Wright Auction

Artist Karl Wirsum was born in Chicago in 1939. He began drawing at the age of five while recovering from a fractured skull in the hospital. His early years were marked by tragedy, losing both parents in a car accident when he was nine, an event he survived unscathed. This experience likely fostered his early sense of independence and resilience. In 1957, he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) on a scholarship, graduating in 1961. Influenced by Kathleen Blackshear's broad approach to art history, Wirsum began to explore a wide range of figurative art beyond the Western tradition.

Wirsum's career took a significant turn when he joined The Hairy Who, a group of young artists who had all attended SAIC, including James Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Suellen Rocca. Their first exhibition in 1966 at the Hyde Park Art Center, co-curated by Don Baum, brought them national attention. The group's name, The Hairy Who, originated from Wirsum's playful remark, "Harry who?" during a discussion about art critic Harry Bouras. Over the next few years, The Hairy Who held several impactful exhibitions, cementing their place in the art world.

In the early 1970s, Wirsum briefly taught at Sacramento State College in California before returning to Chicago. He later became an adjunct professor and then a professor of painting and drawing at SAIC. In 2016, he and other members of The Hairy Who were awarded honorary doctorates from SAIC, recognizing their immense contributions to contemporary art in Chicago.

Wirsum's art is characterized by its kinetic exuberance and a unique blend of organic and geometric forms. His figures, often featuring mask-like faces, combine a cartoonish quality with a more sinister edge. He drew inspiration from diverse sources, including Mesoamerican and New Guinea art, Medieval Madonnas, Japanese woodblock prints, toys, marionettes, comics, and artists like Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Jean Dubuffet. Wirsum's early work already showed a sophisticated, original style with central, frontally oriented, symmetrical figures boldly outlined and filled with vivid, unmodulated colors. One of Wirsum's most iconic paintings, the vibrant acrylic on canvas, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1968), exemplifies this approach and Wirsum's lifelong inspiration from music. This work is now part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wirsum was married to Lorri Gunn Wirsum for fifty-three years, and they had two children, Zack and Ruby. Despite suffering multiple strokes that impaired his hand mobility, Wirsum continued to create art in his later years. He maintained a health-conscious lifestyle, including a macrobiotic diet and regular running until the age of seventy-five. Wirsum passed away in 2021, at the age of eighty-one, leaving behind a prodigious legacy that profoundly shaped the Chicago art scene. His work remains celebrated for its originality, humor, and inventive spirit, with the 2018 Art Institute of Chicago exhibition dedicated to The Hairy Who highlighting the group's significant influence and Wirsum's inimitable contributions. In addition to the Art Institute, works by Wirsum are part of the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and many other notable institutions.