Underground: Raymond Pettibon's ironic exhibition at the Musée Picasso - our photos

The Musée Picasso Paris presents Underground, an exhibition devoted to Raymond Pettibon, from October 14, 2025 to March 1, 2026. Seventy drawings and fanzines reveal his ironic, subversive universe.

Raymon Pettibon doesn't beat about the bush: each drawing is straight to the point, and he's not afraid to shake up the self-righteousness of his time. Discover this committed cartoonist at the Musée Picasso in Paris.

To delve into the world of Raymond Pettibon is to discover a body of work that shakes, disturbs and fascinates all at once! The Musée Picasso highlights the artist's gritty, ironic universe with theexhibition Underground, presented in parallel with the Philip Guston exhibition, from October 14, 2025 to March 1, 2026. In all, nearly seventy drawings and a dozen fanzines invite visitors to plunge into the subversive imagination of this American artist, supported by David Zwirner Gallery.

An artist from the punk-rock scene

Born in Tucson in 1957, Raymond Pettibon established himself at the heart of the Californian punk scene in the late 1970s. He designed album covers for the band Black Flag, founded by his brother Greg Ginn, and distributed his first drawings in the form of fanzines and independent publications. Self-taught, he followed the do-it-yourself aesthetic typical of the punk movement, mixing references to literature, art history, religion, popular culture and sports.

His drawings, often accompanied by hard-hitting texts, offer an acerbic look at an America marked by conservatism and the end of hippie ideals. Like Philip Guston before him, Pettibon denounces, questions and disturbs through his resolutely anti-authoritarian work. " My drawings are meant to suggest. [...] They're not just calligraphy: they suggest worlds, scenes, landscapes ", he declared in Modern Matter in 2020.

This exhibition at the Musée Picasso brings together works that are emblematic of Raymond Pettibon's style and career. From the very first drawings, the artist sets the tone: he denounces war and theexploitation of men by the government, he mocks the false promises of politicians and those who embezzle money for their own personal gain... Weapons, skeletons, mutilated bodies and grating commentary: Raymond Pettibon knows how to shock and hold our attention.

We also discover his favorite themes and motifs, symbols of American greatness: dollar signs, baseball players, trains and engineering. Under his pencil, these symbols become mocking, ironic, a reminder of what once was, and no longer is.

The exhibition is short but striking, thanks in particular to these morbid, satirical drawings. We discover a talented artist with a deep, dark universe.

With Underground, the Musée Picasso offers an insight into a radical body of work, a mix of raw images and unsettling inscriptions, where each drawing relentlessly questions the foundations of the American dream.

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know.

This page may contain AI-assisted elements, more information here.