Directed by Leslie Buchbinder, 2014
105 minutes, English.
 

Screenings:
Saturday, 14 June 2025 at 4 PM
Saturday, 25 October 2025 at 4 PM
Presented in conjunction with our exhibition, Gladys Nilsson.

Free with the price of admission.
Each ticket grants admission to our galleries from 2pm for self-guided visitation of our exhibitions, and to the film screening starting at 4pm. Galleries close at 4pm. Space is limited, advance reservations are recommended.

 

In the mid 1960s, Chicago was an incubator for an iconoclastic group of young artists collectively known as the Imagists. A cousin to the contemporaneous phenomenon of Pop Art, Chicago Imagism took its own weird, wondrous, in-your-face approach. The Imagist artists - including Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Christina Ramberg, Karl Wirsum, and more - each had their own unmistakable styles: scatological, meticulous, comical, and absurd.

"Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists" is the first film to tell the Imagists’ whole story, from their notoriety in the 1960s, to a precipitous fade from prominence in the 1980s and '90s, and ending with their 21st century resurgence in popularity. Almost 50 years after their first show, the Imagists have influenced generations of artists across the world, from Jeff Koons to Chris Ware and beyond. The Imagists' roller-coaster ride through art history is re-created with a wealth of archival footage and photographs, and over forty interviews with the Imagists themselves, critics, curators, collectors, and contemporary artists.