chuck close

Chuck Close

1940- still alive!

•American painter•From Monroe, Washington

•Had a blood clot that left him paralyzed. He then painted with the

brush held in his teeth•He has since gained a bit more

mobility•Most of his works are very large portraits based on photographs.

•He uses the photorealism technique

•Graduated from UW in 1963, then got his MFA from Yale

•Lived in Europe then taught art at the U of MA

•Had shows in the Whitney and MOMA•Starts by putting a grid on the photo and on

the canvas and copies cell by cell• His first tools for this included an airbrush, rags, razor blade, and an eraser mounted

on a power drill• His first picture with this method was Big

Self Portrait, a black and white

Current work (daguerreotypes)

• The daguerreotype (original French: daguerréotype) is an early type of photograph, developed by Louis Daguerre, in which the image is exposed directly onto a mirror-polished surface of silver bearing a coating of silver halide particles deposited by iodine vapor. In later developments bromine and chlorine vapors were also used, resulting in shorter exposure times. The daguerreotype is a negative image, but the mirrored surface of the metal plate reflects the image and makes it appear positive in the proper light. Thus, daguerreotype is a direct photographic process without the capacity for duplication.

YOUR MISSION• Work in your table groups

• Create a photograph made up of a bunch of smaller photographs

• Has to be a face (front or side view)• Can choose one out of a magazine, one of

the portraits someone in your group has taken, you can take a new one for this

assignment• Use new photos that you cut out of magazines to make up the large image

• Use pics of noses to make the nose, pics of eyes to make the eyes etc…

• The final image has to be at least 16 x 20. Can be larger.

• Paste the smaller images onto the cardboard I give you