CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/25/2015

The Collected Hairy Who Publications 1966-1969

Dan Nadel begins his illuminating Collected Hairy Who Publications catalog essay, "A need for work to be done and a place in which to do it: these are the twin grounds for the existence of the Hairy Who, according to the two friends who first hatched the idea, Jim Nutt and Jim Falconer… Those two simple factors allowed for the creation of a body of work that strikes me as an ecstatic response to simply being alive and opening your eyes. It is not ironic, but neither is it solemn. It is 
warm but not sentimental, immaculately crafted but not cold. It is art that embraces mundane realities, wet sexuality, fantastic realities and a hard-edged spirituality. 
It asks for nothing from the viewer, makes no special cases, and yet it is not against or for anything." Featured image, by Karl Wirsum, is reproduced from the catalog / zine to the group's 1968 show at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago.