Untitled (Hermosa Beach)

RAYMOND PETTIBON (B. 1957)

Untitled (Hermosa Beach)

titled 'Hermosa Beach' (upper right); signed and inscribed in pencil 'CTP Raymond Pettibon' (lower edge)

hand coloring on color lithograph

sheet: 45 1/4 x 67 1/2 inches (114.9 x 171.5 cm)

framed: 49 x 71 x 2 inches (124.5 x 180.3 x 5.1 cm)

Executed in 2019. This work is a color trial proof from an edition of 48.

Printed by Maurice Sanchez, EJ O'Hara, and Roya Haroun of Derrière l'Etoile Studios, New York.

Published by Brooke Alexander Editions, New York.

PROVENANCE:

Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

NOTES:

“Big-wave surfing is of epic proportions. It has to do with what you call the sublime.… It has to do with making artwork about nature at its most epic, its most ferocious.”

—Raymond Pettibon

Born in 1957 in Tucson, Arizona, Raymond Pettibon is widely recognized for his singular approach to drawing which merges image and text in a practice that spans literature, philosophy, politics, religion, and alternative youth culture. Pettibon’s early roots in the Southern California punk scene laid the groundwork for a career that would extend far beyond subcultural boundaries, engaging with the broader spectrum of American iconography and ideology. Pettibon’s work draws from sources as varied as comics, mass media and canonical literature and echoes the satirical traditions of artists such as William Hogarth and Honoré Daumier. His drawings operate as incisive social commentary, positioning him as a key figure in the evolution of drawing as both critique and storytelling in contemporary art.

Raised in Hermosa Beach, California, Pettibon’s childhood revolved around surfing, comics and other elements of 60s and 70s Los Angeles culture. The West Coast surfer culture Pettibon grew up with has remained a consistent influence in his practice. The surfer imagery has appeared in his work since the 1980s: “I’m interested in those early, pre–surf craze days.… I like the purity, the ‘man alone at sea.’”

Untitled (Hermosa Beach) is part of Raymond Pettibon’s long-running series of surfers and waves, a body of work he began in 1985 and continues to revisit. At first glance, the surfer appears to have reached a serene state within the immense, beautifully blue, curling wave. Yet for Pettibon, the rider represents an existential yearning as they carve a fleeting and elegant path through the chaotic wave. The wave looms above the figure with overwhelming force, indifferent to the rider on their red board, and reminds us of our fragility within the greater scheme of the world. As curator and art historian Ulrich Loock notes of these works: ‘The image of the surfer who is utterly alone when riding an overpowering wave, confronted by an immense wall of water, presents us with the primal scene of sublime experience. But surfing also implies the aggressive overcoming of the forces of nature … where the mind recognizes the body’s insignificance in the face of nature.’

In the present work, as with much of Pettibon’s work, there is a contradictory narrative presented between high and low culture, between chaos and serenity, between irony and sincerity, that forces us to contemplate the madness in how we represent ourselves. The result is not just a meditation on surf culture, but a darkly humorous reflection on the human condition itself.

Pettibon’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Drawing Center, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Kumu Kunstimuuseum, Tallinn, Estonia; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain.