chuck close
"I don't do commissioned portraits and I don't paint college presidents. I can't imagine what kind of ego it would take to want to have a 9-foot-high picture of yourself. "
- Chuck Close
I love that quote - especially when you consider that Close has done so many self-portraits.
(You can view many of the photos larger if you click on them.)
Self-Portrait, 1967-68
Self-Portrait, 1967-68, detail
Here you see hyper-realism at it's best. This is incredibly detailed. I love the whole mood of this. He looks so haphazard, so bare, and so darn '70s (I know it's the end of the '60s).
Self-Portrait, 1977
This has such cool texture. It looks like a computerized photograph.
Self-Portrait, 1991
Again, great texture. This is a nearly mono-chromatic take on the circles and squares that look so abstract close up.
Self-Portrait, 1997
This is my favorite style of Close's. Up close, this is beautiful abstract circles and squares. The farther away you get, the more realistic it looks.
Self-Portrait, 1999
This is a cool black and white variation on the circles and squares.
Self-Portrait Scribble Etching, 2001
Self-Portrait, 2004
Frank, 1969
This is amazingly huge and incredibly detailed.
Georgia Fingerprints, 1985
Phil, 1991
"Certain images are just more interesting, more compelling than others, and some of those are the ones that I've recycled the most. Sometimes it's formal issues, like Philip Glass with his curly dendritic locks that look like Medusa or something. "
- Chuck Close
This is a tapestry featuring the composer Philip Glass. Close did a number of variations on this same portrait.
Kiki, 1993
Kiki detail, 1993
Here you can see the detail of the Kiki painting. It's beautiful as an abstract work, but even this close, you can see that it is her eye.
This gives you an idea of the scale of the paintings.
"It's the tension between the marks on a flat surface, and then the image built, that interested me. And I was always a dyed-in-the-wool formalist anyway. I think process sets you free, because you know you don't have good days or bad days. You just show up. You don't wait for inspiration. "
- Chuck Close
I love that quote. I like sketching and painting (I was a Fine Arts major my first year of college), but somewhere along the way I got scared of making mistakes. Which is simply whack, because I enjoy the process of trying even when it doesn't quite work out.
Look at more artwork by Chuck Close.
