A detail of a painting by Raymond Pettibon titled No Title (Big gun pen.), dated 2020.
Text Description reading No Title (Big gun pen.), 2020
A painting by Raymond Pettibon titled No Title (Big gun pen.), dated 2020.

Raymond Pettibon

No Title (Big gun pen. ...), 2020
Acrylic and gouache on paper
52 x 100 3/4 inches (132.1 x 255.9 cm)
Text description reading When did you start drawing waves? “When I was a kid, like on my Peechee folder, or in class, doodling or whatever. I still have some that I did when I was like, five, six years old.”—Raymond Pettibon
An installation view featuring works by Raymond Pettibon, dated 2019
Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: Frenchette, David Zwirner, Paris, 2019
Installation view, Raymond Pettibon: Frenchette, David Zwirner, Paris, 2019
Text description reading "Perhaps no subject better captures the spirit of Mr. Pettibon’s drawings than that of surfers dwarfed by towering waves." —Nancy Princenthal, The New York Times
A painting by JMW Turner, titled Seaview
J.M.W. Turner, Sea View, c. 1826.
Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art. Henry Vaughan Bequest 1900
J.M.W. Turner, Sea View, c. 1826.
Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art. Henry Vaughan Bequest 1900
“I don’t know if it’s apocryphal or real, but there is the story of JMW Turner having himself lashed to the mast so he could experience the storm up close. And you can see that in his paintings. He wanted to be more than a witness. A part of it, kind of.” —Raymond Pettibon, in Homo Americanus
“I don’t know if it’s apocryphal or real, but there is the story of JMW Turner having himself lashed to the mast so he could experience the storm up close. And you can see that in his paintings. He wanted to be more than a witness. A part of it, kind of.” —Raymond Pettibon, in Homo Americanus
A still from the film Endless Summer
Publicity photo for the 1966 surf movie The Endless Summer.
Photographer unknown. Distributed by Cinema V
Publicity photo for the 1966 surf movie The Endless Summer.
Photographer unknown. Distributed by Cinema V
Text description reading “I like art where you can see the struggle that goes into making the work, the hit or miss, the faith you have to work with a loaded brush and to make a mistake, cover it up, make it into something else.” —Raymond Pettibon
Raymond Pettibon's studio, 2020.
Raymond Pettibon's studio, 2020
Raymond Pettibon's studio, 2020
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