Self-Portrait
1960–61
Jim Nutt American, born 1938
United States
One of the instigators of the Hairy Who, Jim Nutt has been based in Chicago since he moved here to study at SAIC in 1960, aside from a brief interlude spent teaching in California. During his early years, he worked as a preparator for Allan Frumkin Gallery, where he had access to prints by James Ensor, Paul Klee, and Edvard Munch, all of which had a powerful effect on his vision. This jocular self-portrait was made during an etching class with Vera Berdich, and it betrays Nutt’s knowledge of the unusual textural methods used by Ensor and Klee.
Etching and aquatint in black on cream wove paper