Tuesday Art ATTACK- Raymond Pettibon "I Thought California Would Be Different (1989)"

By Christian Franzen

Raymond Ginn was born on June 16th, 1957 in Tucson, Arizona. Ginn was born in Arizona but raised in Hermosa Beach, California where he live with his 4 other siblings, mother, and father. After high school, Ginn attended UCLA and graduated with a degree in economics. For a short time after college he worked as a math teacher in the Los Angeles County School District. He then decided to go back to school at UCLA in order to get his BFA and completed it in 1977.

Later that same year his brother Greg Ginn founded the iconic punk rock band now known as Black Flag, also during this time Raymond changed his last name to Pettibon. In the beginnings of the band they went under the name Panic, Pettibon originally played base. However, it was soon discovered that there was an already existing band that went by the name Panic so Pettibon suggested the new name of Black Flag and designed the iconic four bars logo. The new band and logo were a hit and Pettibon's artwork began to be displayed on flyers, album covers, and merchandise. As a result he became very famous in the Southern California Punk Rock Scene.

Besides working on his own body of work he also created popular album cover for Sonic Youth's album Goo and many other album covers for bands such as Minutemen, Off!, Foo Fighters, Saccharine Trust, and many more. Pettibon works primarily in india ink on paper; sometimes he additionally uses colored pencil and or watercolor to add coloring. Pettibon finds influence in the works of William Blake, Goya, and political cartoons. Throughout the 1980's and 90's participated in many group exhibitions through out the United States and Europe and 1995 he had his first solo show at David Zwirner Gallery. More recently in 2006, Pettibon had a huge survey exhibition at the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga in Spain and in 2014 he sold his house in Venice Beach for $1.219 million.