48 art ltd - March / April 2016Contemporary art in Chicago has a Date Of Birth, and it’s February 24,
1966—so this year it hits the big 5-0! 2/24/66: that’s the day the first
of a several year sequence of exhibitions of young Chicago artists
was held at the Hyde Park Art Center that would, in the aggregate,
come to define Chicago Imagism. That first show—titled “The Hairy
Who” (sounds like a groovy band, don’t you just love that 1960s up-
beat insouciance? It’s all over their work too!)—was comprised of the
work of Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen
Rocca and Karl Wirsum. The Hairy Who showed together a few more
times over the next couple of years, and were joined at the HPAC by
a series of other group shows of young Chicagoans who called them-
selves, in turn, “The Nonplussed Some,” “The False Image,”
“Marriage Chicago Style,” and “Chicago Antigua.” Artists such as
Roger Brown, Sarah Canright, Ed Flood, Philip Hanson, Ed Paschke,
Christina Ramberg, Barbara Rossi, and more, had significant local
debuts in those latter exhibitions, and by the early1970s the roster
that would dominate art from Chicago for the next several decades
was off and running.Introducing the MONSTER ROSTER
Out of the existential dread of postwar America, a group of Chicago artists founded
a loose movement that preceded Imagism, and laid the roots for the city’s signature style.
By James Yood
Above:
Installation view of “Monster Roster” at Smart Museum, Chicago“Angel,” 1953, Theodore Halkin
Oil over gouache on board. Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Photos: courtesy Smart Museum