Richard Pettibone
MFA Fine Arts - 1962
Richard Pettibone (‘62, MFA)'s early influences were Warhol's thirty-two cans of soup
at the Ferus Gallery in 1962 and Duchamp's first U.S. retrospective at the Pasadena
Art Museum in 1963. By 1965, he began making miniature copies of work by contemporary
artists such as Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Johns. He recreated their processes, and
mounted the canvases on dollhouse stretcher bars and frames. Pettibone pioneered appropriation
art, creating a distinctively West Coast current of "Conceptual Pop". ...
His first solo show was at L.A.’s legendary Ferus Gallery, and from there he exhibited
largely in N.Y. at Castelli, OK Harris, and the Curt Marcus Gallery. He has had approximately
35 solo exhibitions since 1965. In 2006, he was the subject of a museum retrospective
that toured the country.
Regarding this retrospective’s showing at the Laguna Beach Museum, Los Angeles Times
reviewer Holly Myers spoke of Pettibone's "exceptionally beautiful, sharp, skillful
and tenderly crafted" paintings. According to Myers, the work of the last 40 years
"makes a strong case for Pettibone's standing among the top tier of L.A.'s Ferus-generation
artists."
