The Hairy Who

"Neither a movement nor a style, Hairy Who was simply the name six Chicago artists chose when they decided to join forces and exhibit together in the mid-1960s."^[8]
The Hairy Who was a "group" made up of six School of the Art Institute graduates, mentored by Ray Yoshida^[9] and Whitney Halstead.^[2]: Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Karl Wirsum, and Suellen Rocca. They developed a vibrant and vulgar approach to art making- and after only six exhibitions together: three at the Hyde Park Art Center (in '66, '67, and '68), and three out of town, at the San Francisco Art Institute ('68), the School of Visual Art in New York ('69), and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC ('69), they decided to break up and continued on working on their own individual practices, and/or joined other groups.
In 1964, Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson and Jim Falconer approached the Hyde Park Art Center's exhibitions director, Don Baum (a key figure in the Hairy Who's success), with the idea of a group show consisting of the three of them, and Art Green and Suellen Rocca. Baum agreed, and also suggested they include Karl Wirsum.^[2] The six artists, held exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1966, 1967, and 1968. They named the exhibitions "Hairy Who?" but never intended to organize themselves together as a unified group.^[4]