Chuck (from Pictures of Color)

Artist Vik Muniz (American, born 1961)

Date2001

Dimensions(Image) H: 96 in. (243.8 cm); W: 72 in. (182.9 cm);
(Frame) H: 98 3/8 in. (249.9 cm); W: 74 3/16 in. (188.4 cm); Depth: 2 in. (5.1 cm)

MediumChromogenic print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, by exchange

Object number

2004.85

Not on View

Label TextThere is exactly the point where creativity rubs with possibility that you get that heat, friction that enables you to make really amazing things. What do you see when you look at Chuck? A photograph? A clever illusion created by color chips? The color chips themselves? Or all of the above? Vik Muniz likes to play with layers of visual perception, questioning the truth of the visual information photography communicates: “My work is made…to destabilize the viewer’s notion of what a photograph is.” Notice how the deliberately crinkled and bent chips simultaneously enhance the illusion and draw attention to how it was constructed. The “pixilated” effect of this portrait of artist Chuck Close (see his painting Alex in this gallery) only resolves at a distance and refers to the pieces of color that make up a photograph or a digital image—in the same way that dabs of color make up a painting. In Chuck the arrangement of color chips also resembles Chuck Close’s own method of painting with grids.Published Referencescf. Rome, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Vik Muniz, September 2003 - January 2004. (another example exhibited) cf. Santiago de Compostela, Centro de Arte Contemporanea; Dublin, The Irish Museum of Modern Art; Madrid, Fundacion Telefonica, Vik Muniz, December 2003 - January 2005. (another example exhibited)Exhibition HistoryAkron Art Museum, OH, Familiar Faces: Chuck Close in Ohio Collections, 2009-2010 (no catalogue)