Richard Pettibone

Richard Pettibone appropriates great works of art, recreating them in miniature, as a critique of, and homage to, the original work.

Pettibone was born in Los Angeles in 1938. He received his MFA from the Otis Art Institute in LA in 1962. Pettibone’s earliest works were small assemblages and shadow boxes. He was an admirer of Shaker craftsmanship, which is reflected in the careful construction of his work.

In 1962, Pettibone saw Andy Warhol’s first show at the Ferus Gallery in LA. He attributes that show to be one of the main influences on the start of his career as an Appropriation artist. “Many, many of the other artists who saw it really hated it,” Pettibone said. “They were pounding the tables with anger, screaming, ‘this is not art!’ I told them, this may be the worst art you’ve ever seen, but it’s art. It’s not sports!”

The humor and irony of appropriating Warhol’s art, which is in itself an appropriation of the art of others, has remained a constant theme in Pettibone’s work. Warhol and Lichtenstein were generally supportive of Pettibone’s miniature copies. Frank Stella was a bit less impressed. “Stella thinks I’m mocking him, and he’s right, I am mocking him,” Pettibone said. “But I also greatly admire him. But I have to wonder, if he really thinks that a work of art has no meaning, that it’s just paint on a canvas, then how come his so much more valuable than mine?”

Ironically, Pettibone was given an exhibit at the Ferus Gallery in 1965 and then a solo show at the Castelli Gallery in New York in 1968.

He scaled down works of art, almost to dollhouse size. He scaled Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece from the original 54 x 54 inches down to 7 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches. (Pettibone's Masterpiece is available at Surovek Gallery).

Pettibone moved to Brooklyn with his wife, artist Shirley Pettibone (1936-2011), who also received her MFA at the Otis Art Institute in 1962. Their daughter, Claire Pettibone, was born in LA in 1967. She attended the Otis Parsons School of Design in LA and designs bridal gowns at her Atelier in LA. The family moved to Charlotteville in Upstate New York in 1970,

Richard Pettibone died on August 19, 2024.

His works are part of the permanent collection of MoMA, the Whitney, The National Gallery in D.C., MOCA and many other major museums and galleries.