Alex
Artist: Chuck Close (American, 1940-2021)
Date: 1987
Dimensions:
100 1/4 x 84 in. (254.6 x 213 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society
Object number: 1987.218
Label Text:Inspiring first awe and then intimate scrutiny, Chuck Close’s large-scale portraits draw attention to process as well as image. Working from a 24 x 20 inch Polaroid®, Close imposed a grid to enlarge and transfer the image of his friend, the artist Alex Katz, onto canvas. He then applied thousands of dabs of paint, allowing the grid to remain visible.
Viewed from a distance, the small painted squares optically blend into an illusionistic portrait, but separate into abstract markings at close range. This dissolution of form is evident to Close; while painting he is not “conscious of making a nose or an eye but only of distributing pigment on a flat surface.”
Katz’s unique features project an intense, almost aggressive, personality. However, since Close emphasizes factual, visual information and process, the painting’s emotional power is more a byproduct of the technique, scale, and iconic frontality of the image than of any intended psychological interpretation.
Viewed from a distance, the small painted squares optically blend into an illusionistic portrait, but separate into abstract markings at close range. This dissolution of form is evident to Close; while painting he is not “conscious of making a nose or an eye but only of distributing pigment on a flat surface.”
Katz’s unique features project an intense, almost aggressive, personality. However, since Close emphasizes factual, visual information and process, the painting’s emotional power is more a byproduct of the technique, scale, and iconic frontality of the image than of any intended psychological interpretation.
Not on view
In Collection(s)