ART CITIES:London-Marcel Dzama & Raymond Pettibon
Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon’s collaboration began in the summer of 2015 with the artists swapping the first of a series of drawings to be completed by the other. The exhibition “Let us compare mythologies”, presents their collaborative works and follows their show earlier this year, titled “Forgetting the Hand”, at David Zwirner in New York.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive
The collaboration of Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon began with the artists swapping the first of a series of drawings to be completed by the other. In a variation of the “exquisite corpse” method in which a partner is only given portions of an otherwise concealed drawing to work on, Dzama and Pettibon developed each other’s compositions through illustrations, collage, and writing. Just as the surrealists invented the technique in the early 20th Century as a playful and ultimately enriching exercise, the present drawings combine the two artists’ distinct styles in a revealing and often seamless fashion. In several works, it is almost impossible to determine who made what, which indicates how both strove to assimilate the other’s vision or anticipate his response. As a continuation of the artists’ collaboration, the exhibition “Let us compare mythologies”, includes drawings originally made for the zine published by David Zwirner Books to coincide with Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 (September 2015), works produced jointly for the show in New York, as well as new compositions made together for the presentation in London. Also on view is a mural-sized work on paper, “It is big big business (or We s’port…and necessitate one another, thought to brush, word to image hand in hand…for the greatest interest…of writing thou art)”, featuring Pettibon’s depictions of surfers engulfed in enormous waves intertwined with Dzama’s illustrations of costumed characters.
Info: David Zwirner, 24 Grafton Street, London, Duration: 5/10-12/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com
