Chuck Close

1. Chuck Close • Living artist • Photo-realism • Portraits Self Portrait 1997, Oil on canvas

2. Photo-Realism Hotel Empire, Richard Estes

3. Chuck Close and Photo-Realism • Large scale portraits • Family and friends • Uses Graphs to enlarge Photographs • Six figure paintings Frank. 1969 Oil on canvas 108 x 84”

4. Early Works Phil.1969 Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 84"

6. Phil Watercolor. 1977, Watercolor on paper 58 x 40"

7. Big Self-Portrait. 1967-68. Acrylic on canvas. 107 1/2 x 83 1/2"

8. Linda. 1975-76. Acrylic and pencil on canvas. 108 x 84"

9. Fanny / Finger-painting (detail at left). 1985. Oil-based ink on canvas. 102 x 84"

10. Jud / Collage. 1982.Pulp paper collage on canvas. 96 x 72"

11. Leslie/Watercolor 1.1986. Watercolor on paper 30.25 x 22.25”

12. “When every kid on the block  wanted to become a policeman or fireman, I wanted to be an artist. It was the first thing I was good at, the first thing that really made me special. I had skills the other kids didn’t have. Art saved my life.”

13. An Obstacle • 1988 health problems • Hospitalization • Paralysis

14. Chuck Close Photo-Realism In 1988 Chuck Close was hospitalized due to the sudden collapse of a spinal artery. He has since been paralyzed from the waist down. He continues to paint on the same scale that he had always painted on. Now he has attendants that help him with the preliminary work, but he still does the actual painting. Sometimes he sits on a forklift, and other times he uses a special mechanical easel that raises, lowers, and rotates his canvases for him.

16. Overcoming All • New studio • New techniques • New style

18. “ I had to recover enough to paint. There is nothing else I can do. There is nothing else I want to do” Chuck Close

19. The Studio • When I was walking around I was 6 foot 3, and people didn't tend to approach me very much, and one of the interesting things about being in a wheelchair is it sort of cuts you down to size and perhaps out of sympathy or whatever people feel much more like coming up to you. I'm more accessible I guess down here.”

21. Chuck Close Photo-Realism Chuck Close was influence by the images of the Pop Artists. He felt the same way about America’s dependence on the second hand visual experience. None of his “portraits” are traditional. They tell us nothing about the subject’s lives, feelings, character, profession, or social status. His works are merely paintings of photos of faces. The overwhelming detail forces us to think not about the subject, but about the image itself- how and why it was made.

22. Alex II. 1989. Oil on canvas. 36 x 30"

23. Roy II, 1994 .Oil on canvas, 102 x 84”

24. Kiki, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. 107 1/2 x 83 ½”

25. “There’s a real joy in putting these little marks together. They may look like hotdogs, but with them I build a painting.” Chuck Close Elizabeth, 1989. Oil on canvas, 72 x 60”

26. Judy, 1989-90. Oil on canvas. 72 x 60”

27. Chuck Close Self-portrait. 1996. Oil on canvas

28. Chuck Close Photo-Realism He magnified every blemish and imperfection. His early work was created using an airbrush, as to mimic the mechanical quality of a photograph. The process of creating the painting was equally important to Chuck Close as the finished image. Leslie. 1973

29. Chuck CLose C H U C K C L O S E

30. Chuck Close Photo-Realism “I paint heads because heads matter to everybody. If you paint a face big enough, it’s hard to ignore.” “My real subjects are not people, I paint portraits of photographs” “If you make something new and personal, it may not look like art at all.” Self Portrait 1991 Self Portrait. 1991

31. C H U C K C L O S E Alex 1987 Alex 1987

32. April 1991 April 1991

33. Chuck Close Photo-Realism Uses a grid to enlarge the photos onto the canvas. Frontal head posed in almost a passport-photo view Unsmiling lips and dead-pan eyes. Used several different media to create his portraits: Airbrush, Fingerprints, Crayon, Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint, Pencil, Pen, Paper Collage, Keith Keith

34. C H U C K C L O S E Cindy 1988 Cindy 1988

35. C H U C K C L O S E Elizabeth 1989 Elizabeth 1989

36. C H U C K C L O S E Eric (in progress) Eric (In Progress)

37. What other artist have we discussed was concerned for the purity of color What style of art did he work in

38. Roy II Roy ll

42. Self portraits

45. Chuck Close Chuck Close

46. Questions • Why do you think Chuck Close painted portraits? 2. How has his disability impacted his artwork? Does it make it better? 3. Describe Chuck Close’s artwork in 5 words.

47. Lucas 1991 Lucas 1991

48. C H U C K C L O S E Joel 1993 Joel 1993

49. Mark (1978 - 1979), acrylic on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Detail at right of eye. Mark, a painting that took Close fourteen months to complete, was constructed from a series of airbrushed layers that imitated CMYK color printing..

50. Lucas (1986 - 1987), acrylic on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,. Detail at right of eye. The pencil grid and thin undercoat of blue is visible beneath the splotchy "pixels." The painting's subject is fellow artist Lucas Samaras.