Wright Auction

The Hairy Who was a short-lived group of artists that graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago consisting of Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum, Jim Falconer, Suellen Rocca, Jim Nutt and Art Green. Closely associated with The Hairy Who are the Chicago Imagists, which included Ed Paschke and Ray Yoshida. Art emerging from Chicago in the mid-to-late 1960s was characterized by bold graphics and an irreverent and iconoclastic spirit that spoke of a youthful bravado in the face of turbulent times. Chicago artists during this era were able to set themselves apart from Pop Art in New York and the Minimalist/Conceptual currents in Los Angeles by sourcing inspiration from comics, Art Brut, surrealism and "low-culture" humor and media.

The Hairy Who had their first exhibition in 1966 at the Hyde Park Art Center and their last show as a group was held in 1969 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. During this brief period of time, the Hairy Who distinguished themselves as transgressive voices, manipulating the everyday material and language of our culture to address sexuality, gender, politics, and other social mores, much like Pop Art, but with a particularly fiendish and freewheeling bent. The group's work continues to be a rising presence in our re-examination of the narrative of mid-century American art.