Youdue

Karl WirsumWW-1961-037873

1961·Black and colored fiber-tipped pens and colored crayons, with brush and black ink, on white wove paper·35.3 × 27.7 cm (13 15/16 × 10 15/16 in.)

<p>A 1961 graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Wirsum was influenced both by the art of Picasso, the Surrealists, and Marcel Duchamp as well as the jazz and blues musicians he saw as an adolescent at the Maxwell Street Market. Wirsum incorporated his love of music into his art, using repetition, symmetry, and free association. Traveling in Mexico after graduating from SAIC, Wirsum found inspiration in contemporary Mexican ceramics, textiles, and folk art, as well as the ancient relics of the Aztec and Mayan cultures.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1961
Medium: Black and colored fiber-tipped pens and colored crayons, with brush and black ink, on white wove paper
Dimensions: 35.3 × 27.7 cm (13 15/16 × 10 15/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Karl Wirsum

Artist

Karl Wirsum

Drawing

Karl Wirsum was an American painter and printmaker known for his exuberant, cartoonish figuration and bold graphic surfaces. Working primarily in acrylic and ink from the 1960s onward, his compositions featured distorted human faces and bodies rendered in acid colors and thick outlines, rooted in Chicago's postwar artistic traditions. His work merged commercial graphic design sensibilities with fine art ambition, creating a visual language that anticipated aspects of later Pop and Figurative movements.

Chicago, IL, USA

Full artist profile →