Karl Wirsum has a talent for finding the extraordinary in mundane things. Speaking at an exhibit preview at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Saturday, Wirsum called each of his subjects a "hero," whether a man from a circus, pingpong player, Batman or a chain-smoking cowboy. But Wirsum's most intriguing art also makes "alien" the everyman.
MMoCA is hosting Karl Wirsum: Winsome Works(some) and Hairy Who (and some others) Oct. 14 through Jan. 6. The exhibits focus on the art of the Hairy Who, a group of artists who showed up at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago in 1966. Although on the surface much akin to pop art, the works had more intention than the typically sarcastic style predominant in Los Angeles and New York. These artists took a more Midwestern approach and brought meaning and deeper narrative to their art instead of conforming to the cynicism typical of the coasts. A critic, after noting similarities between their works, proclaimed them the “Chicago Imagists.” The group included Karl Wirsum, Ed Paschke, Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Robert Lostutter and Art Green, all of whom are represented at the exhibit.
However, the emphasis of this show rests on Wirsum, whose art resembles an intriguing mix of cartoons and Aztec or Mayan carvings.
Wirsum received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961. His first show was in Hyde Park in 1966, and he had his first solo show in 1981 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
One of Wirsum’s most intriguing works is his take on pingpong. In "Any One? Ten Is?" (1979), a man is absorbed in his game. He is twisted in preparation, paddle behind his head and face screwed up in apparent frustration. What is most captivating, though, is that the piece is a juxtaposition of the second and third dimension. It is made of layered pieces of wood, so while it stands alone and has depth and width, the viewer can’t escape the feeling of cartoonish flatness.
Throughout the exhibit, there is an obvious and meticulous attention to detail. "Shoestring Query Can't Beggars Be Shoe-Z" (2006) depicts a woman conversing with a shoe. Her arms and legs carry curving lines that give her a depth that is just barely alien, and her hair has a painstaking pattern of tiny dots and dashes.
A lot of his work focuses on finding the humor in unpleasant situations. One of his more well-known pieces, "Armpits" (1963), shows a painted woman with arms upraised to showcase her shockingly hairy underarms. Instead of just painting on hair, however, Wirsum attached handfuls of real fur to each armpit.
Part of the allure of Wirsum's work comes from his bold use of color. There are no brush strokes, and shapes are often separated by heavy lines. Often, too, he plays with the idea of duplicity and showing "two takes on the same focal point."
The humanity of Karl's subjects is often in question. Figures have mismatched feet, odd expressions and sometimes extra limbs. Every joint brings a fresh rotation, which contributes to the feel of frozen animation.
When asked if he was thinking of something less human when he created some of his paintings, Wirsum replied, “Well, yeah. I was thinking about aliens.”
Hairy Who, the companion exhibit, shares several of these themes.
Robert Lostutter's series of realistic bird-faced people look out of their paintings with unnerving anger. The subject of "The Birds of Heaven 14, Red-Fronted Conure," (1984) has a fierce demeanor and blood on his teeth. Lostutter, an avian enthusiast, is trying to show his frustration with man's indifference toward extinction and the destruction of the environment.
Ed Paschke, one of Chicago's most celebrated artists, also experiments with the distortion of the human face. In "Smooch III" (1995), a realistically formed yellow man with multicolored eyes, nose and a mouth presses his pursed lips against two tiny footprints. His skin is patterned with outlines of a cartoon chicken, but the form has obvious depth. If it weren't for the odd coloring, the man would be very believable.
According to Wirsum, art should act as a kind of elaborate Rorschach test, and the viewer should "bring [his] own world" to each work.
This is true of the exhibit in general. At first glance, the pieces appear incredibly bizarre and almost laughably simple. However, after talking with the artist and forgetting what I learned in art class, I couldn't help but be fascinated with the artistic choices, how every line and detail is tense with meaning.