William
Pettet by 1968 widened his
range of interest and radically changed his painting methods. He extended
his scale, worked unstretched on the floor and the wall and began using
his spray guns and air compressors to vary the surfaces of his pictures.
He began to paint large, lyrical, free spirited, Monet-like, sprayed
acrylic stain paintings. Many of the pictures maintained a sense of
monochromatic color but the range of surface and value created by his
use of his spray guns lent tremendous expression to the paintings through
drawing. These were Pettet's first Lyrical Abstractions; and he painted
with astonishing lucidity. When Pettet moved to New York City in 1969
his work grew more direct as he brushed and drew large flowing shapes
into his stained and sprayed surfaces. Throughout the 70"s Pettet made
beautiful abstract paintings with knives, squeegees, and stains. He
has a particular ability to juxtapose odd colors together and make them
work. Many of his paintings recall the great English Landscape painter
Turner. I can't see the ironical Lyrical Abstraction of Gerhardt Richter
of the last few years, without immediately thinking of William Pettet,
although Pettet predates Richter by more than a decade. William Pettet
began to exhibit his paintings in Los Angeles in 1966. By the time he
moved to New York City in 1969 he had had several solo exhibitions of
his paintings and his work had been included in major group shows around
the world. William Pettet's work is in many important museum and private
collections in the United States and abroad. His work has been included
in important publications and he has had several solo exhibitions in
the United States and Canada.
Born in 1942, in Whittier, California
Resides
in Brooklyn, New York
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