Hardback.
204 pages.
David Zwirmer Books 2022. ISBN9781644230350
With text by Jamie Brisick, Stephanie Gilmore, Emily Erickson & Brian Lukacher.
Raymond Pettibon began his series "Surfers" in 1985 and is still working on it to this day, producing both large scale colour paintings and small monochrome ink drawings.
Pettibon's obsession with big wave surfing is perfectly represented in his signature style. Minuscule surfers drawing lines across chaotic turbulent faces. In his work big wave riding becomes an analogy for both the individual's path through an unpredictable reality and humankind's negotiation with the grand forces of mother nature and the universe at large.
Point Break collects over a hundred images from the series to date in a large stunning volume.
ABOUT RAYMOND PETTIBON
Originally a high school maths teacher in Hermosa Beach, California Raymond Pettibon moonlighted as the bassist in his brothers band. His artwork came to prominence when used extensively by the same brother's subsequent band Black Flag. Slowly gaining notoriety at the forefront of the hardcore punk movement of the 1980s, Black Flag's visual identity was almost entirely intertwined with Pettibon's comic book style drawings. Often depicting violence or the ironies of Reagan era American life, his work became synonymous with DIY culture and the alternative rock boom. In 1990 he produced his, disputably, most iconic commercial work; the cover for Sonic Youth's classic Goo album. For anyone with an interest in the alternative, punk, skate and surf culture that blossomed in 1980s California Pettibon is a key figure. In recent years his painterly style and critique of American culture has equally been assimilated by the fine art world.
