Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005




This Chuck Close exhibition is arranged in somewhat of a reversed chronological order. It starts with some the most recent self portraits, and then walks you back to some of his first studies and paintings made in the 1960s. This means that as soon as you enter the first of four galleries, you are confronted with very large scale color images. These paintings are larger than life in many ways. Their scale is big, very big. For example, Chuck Close, Self Portrait 2004-2005 is a full 102“ x 86”. The images are almost always of his head, cropped at the top of the forehead in many paintings. Most of the time he is looking straight at you, through the ever present eyeglasses. The face almost never smiles.

These paintings make you go back and forth. You need to be at a distance not only to see the whole image, but also to have it come into focus. At the same time, you want to get very close to explore and and study his technique. It is mesmerizing to see the few simple forms he uses inside squares and rectangles, and how this shapes can render an image at a distance. You see the little triangles, donuts, circles, a banana-like shape, etc. each surrounded by a square, or a rectangle which forms part of the grid he works with. Up close you also notice that the almost black areas are also made up of these grids and forms.

The paintings, particularly close-up reveal an almost zen-like methodology. Each small square within the grid is a painting in itself. The large work has a feeling of being very much about method and tightness, yet as you get closer and examine each square you realize that there is a certain painterliness and fluidity.

The exhibition, which focuses entirely on self portraits, includes painting, photography, print-making, and a number of very cool holograms. It is interesting to note how open he is to the use of photography not only as a means to a painting or a print, but as an end in itself. On one of the first galleries, for example is a very large self portrait made of a composite of large photographs. The grid here is much larger scale (each print is around 11“x!4” .) As you move through the galleries, you notice a persistent exploration of materials. There are prints, and works made with handmade paper pulp, like Chuck Close, Self-Portrait/String 1983.

I can think of few modern artists that devote time to the figure, and clearly much less to self portraiture. There are lots of artists in the past that have explored the self-portrait like Van Gigh and Rembrandt. In more modern times there is Frida Kahlo. Today, I can only thing of Jim Dine, who has also explored his face (albeit mostly on drawings) over the years. I also find it interesting that as Chuck Close has aged and lost hair, this metamorphosis of his body has worked well on the paintings. The dome of his head makes for a more interesting shape.

One of the last paintings in the show is Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait 1967-1968 a very large acylic on canvas work familiar to Walker visitors. This image shows a hyper-realism (photo-realism) technique, very different from the grid work he moved into later.

He is one of those few artists that has been able to push the medium, and his work, as he has aged. His more recent work is as avant-garde as you can get. He has persistence, vision, and a personal technique that amazes. His work has “wow” effect, but it is also firmly cemented in the canon of painting.


Here are a couple of other links to other entries in this blog, and to external articles. Chuck Close: Preview Party 7/23/05 . Movie of the Chuck Cose Preview Party Movie Here is a review from the Star Tribune Walker displays New York artist Chuck Close's self-portraits Here is the link from SFMOMA













art05 walker05 ernesto de quesada and linda beaverson

Posted: Sunday - July 24, 2005 at 02:47 PM          

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