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拍品專文
Dans la seconde partie des années 1960 et durant les années 1970, alors que le Pop Art connaît son apogée et que, quelques années plus tard, l'abstraction devient le courant dominant de l'art américain, Chicago voit se développer une scène de création alternative, meneé par un groupe d'artistes réunis sous une bannière au nom étrange : les Hairy Who. Parmi eux, Karl Wirsum, Gladys Nilsson et Jim Nutt, tous privilégiant une figuration inspirée de l'imagerie des comics et matinée de surréalisme. Depuis 1990, Jim Nutt ne s'intéresse plus qu'à un seul sujet : le visage féminin, représenté dans des toiles de petites dimensions cernées d'un cadre géométrique complexe crée par l'artiste lui-même, décliné dans une palette aux nuances délicates et traité avec la minutie d'une peinture acrylique très lisse. Ces visages distordus, dans lesquels les nez jouent un rôle prépondérant, empruntant autant au cubisme dans leur approche stylistique qu'aux icônes médiévales dans leur format, prolongent le positionnement singulier de Jim Nutt dans l'histoire de l'art américain du XXe siècle, définitivement en marge des courants dominants. Une importante rétrospective leur a été consacrée au Museum of Contemporary Art de Chicago en 2011 : Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character.
In the latter part of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, when Pop Art was at its height and, within a few years, abstraction was to become the dominant movement in American art, an alternative creative scene developed in Chicago, led by a group of artists bearing a unusual name: the "Hairy Who". They included Karl Wirsum, Gladys Nilsson and Jim Nutt, all favouring a style of figuration inspired by imagery found in comics, with a dash of Surrealism. Since 1990, Jim Nutt has focused on a single subject - the female face - represented in small canvasses set in a complex geometrical frame created by the artist himself, using a palette of delicate shades and painted painstakingly in very smooth acrylic paint. These distorted faces, in which the nose plays a preponderant role, and whose stylistic approach owes as much to Cubism as their format does to Medieval icons, emphasise Jim Nutt's unique positioning in the history of 20th century American art, decidedly on the fringes of the dominant themes. Retrospective importance was given to them by the exhibition at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011, entitled Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character.
In the latter part of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, when Pop Art was at its height and, within a few years, abstraction was to become the dominant movement in American art, an alternative creative scene developed in Chicago, led by a group of artists bearing a unusual name: the "Hairy Who". They included Karl Wirsum, Gladys Nilsson and Jim Nutt, all favouring a style of figuration inspired by imagery found in comics, with a dash of Surrealism. Since 1990, Jim Nutt has focused on a single subject - the female face - represented in small canvasses set in a complex geometrical frame created by the artist himself, using a palette of delicate shades and painted painstakingly in very smooth acrylic paint. These distorted faces, in which the nose plays a preponderant role, and whose stylistic approach owes as much to Cubism as their format does to Medieval icons, emphasise Jim Nutt's unique positioning in the history of 20th century American art, decidedly on the fringes of the dominant themes. Retrospective importance was given to them by the exhibition at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011, entitled Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character.