Sideshow: Drawings from the Sixties
Derek Eller Gallery•Nov 21, 2025 — Jan 10, 2026
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Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works on paper from the 1960s by Chicago artist Karl Wirsum (1939-2021). Wirsum’s sketchbook drawings from this era provide the origins of his visual language and incorporate studies for important Hairy Who? era paintings.
For Wirsum, drawing has always been central to his creative practice, an outlet for spontaneity as well as a means of working through an idea in terms of both content and form. Through repeated iterations, sometimes spaced over the course of years, lines are meticulously perfected, color is finely tuned, and content evolves. For example, his Untitled (Study for Gargoyle Gargle Oil), 1967, features a humanoid figure in profile, his scaly face and bulging eyes carefully colored and patterned. This is one of several versions of this theme, and over time, humanoid slowly morphs into reptile and back to humanoid, as the final painting (currently on vie…
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Sideshow: Drawings from the Sixties
Derek Eller Gallery•Nov 21, 2025 — Jan 10, 2026
Press Release
Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works on paper from the 1960s by Chicago artist Karl Wirsum (1939-2021). Wirsum’s sketchbook drawings from this era provide the origins of his visual language and incorporate studies for important Hairy Who? era paintings.
For Wirsum, drawing has always been central to his creative practice, an outlet for spontaneity as well as a means of working through an idea in terms of both content and form. Through repeated iterations, sometimes spaced over the course of years, lines are meticulously perfected, color is finely tuned, and content evolves. For example, his Untitled (Study for Gargoyle Gargle Oil), 1967, features a humanoid figure in profile, his scaly face and bulging eyes carefully colored and patterned. This is one of several versions of this theme, and over time, humanoid slowly morphs into reptile and back to humanoid, as the final painting (currently on vie…
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