The first time I encountered work by Karl Wirsum was some eight or nine years ago, on my first visit to Chicago’s Art Institute. It was before the acquisition of the ‘New Modern’ collection and the galleries contained fewer works that were also of greater monumentality. The giant ‘Mao’ by Warhol. ‘Mercenaries’ by Golub. A whole room of Richters. It was by this Richter room that a smaller space was partitioned off. It contained (if I remember correctly) the only pieces by the Chicago based ‘Hairy Who’ group in the entire Modern Wing of the Art Institute. My initial reaction to seeing these artists works presented in such a way; corralled, relegated to a margin that even if aesthetic, regional, or marked by time period, nevertheless felt undervalued. It seemed that the implication being that these pieces did not mix with those of the greats of New York and beyond. This reenforced the notion that the Art Institute was a museum of the world that must merely nod to one of the most celebrated groups of artists from its own locality.
Lorum Ipsum