Richard Leydier Selects Works by Pettibon and Labastie for artpress Series

In the latest installment of artpress's 'panier' series, critic Richard Leydier fictively acquires two works during Paris's opening week. At David Zwirner's newly inaugurated Paris gallery—formerly Yvon Lambert's space—Leydier was drawn to Raymond Pettibon's surf drawings. Despite the fashionable crowd, he notes Pettibon's significance, referencing his 2016 New Museum retrospective and his iconic album covers for Sonic Youth and Black Flag. At the Galeristes fair, Leydier was captivated by Rachel Labastie's triptych at Analix Gallery's solo booth. Labastie's unfired clay works, inspired by a visit to the Lourdes grotto, evoke religious retables, with surfaces smoothed by imagined pious touch. Her pieces include traces of a chalice, openings suggesting stigmata or vulva, and prints made by striking copper plates with an axe. The fair ran October 18–20, 2019, at Carreau du Temple.