Biography
Jim Nutt, born in 1938 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a pioneering American artist and a founding member of the Chicago Imagists, known for his bold fusion of surrealism, comics, and pop culture. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1965, he co-founded the Hairy Who collective alongside Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum, and others, challenging minimalist trends with vibrant colors, grotesque forms, and irreverent humor drawn from comic books, commercial signage, and outsider art.
In the 1970s, Nutt developed a unique technique of painting on Plexiglas, inspired by pinball machines and hand-painted displays. Since the 1990s, he has focused on meticulously rendered imaginary female portraits, marked by exaggerated features and retro aesthetics, blurring the line between caricature and psychological study. His work explores identity, representation, and the theatricality of the self.
Nutt’s art has been exhibited at leading institutions including the MCA Chicago, Whitney Museum, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. He received the Artists' Legacy Foundation Award in 2015, and in 2023, the David Nolan Gallery in New York presented Shouldn't We Be More Careful?, a solo exhibition of his recent drawings. His works remain highly sought after for their originality, technical precision, and enduring influence on contemporary figurative art.
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