Karl Wirsum

Karl Wirsum (1939 – May 6, 2021) was an American artist. He was a member of the Chicago artistic group The Hairy Who, and helped set the foundation for Chicago's art scene in the 1970s. Although he was primarily a painter, he also worked with prints, sculpture, and even digital art.

Early life Wirsum was born in Chicago in 1939. He took up drawing at the age of five, while he was recuperating in hospital over several weeks from a fractured skull. Both his parents died when he was nine years old, after their vehicle collided with a truck; Wirsum escaped unhurt. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) on scholarship starting in 1957, obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts four years later. After graduating, he traveled to Mexico, where he met up with Ed Paschke and Bert Geer Phillips.

By the early 1970s, several Hairy Who artists came to be known as Chicago Imagists, The group diverged from The Hairy Who in that they did not appropriate subject matter. Wirsum later recounted how he felt that "they were staying too close to the initial point of inspiration", adding how he preferred "things that were more inventive". He was granted an honorary doctorate by the SAIC in 2016, along with the other members of The Hairy Who. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin The Illinois Collection for the State of Illinois Center, Chicago, Illinois Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois