Chuck Close

Contemporary Artist working from 1960’s until today.

Left: Big Self-Portrait, 1967-68, Acrylic on canvas

Top: Self-Portrait, 1997,

Oil on canvas

How has Close’s style evolved?

• Over the years, Close's works have evolved from harsh black-and-white images to colorful and brightly patterned canvases of an almost abstract painterliness. His work was originally associated with photorealism.

Painterliness: means that the marks or lines the artists makes are distinguishable, not hidden.

Estes, Water taxi, Mount Desert, 1999

Photorealism

• Photorealism is a movement which began in the late 1960's, in which scenes are painted in a style closely resembling photographs. The subject matter is frequently everyday scenes or people. This type of painting leaves interpretation up to the viewer and is more about the process of creating a very realistic painting.

Close at first and second glance,

• Close's sitters are consistently posed in a manner that allows only the subtlest of individualism. At first glance the polaroid's the artist works from resemble driver's license or passport photos but are shown in a way I.D. pictures can never be because he painting’s on a very large scale.

Choice of Subject,

• Close chooses his subjects from among his family and friends--including artists such as Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg--to create works that range from coolly unemotional likenesses of unidentified individuals to psychologically charged glimpses of well-known members of the contemporary art world.But, more than any other subject, he’s painted himself.

Mug Shots

• Close’s paintings have been compared to mug shots because of the way the original photographs were taken.

• Close has said, “I thought, well, the police have a reason they make a mug shot. It gives you the most information about that subject that you can have. They want to find them and arrest them. And they get them straight on, and they get a profile. All of my early portraits are dead-straight on.”

Keith, Close, 1970

Tragedy and New Style,

• Artists frequently change their style of work and Close experienced a tragedy that subsequently influenced his painting style. In 1988, he had a spinal blood clot, which left him a quadriplegic, unable to move either his legs or his arms. With a paint brush clamped between his teeth, he developed a new way to paint. But since then he has gotten more movement in his hands and he straps a paint brush to his hand.

New Style

• His portraits, the photos, and canvases were girded off by assistants and then he paints the canvas, using the techniques of grisaille and pointillism within the grids. This is similar to technique used by the Impressionists and Pointillists. The result was still a canvas of mini-paintings, which when viewed from a distance are seen as a single or unified image.

Definitions• Impressionism: did not paint every detail.

Instead, they wanted to capture spontaneous moments and fleeting reflections of light on people and things. They wanted to capture a moment in time.

• Pointillism:is a style of painting in which small distinct points of colour create primary colours the impression of a wide selection of secondary and intermediate colors.

• Grisaille: a gray painting or underpainting.

Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-

1886

Above the Dog

Kiki, 1993, acrylic on canvas

Answer• What is painting according to Chuck Close?• Why did Close choose his way of doing art?• What does Close say about the marks he

created? How did he make the marks?• Does Close paint hairs etc or does he just give

the illusion?YouTube - Painting Process/Process Painting,

MoMA, Chuck Close, 1 of 2YouTube - Painting Process/Process Painting,

MoMA, Chuck Close, 2 of 2

Art AnalysisWhat do you know?