Bay Area Figurative Art, Funk, and Chicago's "Hairy Who"

1. Bay Area Figurative (SF, 1950-65) key decade: 1950s into '60s
   1. First Generation: David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, James Weeks
   2. "Bridge" Generation: Nathan Oliveira, Paul Wonner, Theophilus Brown
   3. Second Generation: Joan Brown, Manual Neri, Bruce McGaw
2. California Funk (SF/ LA, late 50s into 60s)
   1. The "Beats" - life, drugs, and poetry (Kerouac, Ginsberg), Wallace Berman
   2. "Rat Bastard Protective Association," Bruce Conner
   3. Hermetic underground: Jay De Feo, Wally Hedrick, George Herm
   4. Funk/craft: Robert Arneson, David Gilhooley
3. Chicago's "Hairy Who," ('68 + after)
   1. Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson (California connection)
   2. Ed Paschke, Karl Wirsum, Roger Brown

Slide List

Park Kids on Bikes 1951
Park Ethiopia 1959
Park Couple 1959
Bischoff Girl Wading 1959
Elmer Bischoff Orange Sweater 1955
Diebenkorn Coffee 1956
Dibenkorn Woman on a Porch 1958
Diebenkorn Ocean Park series 1970-80s
Weeks Two Musicians 1960
Oliveira Man Walking 1958
Neri Standing Figure 1958
James Weeks Two Men 1960
Brown (Joan) Girl Sitting 1962
Brown Fur Rat 1962
Conner Child 1959-60
Conner Couch 1963
Conner Untitled (front) 1954-62
Berman Faceless Faces 1963
De Feo The Rose 1958-64
Arneson Typewriter 1965
Keinholtz Roxy's 1960/61
Arneson Funk John 1963
Kienholz Roxy's installation 1960-61
Westermann Evil New War God 1958
Nutt I'm Da Vicious Roomer 1969
Nutt Snooper Trooper 1967
Wirsum Eric 1978
Wirsum Screamin' Jay Hawkins 1968
Paschke Fandango 1979
Paschke Purple Ritual 1967
Brown, Roger The Entry of Christ in Chicago 1976

Bay Area Figurative Art

David Park, Kids on Bikes, 1951
David Park, Ethiopia, 1959
Richard Diebenkorn, Woman on a Porch, 1958
Elmer Bischoff, Orange Sweater, 1955
James Weeks, Two Men, 1960
David Park, Couple, 1959

Frustrated with the constraints of Clyfford Still's brand of high moral seriousness in abstraction, Park was the first to break away into what was initially a playful illustrator's style. Bay Area figuration eventually became known for its fusion of Abstract Expressionist paint-handling with representational conventions that forged compelling connections with the world.

Nathan Oliveira, Man Walking, 1958
Joan Brown, Girl Sitting, 1962
Manuel Neri, Standing Figure, 1958

The younger artists joining Park, Diebenkorn, Bischoff and others were more mannerist in their styles, trowelling paint around by the acre and departing from realism's conventions altogether.

Funk

Conner, Couch, 1963
Keinholtz, Roxy's, 1960/61
Arneson, Funk John, 1963

The connection of younger BAF painters and sculptors to Beat poets and writers (Neri had staged the first public reading of Ginsberg's censored poem "Howl") led to an edgier underground art they called "Funk." Furiously political or wallowing in scatological humor, Funk artists revelled in their marginal status.

Conner, Untitled (front), 1954-62
Conner, Untitled (back), 1954-62
De Feo, The Rose, 1954-64

Funk artists moved into the sixties with their generation's questions about sexual hypocrisy and a new spirituality based on body knowledge and altered states of mind.

Jim Nutt, Snooper Trooper, 1967
Karl Wirsum, Screamin Jay Hawkins, 1968
Ed Paschke, Purple Ritual, 1967

Chicago's younger generation, profoundly affected by their teachers in the "Monster Roster" group (Leon Golub primary among them), turned to fringe populations (schizophrenics, circus freaks) and comic books for inspiration. Self-consciously marginal, they also looked to Dubuffet's "anti-cultural" position and their colleagues in California.