Richard Pettibone (born 1938, Los Angeles) is one of the pioneers of appropriation art. The artist helped set the stage for 80's appropriation art by recycling the pop culture appropriations of Pop Art. His earliest works were shadow-box assemblages addressing his interest in model making, especially toy trains and airplanes. In 1964, when he was 26 and living in Los Angeles, he produced two tiny, exquisitely made copies of Andy Warhol's 1962 painting "Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot)," one in green, the other in gray, both stamped with Warhol's name and his own. He was making Pop Art and post-Pop Art. Marcel Duchamp, along with Andy Warhol were of significant influence. Pettibone encountered their ideas at full force in Warhol's first gallery show (of the Campbell soup cans) at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1962, and in Walter Hopp's legendary Duchamp retrospective, at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1963, the first held in the United States. Between 2005-2006 the artist had a retrospective of approximately 200 paintings and sculptures at the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California and The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs.


1938 Born: in Los Angeles, CA

1965 Began making faithful copies in miniature of works by the successful artists of his day


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2009 "Rip-Off: Between Appropriation and the Appropriated", Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York, NY
"Polaroids: Diana Kingsley, Richard Pettibone, Mike and Doug Starn", Leo Castelli, New York, NY
"Post-War and Contemporary Art", Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, NY

2008 "Standard Sizes", Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY
"Richard Pettibone: Paintings of Sculptures", Leo Castelli, New York, NY (solo)
"Accidental Modernism", Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York, NY

2007 "Miniaturizing Modernism", Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY (solo)
"If Everybody had an Ocean: Brian Wilson, une exposition", CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
"What Is Painting? Contemporary Art from the Collection", MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
"If Everybody had an Ocean: Brian Wilson: An Art Exhibition, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives, Cornwall, UK
"Endless Western Sunset", Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY

2006 "Richard Pettibone. Sixty-four Campbell's Soup Cans", Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
"Richard Pettibone - A Retrospective", Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA (solo)
"Busy going crazy -The Sylvio Perlstein collection", La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
"The Subverted Object", Ubu Gallery, New York City, NY

2005 "Richard Pettibone - A Retrospective", The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art , University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (solo)

2004 "Richard Pettibone. Works 1964 - 2004", Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

2003 "The Real Thing", Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
"Living with Duchamp", The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

2001 "Work: Shaker Design and Recent Art", The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

2000 "Minimal Affect - Selections from the Permanent Collection", Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Miami, FL

1999 "Originale echt/falsch", Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Bremen, Germany

1998 "The '60s in the Seventies", Ubu Gallery, New York, NY

1996 "The Subverted Object", Ubu Gallery, New York, NY