Jim Nutt
1938–
Jim Nutt is among the best known of a small coterie of artists who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and began exhibiting together in 1965. Calling themselves the Hairy Who, they disbanded by 1968 and are today considered part of the larger, unofficial group of artists referred to as the Chicago Imagists. Inspired by some of the same sources—cartoons, advertisements, pulp magazines—as the Pop art movement then in full flourish in New York, but forgoing the cool ironies of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein, the Hairy Who produced ribald, fantastical, humorous works of high-key color and exacting craftsmanship. Nutt’s figurative work is at once scabrous and learned, synthesizing influences as diverse as European Expressionism and Surrealism with comics and folk art.
The early work She’s Hit exemplifies what one critic described as “Nutt’s frenzied psychopathology of everyday visual life.” Its bulbous, epicene figure is misshapen, even abject, a hodgepodge of parts and signifiers that seems to be coalescing and falling apart at the same time. Some elements bespeak a lively period vernacular— tattoos, dyed hair, costume jewelry— while others, including knives and the attack implied by the title phrase, introduce an unsettling violence. Nutt’s method, typical of his early paintings, intensifies the work’s compositional density and sense of immediacy: he painted on the back side of a transparent plexiglass support, a demanding process that leaves little room for correction or modeling in depth.
Introduction
James T. Nutt (born November 28, 1938) is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who. Though his work is inspired by the same pop culture that inspired Pop Art, journalist Web Behrens says Nutt's "paintings, particularly his later works, are more accomplished than those of the more celebrated Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein." According to Museum of Contemporary Art curator Lynne Warren, Nutt is "the premier artist of his generation". Nutt attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to fellow-artist and Hairy Who member Gladys Nilsson.
Wikidata identifier
Q6197218
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed July 5, 2025.
Roles
Artist, painter
ULAN identifier
500018267
Names
Jim Nutt, James Tureman Nutt
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed July 5, 2025.
