"HELL YEAH" 

SPACE-X  STARSHIP EXPLODES ON LANDING

SpaceX’s Starship test flight explodes on touchdown (euronews.com)

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

·

Dec 9, 2020

Successful ascent, switchover to header tanks & precise flap control to landing point!

SpaceX

@SpaceX

Watch Starship high-altitude test live → http://spacex.com/vehicles/starship… https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1OwxWVgPaVeJQ…

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!

4:07 PM · Dec 9, 2020

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SpaceX

@SpaceX

Starship landing flip maneuver

6:47 PM · Dec 9, 2020

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Delta asks more workers to take leave as travel slump widens

In this April 1, 2020, file photo, several dozen Delta Air Lines jets are parked at Kansas City International Airport in Kansas City, Mo. A sign of the deepening slump in air travel with coronavirus cases rising across the country, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, that Delta will need more employees to take unpaid leave "for the foreseeable future." Unlike American and United, Atlanta-based Delta has avoided furloughs since the pandemic started by convincing thousands of workers to retire early or take unpaid leave.

 (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Delta Air Lines has managed to avoid furloughs but is now asking more employees to take unpaid leaves of absence, a sign of the deepening slump in air travel as coronavirus cases increase across the United States.

CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday that Delta will need takers for its unpaid-leave program "for the foreseeable future."

"I ask everyone to consider whether a voluntary leave makes sense for you and your family," he said in a memo to employees.

With revenue down sharply, Delta expects to lose up to $12 million a day on average during the fourth quarter.

Unlike American Airlines and United Airlines, which furloughed a combined 32,000 workers in October, Atlanta-based Delta avoided furloughs by convincing thousands of workers to retire early or take unpaid leave.

Southwest Airlines also has avoided furloughs, but last week the Dallas-based carrier warned nearly 7,000 workers that they could lose their jobs if unions don't accept pay cuts.

Passenger traffic rose over Thanksgiving week, although numbers were down more than half from a year earlier. Traffic has dropped since the holiday.

Only 501,513 people passed through U.S. airports on Tuesday—74% lower than the same Tuesday a year ago, the sharpest percentage decline since Sept. 15. The seven-day rolling average of passengers has been falling for nearly two weeks.

In this April 7, 2020, file photo, a Delta Air Lines ticket counter sits empty at Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City. A sign of the deepening slump in air travel with coronavirus cases rising across the country, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, that Delta will need more employees to take unpaid leave "for the foreseeable future." Unlike American and United, Atlanta-based Delta has avoided furloughs since the pandemic started by convincing thousands of workers to retire early or take unpaid leave. 

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)


Explore further American Airlines notifies 25,000 workers of potential layoffs

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

US Senate backs massive arms sales to UAE


By Georgi Gotev | EURACTIV.com



File photo. A USAF F-35 Lightning II fighter jet in action during the Singapore Airshow at the Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore, 12 February 2020. 

[Wallace Woon/EPA/EFE]


An effort to stop President Donald Trump’s high-tech weapons deals with the United Arab Emirates fell short on Wednesday (9 December) in the US Senate as Trump’s fellow Republicans opposed resolutions of disapproval seeking to block the sale of drones and advanced F-35 fighter jets.

The Senate voted 50-46 and 49-47, mostly along party lines, to stop consideration of the resolutions, killing them at least until President-elect Joe Biden takes office on 20 January.

Biden, a Democrat, is expected to review the sales.

Early on Wednesday, the Trump administration had issued a formal notice of its intention to veto the measures if they passed the Senate and House of Representatives.

The White House said the sales support US foreign policy and national security objectives by “enabling the UAE to deter increasing Iranian aggressive behavior and threats” in the wake of its recent peace deal with Israel.

Backers of the sale also described the UAE as an important US partner in the Middle East.

The two weapons packages are a major component of a planned $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments to the UAE. Opponents said the transactions were being rushed through, without sufficient assurances that the equipment would not fall into the wrong hands or fuel instability in the Middle East.

Some US lawmakers also criticized the UAE for its involvement in the war in Yemen, a conflict considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The administration told Congress in November it had approved the massive sale to the UAE of products from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp.

Some lawmakers also worried that the weapons transfers might violate US guarantees that Israel will retain a military advantage in the region. But Israel, which enjoys strong support in Congress, has said it does not object to the sales.

Accusing Trump of cutting short or sidestepping Congress’ typical review of major weapons sales, lawmakers have tried repeatedly during Trump’s four-year presidency to block his plans for arms sales.

None of the efforts succeeded, either dying in the Republican-led Senate or, if passed, failing to win the two-thirds majorities in the Senate and House to override Trump’s vetoes.

US Senate votes down motions to block UAE arms sales
Resolutions opposing sale of F-35 jets, Reaper drones narrowly fall short of majority

News Service December 10, 2020

File photo Photograph: US AIR FORCE


The US Senate rejected two resolutions Wednesday seeking to block $23 billion worth of arms sales to the United Arab Emirates.

Senators voted 47-49 on a resolution opposing the sale of F-35 jets and 46-50 on one opposing the sale of Reaper drones, falling short of a simple majority, or 51 votes, in the 100-member Senate.

The resolutions were introduced by Democratic Senators Robert Menendez and Chris Murphy and Republican Senator Rand Paul.

Speaking ahead of the votes, Paul said it is time to carefully study the situation in the Middle East and to consider the effects of an accelerating arms race in the region.

"This is why our government should not be rushing into approving this sale," he said.

Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said many aspects of the proposed sale remain conceptual.

"We are being asked to support a significant transfer of advanced US technology without clarity on a number of key details regarding the sale or sufficient answers to critical national security questions," he said.

The UAE's Ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, welcomed the votes, saying the "continued US support enables the UAE to take on more of the burden for our collective security – ours, yours and our partners.”

"It improves US-UAE interoperability and allows us to be more effective together. It makes us all safer. Open, tolerant and future oriented, the UAE is charting a new positive path for the Middle East. We are committed to regional de-escalation and dialogue," said the UAE mission in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration formally notified lawmakers on Nov. 10 of its intent to sell more than $23 billion worth of arms to the UAE, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, Reaper drones, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles and other munitions.

Abu Dhabi fully normalized relations with Israel as part of President Donald Trump's push to have Arab states open diplomatic ties with the country. Despite warm relations with the UAE, Israeli lobbies have expressed discomfort with advanced arms sales to the tiny Arab country.

SEE: PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Biden’s Pentagon Pick Has Deep Defense Industry Ties. Now It Could Complicate His Nomination.
Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin sits on the board of Raytheon.

Dan Spinelli Reporter Bio 

MOTHER JONES DECEMBER 9,2020


Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Joe Biden, in defending his decision to nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin as his Defense secretary pick on Tuesday, cited Austin’s “intimate knowledge of the Department of Defense and our government,” adding that those qualities make him “uniquely matched to the challenges and crises we face.” Outside of government, those qualities were also uniquely matched to a post-military career spent cultivating ties between people in power and the defense industry.

After retiring from the Army in 2016, Austin joined the board of a defense industry giant, set up his own consulting firm, and became a partner at a private equity firm that invests in defense and aerospace companies. He quickly cashed in, earning at least $1.4 million since he joined the board of United Technologies Corp. in 2016. Earlier this year, UTC merged with Raytheon, giving Austin a seat on the board of one of the country’s most powerful defense contractors. Last year, Raytheon received more than $16 billion in federal government contracts, the fourth-most of any company.

The progressive flank of the Democratic Party, which has debated how to oppose Biden’s Defense secretary pick even before the announcement, expressed concern with Austin in a barrage of statements on Tuesday. Common Defense, a veterans group, called his nomination “a grave, democracy-threatening mistake.” Win Without War Executive Director Stephen Miles said the “historic nature of this nomination is indeed laudable,” but called on Austin to “address the ethics concerns raised by his connection with Raytheon” and “at minimum, commit to recusing himself from any decision relating to Raytheon.”


“They have exploited these connections to keep the bombs flowing. How well equipped will General Austin be to resist these pressures? Will he tip the scales in favor of his former company?”

The Massachusetts based contractor has made off particularly well by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and its allies as part of the controversial Saudi intervention into Yemen’s civil war, an ongoing catastrophe that has spiraled into the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. “Since the Yemen war began, Raytheon has booked at least a dozen major sales to the kingdom and its partners worth more than $5 billion,” the New York Times reported in May. Congress has repeatedly passed resolutions that oppose further sales to Saudi Arabia and its Middle East allies, but firms like Raytheon have relentlessly lobbied the Trump administration to keep the spigot flowing, despite American weapons being connected to massive civilian casualty events in Yemen. President Trump has vetoed bills to block arms sales in the past and is expected to do so again, pending how Congress votes on similar legislation this week.

If Austin’s gets a seat in Biden’s Cabinet, it raises questions of how sincerely he believes in Raytheon’s activities and whether he would advocate for a continued transfer of weapons. Last year, Biden called for the United States to stop providing financial and military support for the Saudi war in Yemen, reversing a policy that originated under the Obama administration. He also said he would make Saudi Arabia, which has come up for increasing criticism in Congress since its state-sanctioned murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, into “a pariah.”

Under Trump, who appointed former Raytheon lobbyist Mark Esper as Defense secretary, Raytheon has been able to secure influence at the highest levels of government. “They have exploited these connections to keep the bombs flowing. How well equipped will General Austin be to resist these pressures? Will he tip the scales in favor of his former company?” says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the progressive Center for International Policy. “These are questions that should not need to be asked—these kinds of potential conflicts should not be present in an independent secretary of Defense able to make the right decisions on arms to Saudi Arabia and other key security issues.”

In recent years, the boardrooms of major US defense contractors have become something of a feeder school for senior Pentagon leaders. Trump’s three Defense secretaries who served for any extended time—James Mattis, Patrick Shanahan, and Esper—had roles at General Dynamics, Boeing, and Raytheon before joining his administration.

“If President-elect Biden is serious about enacting reform upon taking office, he would be better served by a Defense secretary without ties to one of the top five contractors. We need defense leaders who are ready to make decisions that are right for the American people, not former industry officials who stand to be influenced by their ties to contractors,” said Mandy Smithberger of the Project On Government Oversight, which tracks the industry ties of current and former government officials. “The revolving door between the Defense Department and industry has contributed to far too many decisions that benefit defense contractors at the expense of the American public, and I’m disappointed to see that Biden isn’t committed to mitigating industry influence on the government.”

Austin’s nomination was applauded by the Congressional Black Caucus, who pushed for Biden to nominate a Black Defense secretary, but many other Democrats in Congress have already voiced opposition to his nomination—a point that especially matters for this Cabinet position, since Austin would require a congressional waiver to serve as Defense secretary. He only retired from the Army four years ago and federal law requires a seven-year cooling off period before a military leader can serve as secretary of Defense, a civilian role. (The cooling off period initially extended for 10 years, but Congress reduced it in 2007.) Mattis, who was in a similar situation as a retired Marine Corps general, ultimately received a waiver from Congress, but some prominent Democrats who opposed a waiver for Mattis, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have said they will similarly not support one for Austin. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who worked at the Pentagon while Austin was leading US troops in the Middle East, said she has “deep respect” for his work, but “choosing another recently retired general to serve in a role that is designed for a civilian just feels off.” She didn’t rule out voting for his waiver, but her reluctance speaks to some of the frustration among Democrats that Biden would pick a retired general after the outsize influence military leaders had at the Defense Department over civilian officials during Mattis’ tenure.




Austin’s 41 years in uniform evidently didn’t disqualify him in Biden’s eyes. Industry connections haven’t appeared to hurt Biden’s national security appointees either, many of whom served outside of government in similar consulting jobs. Avril Haines, Biden’s nominee for director of national intelligence, was a principal at WestExec Advisers, a consulting firm co-founded by Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken and Michèle Flournoy, an ex-Obama Defense official who was among Biden’s finalists for the Defense secretary job. Austin, Flournoy, and Blinken are all partners at Pine Island Capital Partners, a private equity firm founded by former executives at Merrill Lynch, Coca-Cola, and Goldman Sachs, though Blinken is currently on leave. A spokesperson for the firm did not immediately respond to a request about Austin’s status; he joined the firm in late July, according to a press release on its website. Austin also sits on the board of Nucor, an American steel producer, and Tenet, a health care firm.

“Joe Biden has pledged the most ethically rigorous administration in American history, and every cabinet member will abide by all disclosure requirements and strict ethics rules—including recusals when appropriate,” Andrew Bates, a Biden spokesperson, said in a statement, adding that Austin, if confirmed, would “divest of his interest in Pine Island and in Raytheon.”

Pine Island’s holdings include two defense contractors: InVeris Training Solutions, which produces “advanced technology-enabled virtual and live-fire training systems,” and Precinmac Precision Machining, which makes parts for rocket launchers and other weapons. InVeris, formerly known as Meggitt Training Systems, was a subsidiary of a British firm that signed multiple contracts to produce parts for the F-35, the troubled aircraft that has been plagued by years-long problems. Congress has held multiple hearings related to production problems with the F-35, the most expensive weapons program in US history, and pressured Lockheed Martin—the contractor who gave work to Meggitt—to pay back the US government for the cost of defective spare parts. Before being acquired by Pine Island, Meggitt Training Systems signed a $78 million contract with an undisclosed Middle Eastern government to build an outdoor training facility. Congress will have the opportunity to probe those business deals at Austin’s confirmation hearing, which is shaping up to be one of the more unpredictable ones of the early Biden administration.

SEE: PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

 

#INTERNATIONALISM

Black Lives Matter co-founder urges Nigeria 

to free jailed police protesters

By Libby George

© Reuters/LIBBY GEORGE Black Lives Matter co-founder, Opal Tometi, speaks from Los Angeles during an interview on Zoom with Reuters in Lagos

LAGOS (Reuters) - A group of activists and celebrities, including a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, have signed an open letter to Nigeria's president demanding that he hold accountable security personnel accused of shooting anti-police brutality protesters.

© Reuters/TEMILADE ADELAJA FILE PHOTO:

 Demonstrators carry banners during a protest over alleged police brutality, in Lagos

The letter, published in the New York Times on Thursday to mark International Human Rights Day, comes nearly two months after what witnesses and Amnesty International say was a fatal clash in Lagos between peaceful protesters and military and police. The military and police deny shooting protesters.

© Reuters/TEMILADE ADELAJA FILE PHOTO: 

Demonstrators talk to a police officer during a protest over alleged police brutality, in Lagos

The demonstrators had called for an end to police brutality and a much-hated unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi, 36, an American with Nigerian parents, organized the letter after watching the protests descend into violence. Tometi said she has friends and family in Nigeria, but said it was not difficult to get others to sign on.

"We care about the issues of police brutality no matter where they're occurring," she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "The violence that people have been met with is intolerable."

Spokesmen for President Muhammadu Buhari did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police disbanded SARS on Oct. 11, and the government asked each state to form judicial panels to investigate claims of brutality.

But protesters have outlined a campaign of harassment since the shootings, and some still do not know what happened to their missing friends and family.

The letter, signed by supporters including climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg, also asks the government to release jailed protesters, lift a ban on protests and allow an independent human rights monitor investigation into "the actions that led to the killings at Lekki Toll Gate."

"People are missing and people have died as a consequence of speaking out," Tometi said. "We will not abide it."

(Reporting by Libby George in Lagos; Editing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Matthew Lewis)

Health Canada seizes dozens of illegal products from Edmonton adult store

Health Canada has seized nearly two dozen brands of poppers from an adult store in northwest Edmonton

.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal The Passion Vault had enhancement products seized by Health Canada in Edmonton, December 8, 2020. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

Officials from the federal agency took 24 types of products from the Passion Vault on 111 Avenue, said a news release issued on Nov. 25. Authorities seized similar products from stores in Medicine Hat and Toronto. It is unclear if the raids were connected.

Among the items seized were products labelled as Rush Original, Gold Rush Original and Jungle Juice Gold Label, and a variety of other brands of poppers. Several items labelled under “sexual enhancement” were also taken from the store by officials.

Poppers is the street term for products containing chemicals known as alkyl nitrates. They cause a short high that relaxes smooth muscles and gives off a rush, according to the Community Based Research Centre (CBRC). They are often used in clubs and among men with same-sex partners in the bedroom. THEY GIVE MEN ROCK HARD ERECTIONS

Officials with Health Canada said they could not comment further as they wait for the rest of the investigation to be completed.

Management at the Passion Vault declined to comment on the seizures.

Health Canada began cracking down on the sale of poppers in 2013 as they made their distribution illegal. Health Canada said poppers pose serious health effects on users, including deaths.

Dr. Kiffer Card, a researcher with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, said that while certain variations of alkyl nitrates can cause harm, the decision to ban poppers across Canada was made without evidence or consultations with the community.

“Many gay and bisexual men and other people have been using poppers for decades, with little to no effect on their health,” said Card. “So the bulk of evidence that we have currently from the population health data we have in our survey shows that most people use without consequence when they’re using the safe formulations.”

Card said there is currently no legal way to obtain poppers in Canada. He said Australia currently allows some strains to be purchased at pharmacies.

Card said in an ideal world, the federal government would move towards a similar approach to Australia but would allow for a little more freedom for the drug to be sold in certain stores, such as adult retailers.

He argued that Canada has currently set a double standard by allowing some therapeutic drugs such as tobacco and alcohol to be sold while others are not.

“It’s not just a policy decision of Canada, but it’s a political decision that really, really will require intervention from the federal government,” said Card.

Card said his organization will be pushing the government publicly in the coming months to analyze its decision to outlaw poppers through a gender-based analysis.

Is that a big goldfish or a small koi? 

The fish in this Facebook photo remains a mystery.

Is a goldfish the "Loch Ness" of a small South Carolina lake?

Or is a small koi on the loose?

The identity of this fish remains a mystery.

Parks and recreation workers in South Carolina found what they're calling a nine-pound goldfish while electrofishing to gauge the health of a lake in Greenville. One fish didn't simply float to the top. Instead, it jumped out of the lake.

"It reminded me of when I was a little kid, my mom was a teacher and she brought a goldfish that was in a small fishbowl home. We put it in a bigger aquarium and we both were surprised (at) how big it grew," Ty Houck, director of greenways, natural and historic resources for Greenville County's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, told USA TODAY. 

© Courtesy of Ty Houck/Greenville Parks, Recreation & Tourism County workers claim they found a 9-pound goldfish in a lake in South Carolina, though an expert from the University of Texas is skeptical.

This goldfish isn't native to the area, but they aren't invasive, Houck said. He and Scott Robinson, who was working with him, put the fish back in the water after they took a couple of photos. Typically, they'll find largemouth bass, crappies, redear sunfish and warmouths, he said.

"I said, 'All lakes need their own Loch Ness,'" Houck said.

'Uplifting news': Critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population gets a boost

The two — along with Houck's son and his son's friend — found the fish in mid-November in Oak Grove Lake, Houck said. The county's parks and recreation department posted the photo to Facebook on Monday with the caption, "Anyone missing their goldfish?"

But is it really a goldfish?

Adam Cohen, ichthyology collection manager at the University of Texas' Biodiversity Center, looked at the photo of the fish and told USA TODAY he believes it's a koi. Ichthyology is the study of fish.

Cohen pointed to what he called barbels coming out of the fish's mouth.

If the fish is an adult koi, it's a relatively small one, Cohen said. Koi can grow to be up to three feet, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

These large-eyed nocturnal predators snag food out of the air: Ogre-faced spiders don't need ears to 'hear' their prey, study finds.

It's not impossible for a goldfish to grow to nine pounds, but it's unlikely, Cohen said.

"For me, looking at the photo, I can tell that's not a goldfish," Cohen said with a laugh. "It's actually a koi."

He added, "It's very common for us to see those missed IDs in our line of work. That individual actually has a standard goldfish color. Koi are extremely variable in their colors and their shape and size. That particular individual looks a lot like a typical feeder goldfish."

Houck said he received verification that the fish was in fact a goldfish, and added the fish that was found "only has fins."

The 6 Artists of Chicago’s Electrifying ’60s Art Group the Hairy Who
Edmée Lepercq
Sep 8, 2020 


Portrait of Hairy Who by by Charles Krejcsi for the Chicago Daily News. Courtesy of Pentimenti Productions.


If New York  Pop art was considered cool, Chicago’s was hot, embodied in the mid-1960s by six recent graduates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited together under the moniker “the Hairy Who.” While Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein treated mass consumerism and popular culture with irony and distance, the Hairy Who were interested in the emotional charge of such imagery. One was personal, the other aloof.

The Hairy Who were united by their education, their sense of humor, their craftsmanship, and their knowledge of art history. Their sources were as eclectic and far-ranging as Art Brut, Surrealism, sale catalogues, bodybuilders, and medical illustrations. Today, the Hairy Who are renowned for their hallucinatory representations of the body, which shows it fragmented, elongated, and exaggerated. Their works often depict mutilations and skin diseases, which sit in stark contrast with their otherwise cheerful aesthetic. The dissonance perfectly captures the tensions between the relentlessly upbeat fantasy world of American consumerism and the political upheaval of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Chicago itself was an epicenter of racial tension throughout the 1960s following desegregation attempts by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others.

Though the collective exhibited together for just three years, from 1966 to 1969, they drew national and international attention and catalyzed the broader Chicago Imagist
movement, which extended into the 1980s. Rather than a series of group shows, their exhibitions challenged traditional modes of installation with artists covering gallery walls with flowery linoleum and hanging oversized price tags on paintings and drawings. Each exhibition came with a comic book–style publication—a dig at stuffy exhibition catalogues—as well as buttons and posters. It was a far cry from the white cube.

So, who were the six members of the Hairy Who?

Karl Wirsum
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6 Images

Karl Wirsum inadvertently gave the group its name when he walked into a meeting where the other members were talking about the art critic Harry Bouras. Wirsum asked, “Harry who? Who is this guy?” They changed “Harry” to “Hairy,” and the name stuck. Wirsum’s work usually consists of a single, central, confrontational figure set against a monochromatic background. His figures are never fully human, but rather a humanoid mash-up of robots, aliens, and totemic forms. One of his inspirations is the symmetry of Mayan and Aztec stone carvings, which he came upon during a 1961 trip to Mexico with the artist 

Ed Paschke
. Another is the boldness and brashness of Chicago’s jazz and blues music. Wirsum even made portraits of musicians like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Junior “Messin’ with the Kid” Wells, channeling the intensity of their performances into his work. In the 1970s, Wirsum’s characters burst into three dimensions. He began making sculptures—brightly painted figures of boxers, animal masks, and skulls reminiscent of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (or “Day of the Dead”). Like his drawings, they emanate a sense of unbridled energy; a cacophonous, rapturous mix of joy or insanity.


Jim Nutt


Jim Nutt
American, b. 1938
FollowJim Nutt was a member of the Imagist and Hairy Who groups centered in Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s. His graphic, vividly sexual, and psychological work was …
Jim Nutt
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6 Images



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In Jim Nutt’s work, the unruliness of the human form is front and center—pimples erupt, sweat splashes off, and hairs sprout like a crop of microgreens. Yet the vulgarity in his images, from their gory details to their locker-room humor, is always offset by the artist’s technical prowess. Every one of Nutt’s compositions is planned with the utmost care. For example, in his formative early paintings on Plexiglas, Nutt worked out all of his ideas, shapes, and forms on a sheet of paper the same size as the final work. He then taped the paper onto one side of the Plexiglas and, looking through its transparent surface, painted the lines and colors of the sketch on the other side. By the 1990s, Nutt’s cartoonish early work would move toward Renaissance-esque portraiture. Painted on canvas or wood, blackened noses, tumorous growths, and skin diseases afflict the faces of men and women with intelligent eyes and fanciful updos. Each sitter features the pose and demeanor of bygone aristocrats, yet suffers illnesses worthy of any medical journal, all depicted in the subtlest of hues.

Suellen Rocca
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6 Images


Suellen Rocca has described her own work as a form of picture writing, akin to hieroglyphs. Her paintings are composed of repeated, gendered motifs; inspired by cultural icons of beauty and romance in mass media, handbags, lipsticks, and palm trees speak to popular culture through a personal lens. Rocca was fascinated by how a single palm tree can encompass a vision of paradise, or how a diamond ring symbolizes true love. In her earlier work, she divided the picture plane into panels evocative of comic strips and sale catalogues, creating a pastel-hued periodic table of squiggly-lined feminine symbols. After an artistic hiatus from 1972 to 1981, Rocca began making paintings with a darker emotional weather, which she called “more internal.” They often feature a central female figure surrounded by a selection of floating commercial objects. As with her earlier work, these paintings offer themselves up as interpretive lists and diagrams.

Jim Falconer

James “Jim” Falconer’s drawings and paintings from 1966 to 1968 are full of images from pop culture rendered in a floppy, wiggly style and hallucogenic colors. Drawing influence from German Expressionism, Surrealism, and artists like Peter Saul and H.C. Westermann
, Falconer also found inspiration in ordinary, industrial things like vintage linoleum and hand-painted signs. One body of work features silkscreens of bright, organic, abstract forms mounted onto linoleum flooring decorated with dusty motifs of rose bouquets. Set into red or blue frames the artist made himself, a price tag sometimes hangs off the work, its colors complementing the image.

While every member of the Hairy Who wrestled with the sociopolitical tensions of the 1960s, Falconer was perhaps the most overtly political. Having co-founded the activist group Artists Against the War in Vietnam with Dominick di Meo, Robert Donley, and Donald Main in 1969, Falconer moved to New York City in 1970, where he abandoned visual art to work in film, photography, and music for the next 35 years. He returned to Chicago in the early 2000s and has since been making abstract paintings that continue his early work among the Hairy Who.