South Bay artist wins Bucksbaum

Raymond Pettibon has received the 2004 Bucksbaum Award, a $100,000 prize given every two years to an artist chosen from the Whitney Biennial.

The Hermosa Beach artist began his career designing record covers for local Los Angeles punk bands and producing $1 “zines” that he sold through a store in New York or gave away. His monochromatic, ink-on-paper drawings often include sprawling text and references to 1950s popular culture.

“Raymond Pettibon has created a visual universe that cuts to the core of the American experience and layers it with a collage of voices that combines Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Studs Terkel and Walter Winchell,” said jury member Richard Flood, deputy director and chief curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. “I don’t think there has ever been a campaign of drawing like Raymond’s.”

The Bucksbaum grant is awarded to an artist who possesses the potential to have a lasting effect on the history of American art. Each laureate is invited to present an exhibition at the Whitney. Pettibon’s show is scheduled for late 2005 or early 2006.

-- Louise Roug