Visual Languages of Karl Wirsum's Portrait of Screamin' Jay Hawkins | Dan Nadel on Sixties Surreal

Sixties Surreal curator Dan Nadel calls this work by Karl Wirsum a "vibrant, hilarious, and beautiful portrait." Here, Nadel explains the diverse sources that Wirsum draws on to create this portrait, from comic books, to botany, to commercial graphics, to barbershop windows, to pinball machines, to insect dissections, to Mesoamerican art. In the painting, Wirsum combined all of these sources, and more, to depict the feeling of experiencing Screamin' Jay Hawkins in concert.