Karl Wirsum No Dogs Aloud

Press Release

Opening reception: Thursday, April 27, 6 – 8pm

In the East Wing, CvsD is proud to bring together one of Karl Wirsum’s great early paintings, “No Dogs Aloud,” a portrait of blues singer Howlin’ Wolf from 1965, with a group of eight preparatory drawings, drawn from more than fifty such works on paper executed over a nine-month period.  The painting is an outstanding example of his rare back-painted Plexi works.  This work comes just a year before Wirsum joined the Hairy Who for the first of the Chicago Imagist exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC); it was unveiled in the year it was made at a group exhibition at HPAC, the first of three thematic shows, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, curated by Don Baum.  The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog featuring images of many of the preparatory drawings.

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