About
Since the 1960s, Richard Pettibone’s practice has involved taking images and artworks from other modern and contemporary artists and displaying them as his own. These tiny silkscreened reproductions of Andy Warhol’s iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe are part of a larger body of work, which includes Pettibone’s remakes of Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, Brillo Box sculptures, and countless paintings.
In Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, Pettibone mixes craftsmanship with an eye for puns and process, taking the concept of appropriation and transforming it into a gesture of appreciation. Pettibone’s work does more than merely salute its sources; his compositions question the authorship of images and point to critical engagements between style and substance, art and influence. When asked why he began copying Warhol’s work in the 1960s, Pettibone replied, “He was already copying, so why not copy the copy?”
In Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, Pettibone mixes craftsmanship with an eye for puns and process, taking the concept of appropriation and transforming it into a gesture of appreciation. Pettibone’s work does more than merely salute its sources; his compositions question the authorship of images and point to critical engagements between style and substance, art and influence. When asked why he began copying Warhol’s work in the 1960s, Pettibone replied, “He was already copying, so why not copy the copy?”