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Irving Petlin

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"Irving Petlin" (born December 17, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois) Petlin didn’t read children’s books, but rather the daily newspaper his father brought home. Steeped in current events, and maps of Europe, he became engaged as a child in the unfolding events in his family’s homeland. Petlin’s obsession with drawing made him appear antisocial, but his artwork reflected an awareness of the news during the war-torn times of his youth. Panoramic battle scenes enchanted the imaginative child. The Petlin families had immigrated from Poland to the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago (called Little Poland), and it was from there that he was awarded a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at age 17, followed by further post graduate studies at Yale University. Following an engagement of military duty at the Presidio in San Francisco along with a studio in the infamous “Monkey Block” with {Elmer Bischoff}, Petlin then settled for several years in Paris with the assistance of a Ryerson Fellowship. Petlin achieved a great and enthusiastic following in Paris which culminated in a mid career survey of his work at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels (1965) which was completed prior to his return to the United States, partially in response to the United States’ intervention into Vietnam as well as the Race Riots in the South.

Along with activism, including organizing the construction of The Peace Tower (1966) in Los Angeles with Mark di Suvero, as well as the activities of the Artists and Writers Against the War in Vietnam with {Hans Haacke}, {Jon Hendricks} and many others over the next decade, Petlin began to view the Old Testament as a “prefiguration” of contemporary history. While Petlin believes himself to be essentially non-religious, he admits that he can never shed the historical struggles of being a Jew. With works that strive for poetry rather than journalism, Petlin places himself as a distant observer. Memory, not simply as the resurrection of one’s past, but also the past of others is present in his mind simultaneously, each element reflecting light of all the others. For Petlin, there has always been a hunger to see everything at once, with a startling and enduring relevance. Known also for his mastery of the pastel medium, Petlin found inspiration in the work of writers and poets including Primo Levi, Bruno Schulz, Paul Celan, Michael Palmer and Edmond Jabès.

Now nearing his 80th birthday, Petlin has shared with his contemporaries the aspiration to “investigate the truth’ and its underlying ideological, philosophical and moral assumptions, as well as the ambiguities involved in refusing to view ‘reality’ in isolation from the social, economic and political contingencies and historical contradictions. His early subjects, drawn from the experience of immigration and diaspora, reflect his anarchist, socialist, internationalist and republican leanings. In totality, Petlin and {Leon Golub}, as well as {Francis Bacon}, {Lucien Freud} and {R.B. Kitaj} would all connect in the realm of psychological narrative.

Petlin has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Cooper Union in New York, as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia. He currently resides in Paris, New York and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.



Selected exhibitions

References

  1. ^ http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=121


Petlin sites and artist pages
Others on Petlin, including reviews & perspectives
Petlin in his own words

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