Ralph Petty
Ralph Petty is an American figurative and landscape painter, musician, saxophonist, and singer living in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
Early life and education
Ralph Petty was born in Alamosa, Colorado in 1952 and received a BFA in painting from the University of California Davis in 1976, when he moved to Paris and studied etching with Sir Stanley William Hayter for two years at the Atelier 17 etching studio. Petty received the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, and later supervised the building of Hayter's new studio when Hayter was forced to move from rue Daguerre to 10 rue Didot. Hayter's studio remains ACTIVE and Petty's renovation remains in place today.
Petty studied the art of stained glass for four years at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et Métiers d’Art de Paris, under the direction of Maître René Giroux, the most respected professor in this field in France. The four-year program covered creative painting on glass, the study of glass technique, and restoration from the twelfth century to the present.
Career
Petty is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts and is the University Curator at The American University of Paris. He previously lectured at the Institut d'études politiques (Paris) for three years and the Parsons Paris School of Art and Design for ten years. His works include oil and watercolor landscapes, nudes, sculpture, and Expressionism.
Petty's work has been exhibited in the United States, France and will be exhibited in Japan in the coming months. Past exhibitions include:
- Parsons School of Design Paris, group show of lithographs printed at Atlantis Studio Paris (2007)
- Combes Gallery, The American University of Paris Permanent Collection Exhibition,painting (2006)
- Angelina College Gallery, Nacagdoches, Texas, watercolors, oil paintings and drawings (2006)
- Stage set (design and execution) for Samuel Beckett’s Play for the London based Godot Theatre Company (2005)
- Combes Gallery, The American University of Paris, drawings and paintings, one-man show (2003)
- Stage set (design and execution) for Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot for the London-based Godot Theatre Company. (2003)
- L’atelier de la Charpente, Saint Mandé, drawings and paintings, one-man show (2003)
- Belenky Gallery, New artists, group show, paintings, New York (2000)
- France, 2000-2001, Chile, Espace d’Art Interactif, Santiago, Chile, drawings (2000)
Combes Gallery
Petty created the Combes Gallery at The American University of Paris in March 2003, and has since run 70 exhibitions including international professional artists from countries including Venezuela, USA, France, Argentina, England, Italy and Vietnam.
In recent years, Petty has expanded the focus of the Combes Gallery to include exhibitions of a humanitarian nature. These include the "Children's Drawings from Darfur" exhibition organized in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, the first exhbition of these drawings in Europe. "Les Defi des Enfants" is another exhibition organized by Petty with Eurochips where artwork from children of imprisoned parents in Europe and Africa were shown for the first time. The publication Libération (April 2, 2008) featured an article on this exhibition.
Petty's goal for the Combes Gallery is to present art with deep roots in the diversity of human expression while bringing attention to the vital preservation of human rights.
Petty is currently working with World Vision on a new exhibition planned for later this year.
Art Ephemérè
Petty is a founding member and former president (2002-2007) of the “Art Ephemérè” Association which organizes an international competition for environmental sculpture created and installed near the village of Jaujac in the Ardeche, France and supported by the Conseil Municipal de Jaujac, Département de l’Ardeche, La Région de Rhônes-Alpes and The European Union.
Drawing
Petty's drawings are divided into two themes: [...] Studies and Notes from the Underground.
Petty's [...] Studies are ten-minute sketches using hand-ground watercolors on paper with bamboo pen and brush that explore the physical and spirit of the female form. These works form the basis of Petty's lifelong drawing practice and constantly expand his figurative vocabulary. Notes from the Underground is a series at the core of Petty's visual research into the human mystery, and his primary inspiration for these works is Francisco Goya’s etching series, Los Caprichios. The meaning of these dream-like images surface slowly, sometimes days after Petty has completed them.
Painting
Petty's paintings focus on the human figure and the natural world, which may also include urban environments. Petty is drawn to ‘pure’ nature, due in part to the perilous state of the environment. His latest paintings are part of a series inspired by birds in the Ardèche, which is Petty's de-facto open-air studio. In Paris, Petty's concentration is on the human figure.
Sculpture
Petty began sculpting stone, wood and glass in the early 1980s, designed with figures embedded in architecture.
As part of a restoration project of a 16th-century house and barn, he has interpreted in stone a number of local and potentially endangered animals. Among others, these include a lizard, toad and bird, all in granite. These works are part of a large-scale plan to create an outdoor sculpture park on a terraced, 12-hectare chestnut farm in the Ardèche.
In 2009, Petty will complete a new stone work in the form of a seated female figure that is inspired by powerful Buddhist images he encountered in North Vietnam several years ago.
Theater design
At the invitation of John Calder, Samuel Beckett’s English publisher and the publisher of numerous other major writers, Petty designed the set of Waiting for Godot for Calder's newly-formed London theater group, the Godot Company in 2003. Petty also designed the set for the company’s production of Play in 2006 and he remains associated with the company.
Petty lectured at the Chelsea Art Club on his work, by invitation of John Calder (Calder Publications, London). The Lecture took place May 31, 2008 in Calder’s offices in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
Textile design
In 2006, Petty was invited by an innovative new bedding company to design a series of erotically elegant and romantic sheets and bed covers. In response, Petty developed a contemporary line of bedding under the name Flesh and Flora.
Teaching
Petty is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the American University in Paris (AUP). His pedagogical goal is to teach students a visual language with which they can explore the external world and themselves, and his teaching philosophy is that drawing, as a discipline, can add a unique element to academia as an inquiry into the world; one that is not word-based, but which is nonetheless as valid as writing. Petty's Fine Arts classes teach students to deconstruct and solve visual problems in alternative ways. His students learn to draw with confidence and become fluent with such basic visual concepts as composition and design, value and color contrasts, and the creation of form through the manipulation of materials and tools. Petty's belief is that creation can only be learned through practice and that mastery implies fluidity of expression and understanding of the world in relation to one’s self. The result of Petty's instruction is a freedom of spirit that strengthen the abilities of the student, regardless of his/her chosen field of study.
Together with Jim Clayson, Petty created the First Bridge Visual Thinking module in 2001 at the AUP. Additionally, Petty initiated the exhibition of student works in 1994 in order to foster the sense of an active artistic community at the university.
Music
Petty is a musical composer and musician, playing the guitar and saxophone. He is a founding member of the Ralph Trio, playing with Jean-pierre Dumontier (Trombone & Piano) and Jean-pierre Détrez (Guitar). The Ralph Trio's self-named first album was produced in 2000, together with Pablo Mendez. Petty's artwork is displayed on the almbum's cover and throughout the insert. Two subsequent albums have been released by Petty, one with the Paris-based blues band, Loose Blues (voice, tenor sax, harmonica) and two with the Ralph Trio (voice, harmonica, lyricist and composer).
Selected publications
Forthcoming:
Petty recently completed a series of line drawings that were created for a book project with Lanana Creek Press in collaboration with LCP's director, Charles Jones, a Texas artist. The book focuses on perception through the five senses and will be a limited edition of 50, hand printed, hand bound, and signed by the artists. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2009, and the first nine drawings are of a Lebanese/French oriental dancer dancing. The remaining drawings are from Petty's imagination, exploring themes related to the five senses.