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23/3/2012

Raymond Pettibon

Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern

Curated by Lynn Kost

The exhibition Whuytuyp1 presents Raymond Pettibon's recent period of works from 2006 to 2011. These five years allow a comprehensive classification and examination of his new works for the first time. Beginning in 2001, there is an obvious break in his work in regard to style and content that takes on mature form around 2006. The exhibition clarifies the mutually dependent changes.

Pettibon began liberating his line by using broader brushes. His pleasure in the gesture and the increasing expressiveness are also visible in his use of bold colors. This development took place simultaneously with a shift in content towards overriding topics. The messages in his works became more philosophical and increasingly began dealing with general topics of social and societal criticism from a bird's eye view.

Raymond Pettibon's works record Western society through its discursive essence. Their fascination stems from the "polyphony" and the fractures that are due to his view of the individual and the world. Beginning in 2008, the complex use of collage indicates Pettibon's insight into a fragmented society that is made of incoherent parts.

Similar to a historian, Pettibon records what takes place before his eyes, using artistic methods. He calls this activity "testifying". Pettibon places his "testimonials" side by side, without comment and intuitively sets them in relation to cultural history. His singular symbiosis of text and image is just one way of depicting the simultaneousness of multiple levels of perception and mixing different levels of connotation.

Pettibon's artistic practice is neither linear nor continuous and it does not serve teleology. Discontinuity in content and form make relationships and functionalities evident that could not take on form in any kind of historical narrative. The density of the overall picture and the conciseness of the individual works become especially obvious when many of his works are shown next to each other. Pettibon is able to break open discursive constraints with his art. He uses this to liberate sidelined, repressed and taboo aspects of society. This enables the viewer to envision society's incoherent complexity in its disturbing power.

Thanks to their discontinuous nature and aphoristic qualities, the works comment on the essence of society differently on every occasion, depending on their arrangement. Their lyrical keynote is the only constant. The exhibition Whuytuyp shows that this becomes quintessentially apparent in his most recent work cycle. It offers ways of thinking about the discursive nature of Raymond Pettibon's works and about "every violent, sudden, pugnacious, orderless and dangerous thing that exists, that great incessant and orderless murmur of discourse".2

Raymond Pettibon was born in Tuscon, Arizona in 1957. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in economics. Raymond Pettibon lives and works in New York. His works have been shown internationally in numerous exhibitions. For example, he has had solo exhibitions in the Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2007); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (both 2006); and in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2005). His works are in the following permanent museum collections: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Gallery, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; etc.

1 Colloquial for: "what's up" or "hello". Is also a reference to the sentence "what is up on the wall"
2 Michel Foucault: Die Ordnung des Diskurses, S. 33 (Frankfurt a. M., 2010, Fischer Taschenbuch)

In collaboration with Fumetto – Int. Comix-Festival Luzern

Press contact:
Julia Strebelow, +41 41 2267813 julia.strebelow@kunstmuseumluzern.ch

Image: Raymond Pettibon, 2011 © Kunstmuseum Luzern

Opening Saturday 24 March, 3.30 p.m.

Kunstmuseum Luzern
Museum of Art Lucerne Europaplatz 1 (KKL Level K) - Luzern
Opening Hours
Tuesday + Wednesday 10am-8pm
Thursday to Sunday 10am-5pm
Open on all public holidays, incl. Mondays

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