Acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36"
As a child Karl Wirsum poured over comic books and wanted to become a cartoonist when he grew up. There is no doubt that his love of comic books and fascination with the ephemera of popular culture i.e. mass produced toys, objects from the carnival, circus and cartoon worlds have developed his aesthetic. Moreover, his explorations of the visual forms produced by American art have further stimulated his visual sense. Humor, verbal puns and the blues have each fueled his unique creativity.
In "Click", Wirsum portrays a symmetrical, frontally viewed figure,that he normally considers to have an iconic timeless presence, with an aura of impermanence. She is poised in mid-air with her vibrating, gyrating shape rendered in a flat, highly patterned, starkly outlined style that suggests a direct reference to the world of comics. The word 'click' composed of written characters that appear to be charged with electricity is framed by the figure's lower anatomy and by her precisely painted tiny black high-heeled tap shoes. According to the artist, this painting was inspired by the 1968 animated and live-action film spoof Tappy Toes. The film, created by artist Red Grooms starred Wirsum's wife Lorri Gunn in the role of a would-be actress about to get her big break. Even the exaggerated double ponytail hairdo in "Click" is a reference to his wife Lorri.
Chicago Imagist work was so named in part because the works contained imagery of the human figure. Over and over these artists returned to the human image casting it in numerous roles, distorting it and layering with metaphor and personal meaning. In doing so they were continuing the long held fascination with the human form.
-Suellen Rocca, Curator
1977 photo of Karl Wirsum in his studio by Sandra Jorgensen, Elmhurst University Art Collection.
