HYDE PARK — The Logan Center will host a free screening of a documentary about the art movement started in Hyde Park that went on to inspire such iconic aesthetics as “Pee Wee’s Playhouse.”
“Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists” will show at 7 p.m. Friday at the center, 915 E. 60th St.
A panel discussion about the role of the Hyde Park Art Center and the neighborhood in the birth of the movement will follow.
Some of the Hairy Who collective’s early shows were at the art center from 1966-68 showing bright, irreverent work critics ridiculed as the “crème de la phlegm,” according to the film.
Gary Panter, who created the unique visual look of the “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” TV show, cites the collective as an inspiration, particularly its distance from a rapidly maturing consumer culture.
“The Hairy Who couldn’t be co-opted — it had embraced insanity and psychosis," Panter says in the film. “You don’t necessarily sell toothbrushes with that.”
The doors will reopen at 8:45 p.m. for anyone who was unable to see the film but would like to participate in the discussion.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
