R ichard Pettibone’s miniature paintings are standout highlights of the online auction An Artistic Home: The Collection of Aviva and Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Pettibone was one of the earliest pioneers of Appropriation Art, taking iconic images in Art History, particularly those of Pop artists, and copying them in a miniature format.
RICHARD PETTIBONE, ANDY WARHOL, JACKIE, 1964. ESTIMATE $12,000–18,000.
Beginning this practice in the 1960s, Pettibone’s outright appropriation of his contemporaries such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and others, was seen as radical and subversive to artistic conventions. Even today, it is jarring to see such familiar imagery rendered in this pint-sized format. By using and repurposing such known images of his artistic peers, Pettibone brought into question the notion of fame, the image as ready-made, notions of originality, and even called into question what constitutes art.
RICHARD PETTIBONE, ANDY WARHOL, COW, 1966. ESTIMATE $12,000–18,000.
The three works by Pettibone in the collection of Aviva and Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Andy Warhol, Liz, 1963 (lot 7), Andy Warhol, Jackie, 1964 (lot 8) and Andy Warhol, Cow, 1966 (lot 131) were all executed in the 1960s and early 1970s, and were acquired by the Baal-Teshuvas in 1976 from OK Harris Works of Art, and have remained in the collection until present day.
RICHARD PETTIBONE, ANDY WARHOL, LIZ, 1963. ESTIMATE $20,000–30,000.
