Problematical Tripdickery

In the 1960s, Gladys Nilsson exhibited with five other recent School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduates, including her husband, Jim Nutt, under the group name Hairy Who. These artists’ use of bold colors and irreverent counterculture imagery are part of a broader movement known as Chicago Imagism. Primarily a watercolorist and printmaker, Nilsson often depicts groups of figures engaged in activities ranging from playful, humorous, and sweet, to mundane or disturbing. Beaming flashlights, as depicted in “Problematical Tripdickery” are a recurring motif in Nilsson’s work, and play with figurative scale is one of her signature techniques. In this triptych, Nilsson uses simple outlines to depict miniature figures in the same frame as enormous ones.