Alum-Led Chicago Imagists Movement Recognized on WBEZ

As the Chicago Imagists approach the 60th anniversary of their emergence, the movement is seeing a surge of long-overdue recognition, as reported by WBEZ. The core group, documented in the 2014 film Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists, were School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alums who emerged between 1966 and 1973 through exhibitions at Hyde Park Art Center organized by Don Baum (SAIC 1942–43). 

Working against the dominance of Minimalism and Pop Art, the Imagists embraced an unruly, highly personal figurative style rooted in everyday Chicago life, comic imagery, and museum collections of non-Western art. Their work mixed materials and formats freely, spanning painting, sculpture, textiles, and found objects. 

Key SAIC figures include Gladys Nilsson (BFA 1962, HON 2016), Christina Ramberg (BFA 1968, MFA 1973), Jim Nutt (BFA 1967, HON 2016), Roger Brown (BFA 1968, MFA 1970), Ed Paschke (BFA 1961, MFA 1970, HON 1990), Karl Wirsum (BFA 1961, HON 2016), and Ray Yoshida (BFA 1953), with Miyoko Ito (SAIC 1944), Robert Lostutter (SAIC 1958–62), and Richard Wetzel (BFA 1968) often cited alongside them. Recent milestones include Ramberg’s Art Institute retrospective and the Whitney’s Sixties Surreal. Together, these moments mark a long-overdue reassessment of one of Chicago’s most influential art movements, born at SAIC and shaped by generations of its alums.