Raymond Pettibon is celebrated for his prolific corpus of drawings that examine modern America in its myriad forms. Growing up in the Californian beach cities that cultivated the counterculture movement of the 1960s, Pettibon’s self-taught practice exists at the intersection of drawing, illustration and text. Threading handwritten quotations, aphorisms and poetic fragments through often humorous, sarcastic, cartoon-like drawings, the artist takes his cues from a range of references that offer seemingly elusive yet poignant narratives. Americana in all its guises is picked apart and interrogated – mainstream sports, religion, the cult of celebrity and other pillars of American society occupy much of his oeuvre, and it is both the objective aesthetic of mass media and the mythological signifiers these social frameworks represent that Pettibon cross-examines.
On the occasion of Art Basel OVR: Pioneers, Sadie Coles HQ presents eight drawings all completed in the 1980s at the beginning of what would prove to be a revolutionary career. Confrontational and lyrical, these early works are a collision of iconography, polemics and provocation.
OVR: Pioneers Preview (by invitation only) Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 2pm (CET) – Thursday, March 25, 2021 2pm (CET) Public days Thursday, March 25, 2021 2pm (CET) – Saturday, March 27, 2021 midnight (CET)
artbasel.com/ovr or via the Art Basel App Google Play: play.google.com/store/artbasel
