This original artwork by artist Raymond Pettibon, I Taught My Horse to Count, was created for Printed Matter in support of their 2014 Membership Campaign. The two-sided work on circular paper features a blue and black ink-drawing with collage elements. Illustrated in the artist’s characteristic style, the expressive image depicts a goat shown leaning over a vessel. Along the left side Pettibon has hand-written with comedic irreverence :
I taught my horse to count, my horse to listen (Her Favorite : Cage’s original 4:33 on RCA Victor Red Seal played on dog whistle) and my billy goat to digest what he reads. They are all posers.
The verso features Printed Matter’s address at the organization’s previous location on 10th Avenue, handwritten by Pettibon.
A significant figure of the Southern Californian punk scene in the late 70s and 80s, Raymond Pettibon started his artistic career making scrappy zines, handbills and flyers for his band Black Flag and his brother’s record label, SST Pubs. He remains a prolific zine-maker, engaging recurring themes of sexuality, violence, youth-culture, religion and idols.
Pettibon’s work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad. Prominent venues which have held recent solo exhibitions of the artist’s work include the Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2012); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2007); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (both 2006); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (both 2005). He is represented by David Zwirner Gallery, New York.
