Raymond Pettibon draws inspiration from subjects such as film, sports, sex, and the American way of life. The strong connection to comics in his works is a deliberate choice. His pieces fluctuate between visual imagery and textual elements, but unlike comics, the text often has no direct relation to the drawings and can appear cryptic. Frequently, these texts are literary quotes, drawing on a wide range of literary history—from the Bible and James Joyce to Marcel Proust and 1980s literature. The intertextual references require knowledge of their various sources, not to clarify the meaning, but to provoke confusion and suggest an ironic or ambiguous perspective.
Pettibon primarily works with Indian ink, and many of his drawings remain monochromatic, with color added through crayons or watercolors. In his recent works, he has increasingly incorporated collage, a technique he has used sporadically in the past, particularly in his paper-based pieces. Additionally, Pettibon has ventured into video and theatre. Regardless of the medium, his works consistently challenge and provoke intellectual engagement.
The artist’s works are held in numerous prestigious museum collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; Centre Pompidou in Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin; Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami; The Israel Museum in Jerusalem; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Moderna Museet in Stockholm; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate in the United Kingdom; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
