Last summer, Intuit began exhibiting nearly a dozen Wesley Willis drawings as part of “Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow” in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, an expansive, yearlong celebration of the city’s art history. Intuit’s show honored Willis and nine other local outsider artists (including Henry Darger, Lee Godie, and Mr. Imagination), and argued for their place in the historical canon. Willis, a six-foot-five schizophrenic Black man who drew detailed renderings of Chicago’s skyline and infrastructure, was the youngest figure included in the show—he was just 40 years old when he died in 2003—and he transcended the art world like none of the others.
Young has showcased some of his Willis art before—he provided 30 drawings for a 2008 gallery show at suburban Dominican University. “For a long time, I’ve been working toward promoting Wesley’s legacy in various ways,” Young says. He even wrote a book, tentatively titled The Early Work of Wesley Willis, though the project never advanced beyond the draft phase. Through the decades, Young built a substantial archive of Willis-related ephemera—sketches, unfinished drawings, and photos, in addition to the completed works. Though he’s sold some pieces from his collection, Young felt the timing was right to mount a proper exhibit of Willis’s work.
Young cataloged all his Willis works by dividing them into thematic categories, to each of which he assigned a number, one through ten. Drawings and sketches, for example, were the first category; and each item received its own number within the category. Young wrote Willis’s initials and these two numbers on the back of each piece in pencil.
9/13-11/17: Tue-Sun 11-6 PM, Matthew Rachman Gallery, 1659 W. Chicago, 773-245-3182, matthewrachmangallery.com.
