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The Collected Hairy Who Publications 1966-1969
This is the first complete presentation of the artists' books, posters, prints and ephemera produced by The Hairy Who (Chicago, 1966-69), which was composed of Jim Falconer (born 1943), Art Green (born 1941), Gladys Nilsson (born 1940), Jim Nutt (born 1938), Suellen Rocca (born 1943) and Karl Wirsum (born 1939).
Over the course of five exhibitions in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC, The Hairy Who represented a de facto rebuke to the chilly ironies of Pop and forged new ways of crafting figurative painting. As likely to use Plexiglas as canvas and employing a language based on verbal confusion, visual puns and an almost ecstatic use of line and color, the members of the Hairy Who produced publications, posters and even buttons, and their exhibitions were immersive environments unequalled at the time.
The Hairy Who has enjoyed a renewed popularity recently, thanks to a documentary film and multiple exhibitions by the contributing artists. This publication presents all of the printed works related to the Hairy Who exhibitions--important documents in the history of contemporary art and artists' books. Formatted like comic books, they are among the very first full-color self-published artists' books, containing work made especially for publication. Studying these works is important to an understanding of post-1960s art and artists' books.
Over the course of five exhibitions in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC, The Hairy Who represented a de facto rebuke to the chilly ironies of Pop and forged new ways of crafting figurative painting. As likely to use Plexiglas as canvas and employing a language based on verbal confusion, visual puns and an almost ecstatic use of line and color, the members of the Hairy Who produced publications, posters and even buttons, and their exhibitions were immersive environments unequalled at the time.
The Hairy Who has enjoyed a renewed popularity recently, thanks to a documentary film and multiple exhibitions by the contributing artists. This publication presents all of the printed works related to the Hairy Who exhibitions--important documents in the history of contemporary art and artists' books. Formatted like comic books, they are among the very first full-color self-published artists' books, containing work made especially for publication. Studying these works is important to an understanding of post-1960s art and artists' books.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2015
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About the author
Dan Nadel
57 books17 followersDan Nadel is the owner of PictureBox, Inc. (http://www.pictureboxinc.com), a Grammy Award-winning publishing company.
Dan has authored books including Art Out of Time: Unknown Visionary Cartoonists, 1900-1969 and Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980. He has edited books including Gary Panter, We All Die Alone, and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes.
He has also co-edited Comics Comics and is currently the co-editor of The Comics Journal.
He has curated exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, L.A. and NYC, including the first major Jack Kirby retrospective, The House that Jack Built (Lucerne, 2010) and Karl Wirsum: Drawings 1967-1970 at Derek Eller Gallery.
He lives in Brooklyn with his beloved Rachel, their dog, Mr. Fatty Pants and their boy Henry.
Dan has authored books including Art Out of Time: Unknown Visionary Cartoonists, 1900-1969 and Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980. He has edited books including Gary Panter, We All Die Alone, and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes.
He has also co-edited Comics Comics and is currently the co-editor of The Comics Journal.
He has curated exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, L.A. and NYC, including the first major Jack Kirby retrospective, The House that Jack Built (Lucerne, 2010) and Karl Wirsum: Drawings 1967-1970 at Derek Eller Gallery.
He lives in Brooklyn with his beloved Rachel, their dog, Mr. Fatty Pants and their boy Henry.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 30, 2017
A 2 minute promo for a film about the Hairy Who? Exhibitions in Chicago in the sixties:
http://pentimentiproductions.org/proj...
A short film on Vimeo called “Harry Who?”
https://vimeo.com/76023236
Here’s some images if you just want to spend less than a minute looking at to get the idea:
https://www.google.com/search?q=&...
Harry Bouras was the art critic for WFMT at the time. Karl Wirsum, hearing that name in conversation with others from his group, asked “Harry Who???!” and they decided to name their exhibitions for several years not Harry Who? but Hairy Who? An absurdist title representing the group’s independence from the NYC art scene. A sixties movement that created art objects and books and posters that looked like insane pop art comic books (which was my initial interest in the group). The creators were mentored by professors from The Chicago Art Institute and were named the Chicago Imagists, including Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, James Falconer, Art Green, Suellen Rocca and Karl Wirsum. Formed in 1964, this group did exhibitions in Hyde Park. They saw the art world of NYC as suavely cool and self-important. They wanted to provoke and play. Imagism in its Chicago moment was absurd, grotesque, sometimes overtly sexual, colorful, splashy, and not self-absorbed.
I picked this up because of my interest in surrealism and absurdism, which they didn’t want to particularly associate with. And Karl Wirsum was a student like many others who went to art school but really wanted to do comics, so there's that angle. And I just read a book about Crumb, and alt comix of the sixties, being seen as outsider art, underground. I liked Dan Nadel’s book collection and essay about the group very much.
http://pentimentiproductions.org/proj...
A short film on Vimeo called “Harry Who?”
https://vimeo.com/76023236
Here’s some images if you just want to spend less than a minute looking at to get the idea:
https://www.google.com/search?q=&...
Harry Bouras was the art critic for WFMT at the time. Karl Wirsum, hearing that name in conversation with others from his group, asked “Harry Who???!” and they decided to name their exhibitions for several years not Harry Who? but Hairy Who? An absurdist title representing the group’s independence from the NYC art scene. A sixties movement that created art objects and books and posters that looked like insane pop art comic books (which was my initial interest in the group). The creators were mentored by professors from The Chicago Art Institute and were named the Chicago Imagists, including Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, James Falconer, Art Green, Suellen Rocca and Karl Wirsum. Formed in 1964, this group did exhibitions in Hyde Park. They saw the art world of NYC as suavely cool and self-important. They wanted to provoke and play. Imagism in its Chicago moment was absurd, grotesque, sometimes overtly sexual, colorful, splashy, and not self-absorbed.
I picked this up because of my interest in surrealism and absurdism, which they didn’t want to particularly associate with. And Karl Wirsum was a student like many others who went to art school but really wanted to do comics, so there's that angle. And I just read a book about Crumb, and alt comix of the sixties, being seen as outsider art, underground. I liked Dan Nadel’s book collection and essay about the group very much.
August 30, 2017
must read for anyone interested in art comics.
March 18, 2021
This is how you make a publication about a publication. Just print it at scale in its entirety! I don't need curatorial cherry picking. I want the whole thing, and this delivers. A real shame this is out of print but thank god for art libraries.
September 11, 2015
An excellent snapshot of an overlooked purlieu in late 20th-century American art, deeply influenced by comic-books and psychedelia. Gorgeous, weird stuff.
April 19, 2016
Really great collection of ephemera and publications from the Hairy Who group in Chicago, nice plates and some interesting commentary and other detritus from this group.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews