KARL WIRSUM, DRAWINGS 1967-1970, 1/1000 Copies, First Edition, Derek Eller Gallery

First Edition published in 1000 Copies

Contributor(s): Dan Nadel, Lorri Gunn

Designer: Norman Hathaway

Printed in Canada

Publication Date: 2010

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 14 x 11 inches

Pages: 29

Reproductions: illustrated throughout

Karl Wirsum (b. 1939) is a Chicago native who first emerged in the mid-1960’s, creating paintings suffused with the energy of his urban environment, comic strips, and South American patterning. In his drawings, bulbous insects, tortoise shells, and feathered bird wings become human body parts, and forms derived from crustacean and beach ecology give way to male weightlifters and female pin-ups. Wirsum’s contour lines, rooted in the boldness of sign painting and mechanical reproduction, drive his drawings and inform his interior volumes. This push and pull between interior and exterior becomes more aggressive given the intensity of his pen marks, which leave grooves in the pages. These drawings highlight a visual thinker and compulsive draftsmen at an early peak. As they are introduced to a new audience some four decades later, they look as alive today as the day they were formed. This catalog presents over 25 drawings accompanied by an essay by Dan Nadel.