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Robert PetrickNegative Space #102013
2013
About the Item
Robert Petrick's paintings create a link between the street culture of the East Village, where he has lived for 31 years, and the power of language, which he has worked with his entire life. When painted in the streets, they represent a democratic type of communication. On canvas, they provide a space for more intimate reflection on the marks that increasingly define our world and interactions.
Petrick manipulates the semiotics of graffiti writing, stretching and squeezing letters and meaning into asemic shapes. In the aggregation of symbols, piled and stacked on top of each other within the confines of the canvas, one can read the density of the city, a multitude of voices in a confined urban environment.
These are not the ordered squiggles of the Keith Haring or the LA2 collaborations; in these works, the raw gestures of written communication are compressed into a chaotic yet elegant jigsaw, flattened of both time and space.
They are acts of aggression against order and conformity, reclaiming a landscape made hostile by city planners and the swagger of corporations, advertising firms and domineering architecture, which begs the question: are these simply works art, or do they hint at linguistic warfare?
In 1984, Petrick stenciled two designs on walls along Avenue B. Capturing the zeitgeist of the time, EXIST / EXIT and NOWHERE / NOW HERE were photographed and featured in Vogue magazine. The images exemplified graffiti as art rather than graffiti as vandalism, a concept that was gaining international attention after the release of Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style and a number of hit songs and music videos. Today Robert Petrick is a prominent typographer and fine artist based in New York City.
- Creator:Robert Petrick (1945, American)
- Creation Year:2013
- Dimensions:Height: 25 in (63.5 cm)Width: 50 in (127 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: G130826148340
Robert Petrick
Exceptional color combinations balanced with loosely configured shapes define the abstract geometric art of noted painter and typographer Robert Petrick. Through his rhythmic and lyrical abstract paintings, Petrick explores avant-garde style while establishing a link between the street culture of the East Village in New York City and the beauty of language.
Born in 1945, Petrick won a high school scholarship to study at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art, now the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. In 1983, he moved to New York City, where he became immersed in developing his unique artistic style, based on the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, as coined by the artist Robert Motherwell in 1949.
The following year, Petrick gained critical attention for two designs he stenciled on the walls of New York’s Avenue B. Titled EXIT/EXIST and NOWHERE/NOW HERE, the works were featured in Vogue magazine and recognized by critics as compelling graffiti art.
Throughout his distinguished career, Petrick’s figurative paintings, still-life works and graphic designs have been featured on album covers and in commercial projects. His series include Shape, Gesture, Graffiti and the recent City Block, in which Petrick conveys the atmosphere of the East Village with color, shapes, energy and density.
Petrick has exhibited in solo and group gallery shows throughout New York. His works are also in demand with collectors of 20th- and 21st-century abstract art.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of Robert Petrick’s paintings.
About the Seller
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Association of Women Art Dealers
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Los Angeles, CA
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