'Nervous Breakdown' Goes Inside Raymond Pettibon’s Legendary Album Art Archive

Summary

• Raymond Pettibon’s extensive album art archive is getting published in Nervous Breakdown, a new book by David Zwirner
• The publication arrives alongside an exhibition of Pettibon’s works from the Stefan Hull Collection at Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Germany, now on view through September

Even if you don’t know Raymond Pettibon, chances are you know his artwork. Maybe hanging on a faded punk T-shirt, wrapped around a vinyl or sitting in your playlists. The American artist is the mind behind some of the most enduring imagery in punk rock, and now, he’s opening the vault in Nervous Breakdown, a new publication by David Zwirner.

Featuring album cover art for Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Iggy Pop, Rolling Stone and more, the book gathers over 200 albums, CDs and cassettes graced by Pettibon’s art since 1979. It arrives on the occasion of a companion exhibition at Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Germany, and includes over two hundred works hailing from the Stefan Thull Collection.

Pettibon came up in the Southern California punk scene in the early ’80s, with close ties to Black Flag, founded by his brother Greg Ginn. Anxious, dark and funny, his ink drawings cull fragments from comics, literature, politics and, of course, music, all tuned into the underbelly of American life.

Among the highlights is his cover for Goo, Sonic Youth’s 1990 major-label debut. The book includes a 1985 essay on Pettibon penned by Kim Gordon, the band’s bassist and vocalist, who met the artist at a Hermosa Beach house party in the early ’80s. “We went out to the backyard and there was Raymond. Someone introduced us,” she wrote. “He was already sort of mythical in our minds.”

The Nervous Breakdown exhibition is now on view in Germany through September 20. The corresponding title is now available for pre-order via David Zwirner for $60 USD.