Alex

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Alex

Artist Chuck Close (American, 1940-2021)

Date1987

Dimensions100 1/4 x 84 in. (254.6 x 213 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

1987.218

Not on View

Label Text“I try to make these big, aggressive, confrontational images that you can see from clear across the room, and you have one kind of relationship with it there, and another relationship at a middle viewing distance where you can scan it and you can’t readily see the thing as a whole. And then hopefully I’ve sucked the viewer right up to the canvas where you can see the individual marks and methodology—how it got there.” —Chuck Close Chuck Close’s monumental 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 artist Alex Katz (American, born 1927) 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 at close range they separate into abstract markings. Katz’s distinctive features project an intense 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.Published ReferencesFinch, Christopher, "Color Close-ups," Art in America, vol. 77, no. 3, March 1989, p. 161, repr. (col.) p. 115.

Meisel, Louis K., Photorealism since 1980, New York, 1993, repr. pl. 321, (col.), p. 113.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 181 Rep. (col.).

Guare, John, Chuck Close: Life and Work 1988-1995, New York, 1995, repr. p. 51 (col.).

Close, Chuck, The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects, New York, 1997, repr. [pl. 12] (col.).

Taylor, Bradley L., "The Effect of Surrogation on Viewer Response to Expressional Qualities in Works of Art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2001, p. 78, pl. M4, p. 185.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 57, repr. (col.) and detail (col.).

Ravin, James G., "My Dinner with Chuck," Toledo/Medicine, vol. 96, no. 3, Summer, 2005, p. 14.

Finch, Christopher, Chuck Close: Work, Prestel, 2007, p. 169.

Ravin, James G. and Peter M. Odell, "Pixels and Painting: Chuck Close and the Fragmented Image," Arch Opthamol, v. 126, no. 8, Aug. 2008, p.1148, 1150, 1151 n1, fig. 2, p. 1149.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 350, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 63, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Marmor, Michael F., and James G. Ravin, The Artist's Eyes: Vision and the History of Art, New York, Abrams, 2009, fig. 13.2, p. 84, text p. 85. Finch, Christopher, Chuck Close: Work, Munich, Prestel, 2010, p. 169.

Serpentine Galleries, Alex Katz: Quick Light, London, Koenig Books, 2016, pp. 27-28, repr. (col.) p. 27.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Pace Wildenstein Gallery, 1988.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, A Decade of Giving: The Apollo Society at the Toledo Museum of Art, 1996, p. 6, repr. (col.).

Akron, Akron Art Museum, Familiar Faces: Chuck Close in Ohio Collections, 2009-2010. (no catalogue)

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society 25th Anniversary Exhibition, October 15, 2010-February 13, 2011, p. 10, repr. (col.) p. 6, 10.