Chuck Close
Contemporary American Artist & Master of Gridded Portraits
Chuck Close Overcame Big Challenges
If I flatten someone's face out, I have a perfect sense of what they look like. I am compelled to do images of people I care about, to distinguish them from everyone else out there.
Works from photographs & uses a grid
My real subjects are not people. I paint portraits of photographs.
Self Portrait. 1997. Silk-screen.
I paint heads because heads matter to everybody. If you paint a face big enough, it's hard to ignore!
straps a brush to his hand
builds his images block by block
some are 9 feet tall and take more than a year
Phil, 1968, 108'x84"
he magnifies every blemish and imperfection, changing the focus of each blemish as a camera would
Mark, 1979, 108"x84"
Francesco, 1987-88, 100"x84"
his portraits became looser, using brushstrokes to create texture
Alex, 1989, 36"30"
his more recent portraits are build from specks of color that can be "read" as faces only from a distance
Elizabeth, 1989, 72"x60"
Lucas, 1992-93, 46"x36"
what sort of balance is this?