Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a graphite drawing by Jim Nutt. It dates from 1990 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1990, this drawing by Jim Nutt consists of a profile portrait rendered in pencil on colored paper.
Created in 1990, this drawing by Jim Nutt consists of a profile portrait rendered in pencil on colored paper. The figure is turned slightly toward the viewer, its features reduced to geometric forms—triangular nose and forehead, circular ear—outlined with thick, uneven lines and dense shading around the eyes and hair. A subtle grid pattern underlies the composition, providing a muted background texture.
Subject & Meaning
The work presents a stylized human head that eschews realistic representation in favor of abstracted shapes and stark contrasts of light and dark. The exaggerated contours and simplified anatomy invite a reading that emphasizes the interplay of form and shadow, suggesting an exploration of the human visage as a construct of line and surface rather than a literal likeness.
Technique & Style
Nutt employs a single‑point graphite medium on colored paper, allowing the dark strokes to stand out against the tinted ground. The drawing is characterized by deliberate, uneven line work and heavy cross‑hatching that creates depth around the facial features. The underlying grid, faintly visible through the graphite, adds a structural rhythm that interacts with the organic contours of the portrait.
History & Provenance
The piece belongs to the period when Nutt, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was actively contributing to the Chicago Imagists, a group noted for its surrealist‑inflected, pop‑culture‑laden imagery. Although specific exhibition history for this drawing is not recorded, it aligns with the artist’s late‑20th‑century output that emphasized meticulous drawing and idiosyncratic figuration.
Context
Within the broader trajectory of American art in the 1990s, Nutt’s work reflects a continuation of the Imagist emphasis on figurative distortion and graphic intensity. The drawing’s combination of pop‑cultural references, surrealist undertones, and a focus on line echoes the movement’s departure from mainstream abstraction, situating the piece among contemporaneous explorations of narrative and visual excess.
Artist & collection
Artist
James T. Nutt (born November 28, 1938) is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who. Though his work is inspired by the same pop…
