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Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn on June 16, 1957) is an American artist and sometime musician and lyricist.

Known for his comic-like drawings with disturbing, ironic or ambiguous captions, Pettibon's subject matter is sometimes violent and anti-authoritarian. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, he was closely assocated with the punk rock band Black Flag and the record label SST Records, both founded by his older brother Greg Ginn. Beginning in the 1990s, he became a well-known figure in his own right in the contemporary art scene.

He works primarily in ink on paper and many of his drawings are monochromatic, although he sometimes introduces color through the use of crayon, pencil, or watercolor. In addition to his paper works, Pettibon has experimented with video art and has recently produced large art installations by arranging his paper works within a room in the context of larger drawings made on the walls of the galley.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Gallery 3 References 4 External links

Pettibon earned an economics degree from UCLA and worked as a high school mathematics teacher for a short period, before pursuing a career in art in 1977.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, his brother, guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn, founded the influential punk rock band Black Flag. Initially, Pettibon had been a bass player in the group when it was known by the name Panic. When the band discovered that another band called Panic existed, Pettibon suggested the name Black Flag and designed their distinctive "four bars" logo. Around the same time, Pettibon adopted his new surname; speculation suggests that he did so in order to avoid being referred to as "Ray Ginn" (as in Ronald Reagan, already a much-hated figure amongst punk rockers).

Pettibon’s artwork appeared on flyers and records for Black Flag through the early 1980s, and he became well known in the Los Angeles punk rock scene. Black Flag singer Henry Rollins described Pettibon as quiet, something of a loner and an avid jazz fan; Rollins also said Pettibon, like his brother Greg, was profoundly hardworking and disciplined, sometimes producing dozens of drawings per day.^[1]

In the 1980s, Pettibon released numerous books through the SST label; most or all of them are now out of print and sometimes command high prices. He soon started producing artwork for other bands on the SST Records label, including The Minutemen. He had a falling out with Black Flag after drummer Bill Stevenson cut up one of Pettibon's drawings to make a collage for one of the lyric sheet of Black Flag's Loose Nut album.^[2] In 1990, Pettibon provided the cover art for Sonic Youth's Goo LP.

Since then, Pettibon has gained acclaim in the international art scene. He gained much wider notability in the contemporary art scene after his participation in the controversial 1992 Helter Skelter exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and had his first major solo exhibition in 1995. His works are included in the permanent collections of public galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and a large collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His work has also been exhibited at The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In 2004 he was the recipient of a Bucksbaum Award, an award given every two years to an artist who has exhibited at the Whitney Biennial.^[3] The award has increased interest in Pettibon's work; a few weeks after receiving the award, one of his ink-on-paper works commanded a record $66,000 at auction.^[4]

Also in 2004, he can be seen working on some new pieces in Mike Watt's music video for "Tied A Reed 'Round My Waist", while Watt shows the camera some other recently finished Pettibon works as well as a Black Flag promotional flyer depicting Richard Nixon. That same year, several of Pettibon's Black Flag flyers were reproduced in the 10th Anniversary Edition of Henry Rollins' book Get In The Van.

Pettibon occasionally dabbles in music, sometimes leading a group called Super Sessions that has played in the Los Angeles area. He has also contributed lyrics to songs on fIREHOSE's Flyin' The Flannel and Mr. Machinery Operator albums, and in October 2006 will be making his recording debut as a vocalist on the Unknown Instructors' second album The Master's Voice.

He currently lives in Hermosa Beach, California.

Early fliers and cover art for Black Flag and other bands:

1. ^ Henry Rollins; Get In The Van: On The Road With Black Flag; 2.13.61 Publications, 1994, ISBN 1-880985-23-3
2. ^ Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991. Little Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1
3. ^ "Raymond Pettibon receives 2004 Bucksbaum Award" (press release), Whitney Museum of American Art, May 2004.
4. ^ "MOCA boasts million-dollar auction", Art Business News, September 2004

• pbs.org Art21: Raymond Pettibon (includes images and interviews)
• Raymond Pettibon on Artnet.
• Raymond Pettibon at Regan Projects gallery.
• Raymond Pettibon Gallery on 2ndthought.net.
• "black flag gig flyers from the early 80's using raymond pettibon artwork", Mike Watt's Hoot Page, November 22, 1996.
• "The Underbelly Artist" by Michael Kimmelman, New York Times Magazine, October 9, 2005.
• "Raymond Pettibon Interview", Bad at Sports episode 36. (MP3 audio)
• Performance with Rudiger Carl at SASSAS sound. concert archives (links to streaming QuickTime video)
• Mike Watt's "Tied A Reed 'Round My Waist" video, featuring Raymond Pettibon at work (links to QuickTime video)

Black Flag
Greg Ginn
Vocals: Keith Morris | Chavo Pederast | Dez Cadena | Henry Rollins
Bass: Raymond Pettibon | Spot | Chuck Dukowski | Kira Roessler | C'el Revuelta
Drums: David Horvitz | Brian Migdol | ROBO | Emil Johnson | Chuck Biscuits | Bill Stevenson |Anthony Martinez
Discography
Albums: Damaged | My War | Family Man | Slip It In | Loose Nut | In My Head
Extended plays: Nervous Breakdown | Jealous Again | Six Pack | TV Party | The Process of Weeding Out | Minuteflag | I Can See You
Live: Live '84 | Who's Got the 10½? | Annihilate This Week
Other releases: Everything Went Black | The First Four Years | Wasted...Again | The Complete 1982 Demos Plus More |
Related articles
Rollins Band | Dos | State of Alert | Gone | SST Records | October Faction | Joe Cole