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"There’s the wave itself, which is more a part of the sublime, what we’d call nature…As the wave gets bigger it becomes more about man against nature. One doesn’t conquer either one. Man with nature, I guess. Small waves and big waves are different experiences."
—Raymond Pettibon
Installation view of Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work, New Museum, New York, February 8 – April 9, 2017. Artwork: © Raymond Pettibon, Courtesy the artist and David ZwirnerSpanning eight feet in length, Raymond Pettibon’s No Title (Let him come...), 2011, is a definitive example of the artist’s most well-known Surfer series. Drawing from a vast range of influences, from global history to baseball, American politics to literature and comics, film noir to surfing, Pettibon’s works examine the values of American culture. Showcasing his signature interplay between image and text, the present work also features his virtuosic graphic handling. Here, a surfer faces a majestic wave rendered in electrifying streaks of blues, greens, yellows, purples and black. A galvanic sky fills up the composition through his swirling gestural brushstroke, oscillating between impastoed and flatter application to suggest atmosphere. At once inspiring awe and terror, the scene conjures the sublime of nature and man’s seeming conquest, freezing in time what may be an inevitable fate or a miraculous feat.
"It had been his odd fortune to blow upon the deep waters, to make them surge and break in waves of
strange eloquence…"
—Henry James
Cy Twombly, Hero and Leandro [Part I]: [A Painting in Four Parts], 1984. Private Collection, Artwork: © Cy Twombly FoundationThe Scribe and the Draughtsman
A self-taught artist, Pettibon found inspiration in the drawings by artists including Francisco Goya, William Blake, Honoré Daumier, Edward Hopper, and John Sloan in forming his own unique style. His distinctive artistic vernacular of coalescing pen and ink figuration with hand-inscribed text perhaps looks to Blake as a strong historic mentor, particularly in the poetic nature of his thought-provoking verbiage that accompanies his imagery. In No Title (Let him come...), the artist tucks in script in the lower left of the composition and another in the seafoam on the brink of collapse, their humble existence betraying their encompassing gravity. By incorporating his Henry James-esque words, Pettibon displays the hand of a draughtsman crossed with a scribe’s knack for language, striding between lyrical wit and irony, historical reflection and contemporary consumer culture.
"I like art where you can see the struggle in making
the work."
—Raymond Pettibon
From short quips to countless strokes, painterly-like sky to graphic sea, spontaneous splotches and drips to calculated mark-making, the present work draws the viewer into scanning the entire composition for its strikingly variable rendering. The body of the rising wave suggests the glimmering reflection of the bright rays of the sun upon it, only by Pettibon’s deft touches of white over the psychedelic array of colors. Upon a closer look, here he has also paid meticulous attention to his miniscule surfer, as in the detailed rendering of his torso, the sunshine off the surfboard, and even the play of light and shadow on the figure’s body.
Sourcing the Sublime
“Waves. To me, it’s natural,” Pettibon replied when asked about his favorite theme to draw. “It’s imagery that, for a lot of people around here anyway, is pornography…Each time I don’t know how it’s going to look, like it’s an ordeal or a challenge.”i On the subject of placing surfers amidst these giant swells, he explained, “I grew up near the beach. Violence at the shoreline can be worse than street violence sometimes. Local surfers are despised and hated by most other surfers throughout the world. There are good days, but if the waves aren’t coming, you’re sitting on the sand and praying for surf all year. Then you go and poach other people’s breaks.”ii
[left] Milton Avery, Lone Rock and Surf, 1945. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Image: © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2021 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York [right] Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), circa 1930-1832. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NYCapturing the artist's inclination towards the subject matter, No Title (Let him come...) also evokes Edmund Burke’s inquiring vision about nature’s sublime. “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling,” Burke expressed. “When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and [yet] with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience.”iii
i Raymond Pettibon, quoted in Nicholas Gazin, “Raymond Pettibon,” Vice Magazine, October 31, 2011.
ii Ibid.
iii Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London, 1812, pp. 58-59.
Provenance
Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Surfing USA: A Selection of Works by Raymond Pettibon
7
No Title (Let him come...)
signed and dated "Raymond Pettibon 2011" on the reverse
pen, ink, gouache and acrylic on paper
51 3/4 x 97 in. (131.4 x 246.4 cm)
Executed in 2011.
Estimate
$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
New York Head of Department & Head of Auctions
+1 212 940 1278
aloiacono@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 17 November 2021
1
Shara Hughes
Inside Outside
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $877,000
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3
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Girl in Blue
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $730,800
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4
Kwesi Botchway
Green Sofa
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $214,200
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5
Titus Kaphar
Fade With Time
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $816,500
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6
David Hammons
Puzzling Times
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $877,000
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7
Raymond Pettibon
No Title (Let him come...)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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8
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $11,870,000
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9
Georgia O'Keeffe
Crab’s Claw Ginger Hawaii
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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10
Alexander Calder
White Moon
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,628,000
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11
Cecily Brown
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,140,500
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12
Willem de Kooning
Composition
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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13
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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14
This lot is no longer available.
15
Amy Sherald
Welfare Queen
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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16
Francis Bacon
'Pope with Owls'
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $33,000,000
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17
Luc Tuymans
Wallpaper
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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18
Pierre Bonnard
Panier de fruit
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $4,991,000
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19
Honor Titus
Linden Blvd Jazz Radio
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $163,800
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20
Matthew Wong
Time After Time
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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21
Avery Singer
European Ego Ideal
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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22
Mark Tansey
Garden
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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23
KAWS
THE WAY HE KNOWS
Estimate $850,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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24
Wassily Kandinsky
Fliessend
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
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25
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series)
Estimate $750,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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26
Peter Saul
Ice Box #3
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $441,000
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27
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (The Door)
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $8,549,500
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28
Emily Mae Smith
Feast and Famine
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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29
Gerhard Richter
Weiß (White)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $5,717,000
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30
Robert Ryman
Series #25 (White)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,421,500
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31
Frank Stella
Double Concentric Square
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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32
Carmen Herrera
Amarillo y Negro
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $630,000
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33
Andy Warhol
The Last Supper/Be a Somebody with a Body
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,806,000
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34
Christopher Wool
Blue Fool
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Six PM, Malaga
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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37
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Qusuquzah #5
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $504,000
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38
Mike Kelley
Memory Ware Flat #3
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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39
George Condo
Collision Course
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Untitled (from Fifteen Pairs of Hands)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $983,000
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41
David Hammons
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $3,660,000
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42
Nicolas Party
Houses
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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43
Hurvin Anderson
Country Club—Mixed Doubles
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $604,800
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44
Max Ernst
Ohne Titel (les hommes ne le sauront jamais)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Max Ernst
Kachina, le chien de Peggy Guggenheim
Estimate $280,000 - 350,000
Sold for $277,200
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46
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $786,250
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47
Reggie Burrows Hodges
On the Verge: Green
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $567,000
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48
Max Ernst
Portrait de Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $176,400
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