Richard Pettibone
ROY LICHTENSTEIN 'MASTERPIECE’ 1962, 1975
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas in artist's frame
7 3/4 x 7 1/2 in
19.7 x 19.1 cm
Available at Surovek Gallery
I wanted to be a great painter. What better way to do that than to copy a great painting?
– Richard Pettibone
Richard Pettibone died on August 19, 2024. He was 86. A spokesperson for the Castelli Gallery reported that the artist died after a fall.
Pettibone was born outside of Los Angeles in 1938. He received an MFA from the Otis Art Institute in L.A. in 1962, where he focused on creating shadowboxes and assemblages.
The same year that Pettibone graduated, Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans were shown at the Ferus Gallery in L.A., an exhibit that influenced the course of Pettibone’s career; he faithfully reproduced Warhol’s works, in miniature, rubber stamping both Warhol’s, and his own name, on each work. He did the same with other artists whose works he admired, like Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Frank Stella.
Not only was much of his art ironic, but so was the start of his career: the year after he saw Warhol’s Soup Cans, his copies of Warhol’s works were shown at the same gallery.
Pettibone was not only a fine artist, but a master craftsman. He greatly admired the fine work of Shaker furniture makers and crafted each of his works with superior skill and talent. He duplicated his miniature frames with bracing on the back and created miniature sculptures with the same expertise.
“Mr. Pettibone is a connoisseur and careful explorer of the chief wellspring of art-making: the simple love of art,” New York Times art critic, Roberta Smith wrote in her review of Pettibone’s 2005 retrospective, that was organized by the Tang Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in collaboration with California’s Laguna Art Museum.
“His work makes transparent the complex mixture of discernment, admiration and competition that spurs artists to make something they can call their own.”
Richard Pettibone is survived by his daughter, wedding dress designer Claire Pettibone.
Richard Pettibone’s 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.
References:
Alex Greenberger. Richard Pettibone, Artist Who Appropriated Others’ Paintings for His Own Work, Dies at 86. Artnews. September 13, 2024.
Vittoria Benzine. Richard Pettibone, Who Turned Appropriation Into an Art, Dies at 86. Artnet. September 16, 2024.
AX Mina. A Miniature View of Modernism’s Masters. Hyperallergic. October 31, 2022.
Brienne Walsh. Jesus Made Pettibone Mock His Idols. Art in America. September 15, 2011.
Keith Seward. Richard Pettibone. Artforum. October 1993. Vol. 32. No. 2.
