Caroline Goldstein writes in Artnet, May 16, 2018:
 
‘The rag-tag group of artists known as the Imagists gained a certain notoriety in 1960s Chicago for creating art populated by monstrous cartoons, illogical landscapes, and puerile (often downright disgusting) scenes. The bright colors and garish figures take cues from comic books, folk art, and Surrealism, not so much blurring the boundaries between high and low culture but forsaking them altogether. Artists of Chicago subgroups like the Hairy Who and Monster Roster made the concurrent Pop art movement sweeping New York look like a scene from Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post. While Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist were elevating graphic arts—and making a case for white-cube gallery acceptance—the Imagist’s work was never more polished than the comics that served as inspiration.’

In the auction Contemporary Art & Design, we are happy to include a characteristic portrait by
Jim Nutt, ‘Huge’, from 1992, and a typical watercolour by Gladys Nilsson, titled ‘Summer Rain’ and executed in 1982. In both works, you get a good sense of the expression of the Chicago Imagists.

› Signed Gladys Nilsson and dated 1982 on verso. Watercolor on paper 105 x 74.5 cm. Estimate 150 000 - 200 000 SEK.