A Paint Out

Raymond Pettibon’s artwork defined the 1980s Southern California punk scene with his concert posters and album covers for bands like Black Flag, Sonic Youth, and Minutemen. He is most well known, however, for another motif inspired by his childhood in Hermosa Beach, California: surfing.

In 1985, Pettibon began his iconic Surfer series, which he continues to work on to this day. Spanning monochromatic works on paper to colorful large-scale paintings, the series consists of huge blue waves with cloud-like crests (often bare paper), cartoonish surfers, and wryly humorous text.

When creating a Surfer painting like the one pictured above, Pettibon works without a palette—the surface artists use to arrange and mix paints. Instead, he blends paint and ink colors on the brush or paper, sometimes working directly from the tube.

His use of diverse materials—including a wide range of paints, watercolors, and inks that vary in price point, manufacturer, and intended application—often within a single composition—can make preserving his work a challenge for the conservator.

Getty recently acquired a large portion of Pettibon’s archive, including handwritten notes, zine mockup pages, original screenprints and linocuts, screenprinted skateboard decks and a surfboard, concert flyers, and printed ephemera for exhibitions and events, among many other items.

This library archive, now part of the Getty Research Institute’s Special Collections, will be used by historians and scholars alike to better understand his work and legacy. A set of his paint tubes and ink jars, housed in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Materials Reference Collection, will be particularly useful to conservators and scientists for what they reveal about Pettibon’s processes and source materials.

But what if there were additional resources beyond the physical materials to help conservators understand and preserve Pettibon’s work?

Paint and Tell

That was the question on Lynda Bunting’s mind when she began the process of helping Pettibon prepare his archive for donation.

Bunting, a trained archivist and librarian, wanted a visual way of documenting Pettibon at work that could be studied later. “I was looking for a method to interview Pettibon and make sure it was primarily show-and-tell in essence,” she says. “After doing some research, I landed on this idea of a paint out session.”

A paint out is a small swatch or sample of paint, often made on cards or paper, that conservators use to study a pigment’s properties and behavior. Though paint outs are typically not created by the artist, Bunting thought it would be useful to conduct a paint out session with Pettibon—combining the paint out with an informal interview.

Unlike a structured, question-and-answer conversation, the hands-on format of the paint out session can allow the conservator to gather observational information about the artist’s working methods, such as the tools they favor, their gestural movements, and the sequential steps they take to complete a piece.

Conserving contemporary art is a complex endeavor—both materially and ethically. Most interviews with living artists typically focus on their biography and the evolution of their work, rather the physical longevity of their work and material choices.

Conservation-focused interviews with artists concerned about the preservation of their work can provide direct insight to those who will care for the works. A paint out session not only produces materials for future analysis but also enables conservators to leverage their expertise by asking artists open-ended questions about their materials and techniques, as well as their thoughts on the current and future preservation of their work.

Capturing a Moment in Time

To ensure the right technical questions were asked during the interview, Bunting brought in conservator Netanya Schiff, who specializes in mixed media objects and painted-surface conservation, to help with the interview.

During the paint out session, Pettibon created a reference Surfer drawing, while Bunting and Schiff observed and asked questions. For each color Pettibon used, he filled in a square that Schiff had outlined in pencil beforehand. Schiff then documented the Color Index—a pigment code based on chemical composition opposed to hue—and the manufacturer for each painted square.

Though the materials recorded during the paint out session represent only a fraction of the range of paints Pettibon used throughout his career, the reference drawing provides valuable insight into his working process.

“What’s important is watching and recording Pettibon use his tools, understanding his gestural movements, and how he builds up a composition,” says Schiff. “That information combined with the paint out provides a block of time for conservators or historians to apply to the future.”

The reference drawing and paint out will serve as a standard for conservators to compare against older pieces, understand how his work has progressed over time, and develop treatment options for conservation.

The interactive format of the paint out session even allowed Schiff and Bunting to understand the intent behind each color choice.

“Pettibon had said, ‘Oh, I can use just about anything,’ but he was consistently using the same blue, the same turquoise in the reference drawing,” says Bunting.

“Most artists develop preferences over time, so it is ideal to have an interview that is just about their working methods,” adds Schiff. “Not just ‘what’ paint are you choosing, but ‘why.’”

If you enjoyed reading about Pettibon’s paint out session, learn more about how the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) is undertaking multifaceted, long-term research on the many and varied conservation needs of modern and contemporary art—and engaging contemporary artists in conversation about their art, materials, fabrication processes, working methods, and thoughts on conservation.