Untitled (Tears)

During his time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Nutt and his wife, Gladys Nilsson, developed close friendships with instructors Ray Yoshida and Whitney Halstead. The latter hired Nutt to work as the projection assistant for his art history classes, an experience that exposed him to a wide range of visual influences. This drawing is an early example of Nutt’s work and foreshadows the radical figural invention for which he is best known.