Raymond Pettibon is still a vital artist, maybe now more than he has been in a long time. He is also, sadly, still largely overlooked. His new show "Here's Your Irony Back (The Big Picture)" at David Zwirner is radical and I can't believe that nothing is being written about it. What's really bugging me is that everyone is obviously going to see it but ends up writing about the Chris Ofilli show "Devil's Pie.", also at Zwirner.
The critical consensus seems to be to give Ofilli a passing grade for having the, er, courage to show us the "arc of a career, the experimental parts, not just chart-toppers" as Jerry Saltz puts it. And the usually-pretty-right-on Holland Cotter (who I will forgive because of this review) must be getting a little senile when he says, "We get a lot of airtight minor shows in Chelsea; it’s not every day that you get to see a major artist thinking. You do here." Ofilli may be using new materials and imagery but this doesn't necessarily mean he is thinking (and what does it say about art today to applaud an artist just for thinking?). "Devil's Pie" looks more like an artist stuck, afraid of being pigeonholed by his signature style. Ofilli is grabbing from too many sources and comes off as shallow. This show is about money and the big, pretty canvases and highly polished sculpture do nothing to cover it up. There might not be any of Ofilli's signature dung in the show but there's still a lot of shit.
On the other hand Pettibon, a genuine thinker, is apologetic for his work to date not doing enough to educate the public. His treatment of the Bush administration, Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Abu Ghraib, and Yale fraternity antics is raw and fresh and leaves no question as to where he stands. The drawings are typically scratchy and graphic (Pettibon fans won't be disappointed) but far less emotionally distant than his baseball or surf pictures. The image on the card for the show Untitled (With their own) is one of my favorites- hard eyes glaring through hairy strokes of blue, green, brown and purple. Pettibon is experimenting, not with material, but with a personal responsibility and openness that is dangerous for him and refreshing for us.
The politics are hard to separate from the art and that's probably the biggest reason for the critical blackout. "The Big Picture" is funny, serious, sad, and full of fucking awesome drawings. Go see it.
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All images courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery.
