James T. Nutt (born November 28, 1938) is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who. Though his work is inspired by the same

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that inspired Pop Art, journalist Web Behrens says Nutt's "paintings, particularly his later works, are more accomplished than those of the more celebrated Andy Warhol and

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

." According to Museum of Contemporary Art curator Lynne Warren, Nutt is "the premier artist of his generation".Web Behrens, "Nutty faces: Chicago Artist Jim Nutt still imagines, inspires", Time Out Chicago Kids, Issue 7, February/March 2011, p. 64 Nutt attended the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

, in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to fellow-artist and Hairy Who member Gladys Nilsson.Barbara B. Buchholz, "Chicago's Style: Gutsy, Independent, Defiant: A New Show Captures Our Artistic Traits: Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson: Two from the Who's Who of the Hairy Who",

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Magazine, December 1, 1996, pp. 14-21

Early life

Jim Nutt was born in 1938 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He attended college at the University of Kansas, then the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, then Washington University in St. Louis, then the

, where he met his future wife, fellow artist Gladys Nilsson.Christine Newman, "When Jim Met Gladys", "Chicago" Magazine, Vo. 60, No. 2, February 2011

Art career

In 1963 Nilsson and Nutt were introduced to

art history professor Whitney Halstead, who became a teacher, mentor, and friend. He introduced them in turn to Don Baum, exhibition director at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. In 1964 Nilsson and Nutt became youth instructors at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Hairy Who

In 1964, Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson began to teach children's classes at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. They and James Falconer approached the center's exhibitions director, Don Baum, with the idea of a group show consisting of the three of them and Art Green and Suellen Rocca. Baum agreed, and also suggested they include Karl Wirsum. The name of the group show, "Hairy Who?", became the name of the group. It was coined by Karl Wirsum as a reference to

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art critic Harry Bouras.Dan Nadel, "Hairy Who’s history of the Hairy Who." The Ganzfeld 3. New York: Monday Morning, 2003. p. 121-2. There were exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. The 1968 exhibition traveled to the San Francisco Art Institute, and the last show, in 1969, traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in

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Later career

In 1969, the influential Chicago gallery owner Phyllis Kind agreed to represent Nutt and Gladys Nilsson, giving both of them their first solo shows. In that same year Nutt and Nilsson moved to

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, California, where he was an assistant professor of art at Sacramento State College. In 1972 Walter Hopps, director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, chose Nutt along with other artists to represent the United States at the 1972

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, and he was also included, along with a number of his Chicago colleagues, in the 1973 São Paulo Art Biennial. In 1974 Nutt and his family returned to Chicago. They have lived in Wilmette since 1976. Jim Nutt had his first solo show in 1974 at the Museum of Contemporary Art; it then traveled to the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Nutt's current art dealer is the David Nolan Gallery, New York. Jim Nutt exhibited a retrospective of his paintings, "Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character" at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago from January 29 - May 29, 2011. In a catalogue essay accompanying this exhibition, painter Alexi Worth suggests that "what matters to Nutt are not real faces but our expectations of faces." In 2022, Venus Over Manhattan exhibited "Jim Nutt: Portraits," showcasing rarely seen paintings and works on paper. This marked the first significant display of Nutt's work in New York in over a decade and his first solo gallery exhibition in the United States since the MCA Chicago's 2011 retrospective.

Family life

In 1960, while attending the

, he met fellow student Gladys Nilsson. Nutt and Nilsson married in July 1961 in a chapel on the grounds of

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, and their son Claude was born in 1962.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutt, Jim 1938 births 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Painters from Chicago Living people 20th-century American male artists University of Kansas alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Funk art movement artists