Chuck Close

LifeVocabulary

Artwork

Questions/quiz

Chuck CloseLife

• Chuck Thomas Close (born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Washington) is an American painter and photographer

• In 1988, he received a spinal artery collapse and left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work which remains sought after by museums and collectors.

• Chuck Close was influence by the images of the Pop Artists.

• He paints mostly faces from photographs but none of his “portraits” are traditional. His portraits tell us nothing about the subject’s lives, feelings, character, profession, or social status.

• Almost all of Close’s work is based on the use of a grid system as an underlying basis for the representation of an image.

Chuck CloseArtwork

Leslie. 1973

His artwork magnified every  imperfection.

His early work was created using an airbrush. 

The process of creating the painting was equally important to Chuck Close as the finished image.

Leslie 1973

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Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Self Portrait. 1991

“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

Chuck ClosePhoto-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.

Sometimes he sits on a forklift, and other times he uses a special mechanical easel that raises, lowers, and rotates his canvases for him.

Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Keith

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,

Alex 1987

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April 1991

Cindy 1988

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Elizabeth 1989

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Eric (in progress)

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Joel 1993

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Chuck Close

Lucas 1991The Grid System

Roy II

Self portraits

C H U C K C L O S E

Questions/Quiz

I use the grid system when I draw. What are the advantages of using this system?

How is my artwork different from other artists portraits? Explain what makes it so different?

What do you think the main message is behind my artwork?

C H U C K C L O S E

Questions/QuizThe grid system is good for developing accurate proportions and it makes it easy to enlarge photos.

One difference is that I work from a photograph while the other artists may have looked in a mirror. My portraits are massive and I paint them using a carefully selected range of values and tones.

The message behind my artwork is……….what you make it.

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