A Pen of All Work

Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work is the catalogue of the New Museum’s 2017 survey of the artist, published by the museum together with Phaidon.

The exhibition filled the New Museum’s three main floors from 8 February to 9 April 2017 and traveled to the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht from June to October that year. The museum called it the largest presentation of Pettibon’s work to that date, with more than eight hundred drawings from the 1960s onward, early zines and artist’s books, and videos. Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari, the curators of the show, edited the catalogue. It runs to 408 pages in hardback with nearly 700 images, begins with Pettibon’s childhood drawings, and includes an interview with the artist by Gioni. The museum lists contributions from Benjamin Buchloh, Carrion-Murayari, Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Frances Stark and Lynne Tillman.

Pettibon’s drawings pair image with text. The museum’s account of the show names Charles Manson, Gumby, Superman and Ronald Reagan among the figures in his work, and it describes his subjects as ranging from surfing, baseball and war to family. His sources, it says, run from movies and literature to comics and television.