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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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