Untitled

With Art Green, Jim Nutt, and Suellen Rocca, Karl Wirsum exhibited as a member of the Hairy Who. Although he is now noted for his elegantly realized comic imagery, he drew constantly from life as a student. This print was made from two plates—one a commercial plate used as a tonal image, and the second derived from drawings Wirsum made of birds at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The pattern of their fluttering wings foreshadows the artist’s mature use of pattern in paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Wirsum has taught at SAIC since the early 1970s and has had a long association with Ox-Bow.