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| Chuck Close in his studio. |
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Due: November 15, 9:30AM
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Chuck Close: Light and Color
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Born on July 5 1940, Chuck Close was automatically attracted to the art world. As a child he did not have many toys, so his father made him a bike and a jeep to ride around with. He and his father were very close, and his father inspired him to become an artist. When he was younger, Close’s father had him take art lessons with a family friend who was a painter herself. Around eleven or twelve, Close visited his very first museum, which gave him the inspiration he needed to fulfill his dream. Around the same time, Close lost his father and it impacted him in an extreme way. His father was his rock, and the one he counted on for support. Years later in 1988, Close suffered a spinal blood clot which left him paralyzed.
ReplyDeleteNot even then did he give up. After the tragic event, Close constructed his first painting again in the hospital where he was being taken care of. Due to him being paralyzed, he had to change his style up a bit. He began to use a movable canvas, and a strap around his hand to help him hold the paintbrush. While painting, his favorite music to listen to was the blues. Close referred to his paintings as “heads”. They were all mostly paintings of his family and friends, although on very large canvases which seemed to control the space in the room. All his paintings began with a photograph, and he saw it as reconstructing an image. He used colors in such a way where if seen up close, you could see the bits of squares and circles, the multiple colors, and all the different sizes and shapes embedded in the painting itself. Although once you would step back, you could see how all those small little bits and pieces contributed to making of a human face. He concentrated on real human faces and worked on portraying them exactly how they were, without any fixing or making pretty. Close believed the face is a person’s roadmap of their life.
-Cecilia Hernandez
At the age of 4 Chuck Close was unlike other young boys instead of playing outside he was looking thru Sears catalogs and asking his parents for a set of acrlyic paints but only to recieve a cheap pair of painting for christmas. Chuck didnt let this affect as he learned to use them to the best of his advantage. Chuck was inspired by the works of Jackson Pollock and in 1967 he moved to New York City to begin his artist carreer. Using the method of only using black paint on a white canvas he was noticed quickly in the art world making partnerships with other well known artist.At the peak of his portrait painting carreer Chuck Close suffer a stroke that left him paralized. Chuck didnt let this affect him as he learned a new form of portrait painting. While being treated at the RUSK hospital his wife and friend Alex Katz they arranged the basement as his art studio. Chuck close used the grid system for his paintings. For the color in the painting he uses the layering system to give the painting its color. With this technique Chuck Close is still able to paint while being handicapped and is still known for the portraits.
ReplyDelete-Isaias Zapata
Chuck Close is one of the most interesting artist I have ever witnessed. His history to what he is able to do now is unbelievable. Close was paralyzed from the neck down in 1988 after he had sever chest pains witch lead to a intense convulsion. With the scale method, he is able to paint “pictures” as he calls them because they are so detailed and so defined as if they were taken form a snap shot camera. This method also allows him to paint portraits with various colors using the cold colors for the dark areas and warm colors for the light areas of the face, as shown on the color while. His painting are big and extremely creative, the kind of art work you would expect to see at an art museum. Being disable but still having the strength and will power to over come his disabilities and create beautiful artwork is truly remarkable. Close has lived through unbearable situations through his life. Witnessing his own fathers death at a very young age then becoming paralyzed just shows that anything is possible to accomplish and “you can survive almost anything” as Chuck Close said. His passion for art is the climax of his success.
ReplyDelete-Carl Dean
Chuck Close is a brilliant artist. The “heads” or portraits of his friends are magnificent in their likeness of reality before his accident. Yet after the accident he adds a very unique style to the three dimensional image. It is not only an honest portrayal that draws you into the paintings but the way he sees color, light, shade, and contrast. While the paintings draw you in, his life story inspires.
ReplyDeleteChuck’s earlier works tell the story of a person’s life. The large paintings are set to scale to display detail at ever section. It looks like a portrait at first glance. They are a straightforward, authentic reflection of the subject. He says “the face is a road map for the life they led.” Smile lines tell the story of a person who likes to laugh and smile. His friend, Mark Greenwold, did not like his larger than life portrait because he thought he looked goofy with large teeth and glasses.
Then there are the more recent paintings that are in another level. Again, these three dimensional, larger than life “heads” are striking. It is set to scale like the others but the difference is that he uses five to seven colors in each square usually with a circle or oval shape in it. Up close you see shapes in squares full of color, but the arrangement stacks up to give the image of reality. As you back away you see the contrast of colors and shading to reveal the head.
This man overcame an actual handicap to produce and share his idea of beauty. His way of adding color, shade, contrast and light suppresses the image when close and pulls out an image of person as if looking through a stain glass window when further away. I appreciate both his work and his inspiring story.
-Carrie Wright
Chuck Close/A portrait
ReplyDeleteStudent: Helen Trimble
Chuck Close stroke brought him to a place where he could use and develop his talents. He was always interested in painting as a young boy. He admitted he was not good in school, but always earned extra credit for art projects. His father died when he was eleven. He usually painted portraits of family and friends. In his self portrait, he grasped what he was looking for, the face. The face is the indication of a person’s life. I like this for I sometimes study the faces of others. It tells me a lot about that person. Close tells us that lines of laughter, wrinkles, and sadness tells a story of one’s life. Close took pleasure in his work after his injury. He used different colors equal to different strokes of the color world. H experienced greater pleasure in the act of painting a larger portion of his time, for this was one thing he could still do after his stroke. His self portrait was an abstract of colors. He made the skin a reddish orange, then to orange brown, mixing the colors and hues giving the picture representation. The self portrait was huge and one of his best and well known pieces of art.
Chuck Close is an artist unlike any other kind. In school he was learning disabled and made his grades through drawing. His father was influential in his life and died when Close was 11. That taught him he could survive through almost anything. That would hold true even after a stroke that paralyzed him, forcing him to relearn how to do the simplest tasks. Before the stroke he painted portraits of his friends and family. They were realistic. He has painted people such as Alex Katz who is also another painter. What he could do with a paint brush was remarkable. Fast forward to after the stroke; Close reinvented painting a face with colors. His wife was the one to convince the nurse to put a paintbrush in his hand to help him get better, saying that he is a man that needs a brush in his hand and not to string beads on pipe cleaners. The stroke changed his view of the art world and life around him. His use of mixing different colors and shapes to make a portrait is different. Throughout the video, he was working on a self portrait of himself that had vibrant and bright colors. From a far, it looked exactly like him and amazed me that art could be created in the by various shapes and colors.
ReplyDelete-Elizabeth Webb
If there is a formula to painting masterpieces Chuck Close has it. Since the late 1960's, Close has been part of the photorealist movement which he authenticated by using his grid style techniques. Close sees his trajectory of completing a painting as a golf course. He takes the factors of light and color into consideration when working on every square of the grid. Close shoots to work on every square of the grid as close to par as possible, meaning that in four different colors he should convey just what he wants out of that single square. Although faced with a great illness in 1988, Close has kept on paining his photorealist works of art. He now has to use a strap around his hand to hold the brushes and a moving canvas. Close, however, does not let that stop him from painting these masterpieces that require a lot of thought about the light and color of them. Appreciators can argue that his works of art are representational, while others can argue that his works of art are abstract. His uniqueness and a sort of formula if I many call it that, is something that has not been seen in the art world but seems to work really good for Mr. Close.
ReplyDeleteEdwin Camacho
Chuck Close is a very unique inspiring artist. It was clear that he had a rough life due to the loss of his father then himself being severely paralyzed from a stroke. He loved to create artwork before the tragic events in his life. However, his father did inspire him to be an artist. After being paralyzed he did not give up on his passion for art. He began to create art of large portraits based on mainly his family and friends, which he called “heads”. In other words, all of his paintings appeared to be photographs.
ReplyDeleteClose used canvas and mixed colors to create an illusion of three-dimensional image in his art pieces. He had a method in his artwork which was to spread an original photograph with a grid of shapes of either small squares or circles. Chuck main point was not to represent the individual in the portrait but instead a design that occurs in each square or circle of the image’s grid. With that said, his art looks like a three-dimensional painting because of the way he creates art. For example, by looking at one of Close’s paintings up close it’s hard to see anything other than the multiple colors and design of each square or circle of the grid. But as a viewer moves farther away, the person’s face in the painting is clearer to see rather than noticing the design of shapes in the painting. I loved how Chuck Close’s technique of making artwork is very unique and interesting.
-Dina Odeh
Jacqueline Jones
ReplyDeleteChuck Close finds greater pleasure in painting now than he ever did before. He creates his paintings based on photographs. He sees peoples’ faces as road maps to the life they’ve lived. He doesn’t try to represent the person in the picture, but wants to replicate it as accurately as he can in an abstract form. He isn’t trying to diminish their wrinkles or make them out to be “beautiful.” When he starts painting each square, he deliberately chooses a different color for each one. If they were all the same color he said it would seem like it is all part of the same journey. He uses quite a bit of warm colors and analogous colors for the skin complexion of the face, but also instills cool colors depending on the lighting of the skin. He uses darker cool colors for the darker regions of the picture, such as the hair depending on the color of it of course. His paintings close up are a bit difficult to make out. You’re able to see the shapes and forms in a variety of colors. However, as you step back, and the further you get away from the picture, it starts coming together. The colors start to mesh, the shapes start to combine, and then they bring together the abstract portrait. Altogether he uses a variety of warm, cool, dark, and light colors, and combines them depending on the lighting of the portrait.
ReplyDelete-J.West
Not only is Chuck close an innovator in his own field, but has taken photography to new levels. Just as many people thought that photography couldn't be taken any further, here comes Chuck Close and completely renovates the art of photograph and realism in paintings. Chuck Close takes a photograph, puts a grid on top of it and works to paint one cell at a time; which is pretty remarkable in the way that he keeps the realism of the photo intact. In Addition, what makes Chuck Close an amazing artist, its not just the fact that he's an innovator or that he's extremely talented, but that he is paralyzed from the neck down,Chuck Close is a true inspiration. Chuck Close has shown himself, and the world that passion and will triumphs over adversity. This is in fact adds a sense of nobility in his work, and astonishment, also the mixture of colors not only helps to create a realism in his paintings but also adds the sense of depth, making the painting virtually come to life.An interesting fact is that he's got prosopagnosia which is the inability to recognize faces which is said that is the reason for him doing painting of faces, to help him recognize the faces of people he knows.Although, he is said to have recognize this after he realized that it helped him remember faces.
ReplyDelete-Javier Lopez
Chuck Close was born on July 5, 1940 in Monroe, Washington. He is a very unique artist, unlike any other artist he photographs people and makes paintings of that photograph in a very unique ways. He developed one of his most innovative techniques for his “fingerprint series,” in which he inked his thumb and forefinger and pressed them to the canvas to achieve a subtle range of grays. So by looking at his work from a close distance the patterns of his fingerprints can be seen better than far, and from far away its combines to some sort of an illusion. Sure Chuck Close became paralyzed and a young age, he was very powerless and very ill but that did not stop him from these wonderful creations. His creations are not simple in any way. He also can manipulate colors in a certain way I have never seen before. And in all of his paintings are very photo realistic you wouldn’t know it’s made out of different patterns. Chuck was a unique person as a child as well. He would rather look into paints than to be playing with his friends. And that got him to be the artist that he is now.
ReplyDelete-Adrian Navarro
I really enjoyed the video Chuck Close, I think it’s very inspiring how someone can have something tragic happen in their there, and continue to what they love . By saying that I just its awesome, that someone with a disability, and in a wheel chair can be able create such unique and cool things after suffering from namonia and seizures. I really like how he breaks down image’s into little boxes that he hands paints, that in the end form an amazing piece of art work. He grew up playing with magic and doing puppet shows, until his dad meet a lady at a restaurant and scheduled art lesson for Chuck. I really enjoy learning about the color’s and how you can mix them to come up with another color. Colors really express how your feeling, and how you express yourself on a daily basic maybe because of the clothes you wear that day, or even the eye shadow girls wear. I think the Cai Guo-Qiang Transient Rainbow 2003 absolutley gorgeous, I love how it reflects off the water almost looks like a really fairest wheel. Chuck’s art work is very original he only likes doing portraits when his clients are in there natural state, no make-up etc, and also in large black and white “66” scale only with black paint.
ReplyDeleteKimberly gossett
Chuch Close 5th christmas his father made him as eseland gave him cheap water colors. He was always insterested in magic , chuck was 11 years old when his father died. Chuck took took art lessons as a child and at age 14 he saw an exhibition of Jackson Pollocks abstract paintings, which inspired him to become a painter. Most of his early works are large portraits based on photo graphs. Photoralism or hyperrealism technique of family and friends. In 1962 he received his BA. From the university of washington. He attended graduate school at yale. Close was known for his skillful brushwork. Close suffers from prosopaqnosia (face bliness) leaving him unable to recognize faces by panting portraits he is able to recognize faces. Close put agrid on the photo and canvas and copies cell by cell. Each square is colored by paintng rings on a contrating background, gives cells a perceive hue with this method a big portrait, black and white emlargement of his face canvas. Close made seven more black and white portraits during this period. Later work branched into non-rectangular grids. In conclusion chuch art tells of a person life whether they are happy or sad. His paintings expresses emotion, and feeling in a very real way. As he contrass with the warm and cool colors mixed together when putting the finish touch on his creation of photos.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe that such massive scale portraits can be painted piece by piece. That is the work done by photorealist Chuck Close. He creates his portraits with paint and literally constructs them from a small scale to a large scale product. What is astonishing is the fact that his work is not just based on abstract or nonrepresentational art, it is based on actual human portraits, which in my opinion is more difficult to represent using paint. The way he makes his portraits come to life is mind blowing. He perfectly paints his portraits using the correct color and shade variations and value to create the human facial expressions and textures of the skin. Like he said in the video: a different color means a different part of the project. That shows the importance he places on every square inch of the portrait and how accurate he wants to be. If one were to see the picture from afar it would seem as it was a legitimate portrait picture taken with a digital camera. It is just incredible the way he strategically starts from a point and follows from there. The brightness and the contrast he creates around the face to me makes all the difference as it gives life to the picture and gives it the depth that a real human face possess. Chuck Close takes measurements of the portraits using a grid to enable him to make a scale-sized portrait to ensure that everything is proportional. Not only is it difficult to do everything he does, but also because of the disability that he overcomes to create his projects. Chuck Close does not let this be an obstacle because the beauty of his paintings speak for themselves.
ReplyDeleteAmpelio Mendez
In class we viewed a movie on Chuck close “A portrait in Progress”. I was enlighten on the process of how Close creates these unique one of a kind pieces. The process itself is truly a sight to see, he starts by taking photographs of the subject, and then marks off the subject entirety into individual square units on a grid. He creates the work by focusing on each piece of the grid as a micro-painting. He uses patterns such a concentric circles to make the building blocks to the bigger picture. These patterns are painted out of various color combinations to achieve the bigger pictures cohesive look. He uses complementary colors in various strengths or temperatures to create this illusion of what the bigger picture comprises of.
ReplyDeleteHe used his keen eyes to move from color family to color family to build up the look. It is the skill of knowing when to make what color weaker or stronger. This also give it the three dimensional effect. He is extracting color and pulling it out from the depths of the patterns in various intensities. This is a way fooling the eye to see what is there or to put together what is supposed to be there. One could say that this is representational but then you can also consider it abstract. When you are up close you could say you see the abstract nature of his work, but as you step back it is then revealed the representation of the subject as so. He kills many birds with one stone.
-Alexandrea Albert
Chuck Close was an artist that was very inspirational. Someone that on my worst day I could think about and know that I am lucky. He has overcome obstacles of being paralyzed, and watching his father die at a very young age, things I wouldn't wish on anyone to experience. I could not imagine loving something so much to wake up and think that I would never be able to experience it again. He knew he would never stop painting, being in therapy in the hospital his wife knew that if the doctor would put a paintbrush in his hand that would be all the therapy he needed. Close let this accident just become a road bump and a learning part of his career. His work of art is unbelievably detailed, I still am not sure how he really does it. Taking a snapshot of a person or of himself, and breaking it down to a grid, then painting each square on a canvas. Creating color, depth, shading, and textures is unbelievable. Zoomed in his paintings look like a bunch of lines, colors, squares, and dots thrown together, but once you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, its a masterpiece. That was one of the points he made in the video that he focuses on all the small and little parts knowing that each of those parts works together to make the whole thing what it should be. He also stated that his paintings are more than marks on a flat surface, the whole picture is much more powerful than all of its small parts. The whole picture has a purpose. Which is completely true. Close was never very good in school, and for his 5th birthday his dad built him an easel, he also unlike other children asked for paints for his christmas present. When he received his first cheap set, he was extremely grateful to have parents that supported his art. I think that the coolest piece he talked about was the white canvas with black paint, he didn't erase anything or cover any mistakes up. He just painted. I thought that was something that was so refreshing to know, he just let his painting go in the direction that his mind took him with no changing or turning back. He once stated that there were many times were he took a snapshot of himself to do a canvas over because he was the only one in the room. When doing other people portraits he put so much detail in it that he noticed and believes that the face is a persons story line of there life, there smile or frown lines can become evident when taking a detailed snapshot like that. Chuck Close built art, and created colors and a sad event in his life occurred. He learned how to bounce back completely learn everything over again, and his art showed that. Knowing that he went through something so terrible and found a way to continue doing something he loved to do is inspiring. His art is unique, and very detailed. A story and artist I am very happy to learn about.
ReplyDeleteParker Page
Even after suffering an intense and life threatening accident, Chuck Close still was able to show his fascinating artistic abilities through his works using different colors and lighting. His work is based on only using a persons head since faces are unrecognizable to him following the accident. Close's magnificent talent comes from a simple grid while mixing different colors and different shapes in each grid piece. He portrays the push and pull relationship, up close the image looks cloudy and not very visable, but as you step back the pieces come together to reveal the headshot of the person used in the painting. As a child, Close was close to his father, as well as witnessed his death. He used the tragedy as another interpretation in his paintings by reconstructing an image and slowly putting it back together.
ReplyDeleteAlong with painting only faces, Close also surrounds his works on photographs that have previously been taken. He was fascinated by other artists and used them in his paintings. To Chuck, using different colors in each grid unit meant he started at "different departures". His work inspired me the most by proving that even if the worst can happen to you, it can never prevent you from doing what you love the most.
Abby Henson
A wise person once said, “Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone”. This can be applied to the artist, Chuck Close. During the discussion in class I remember hearing about the disability that Chuck Close was faced with; being paralyzed. I also remember that during the video his wife talked about how painting was the one thing that he still had to be able to do and how she and his friend helped him start painting again. Before this event in his life occurred Chuck Close was a normal person doing what he loved without a care. When faced with the adversity, however, one that could have ended his career altogether he found a way to do his work. When looking at Chuck Close’s painting from afar you can easily see the image he is trying to create, but when you see the process of how he paints and just looking at one square of the grid you never expect to see a portrait. When watching him do his work initially, I wondered how the tiny squares that he painted in bright colors even came close to the paintings we looked at before the video. After seeing him use a lot of colors from his palette I was genuinely confused, but then when he backed away and showed the whole picture it started to make sense. His tiny little squares that he painted so intently varied in a gradient of color in order to make his paintings look life-like. Chuck Close is truly an inspirational artist not only to his fellow artists but also to everyone who faces adversity or an obstacle in their life. He puts true meaning to the phrase, “If there is a will, there is a way.”
ReplyDelete- Betsy Thomas
Chuck Close
ReplyDeleteWith his father dying at the age of 11 almost twelve, Chuck Close has become an outstanding abstract painter. Close had seen many of Jackson Pollack's abstract paintings, which aided the inspiration of him to become a great painter. Close specializes in paintings that are on a small scale; into things that are on a much larger scale. He has the ability to manipulate colors and make them look very realistic. Though it’s a photograph it’s very strong forward, but not overly stylized. Some even mistake his work of being digitally made, when he does everything by hand. The work that goes into these paintings is anything but easy. In fact, one would say that they are quite intensive and time consuming. But he doesn’t let the fact that he is in a wheel chair stop him from doing his work. He has a type of machine that is powered by a giant motor in which he can maneuver and adjust at his own will.
Unlike many artists, Chuck uses a grid as an underlying factor for the representation of a painting. Close says that this is "a creative process that could be interrupted repeatedly without…damaging the final product, in which the segmented structure was never intended to be disguised."
-DaRell Jones
My mouth dropped when I was introduced to Chuck Close’s work in a documentary video called “A portrait in Progress.”My eyes where also in amazement when I saw this grown man in a wheelchair creating art in a huge canvas filled with color and life. His dedication and love for painting has truly inspired my young soul because he has over come hard hits that life gives us. I mean who would have imagined that the little boy who was so close to his father and would ride around his bike or jeep would become such a legit artist. I can relate to his life because like Close I was very close to my father: he supported me with my dreams just like chuck’s dad did with him. His father took him to painting lessons, giving Chuck another motive for becoming the great artist that he was. AT the begging of the video I was a tad confused when I saw the random head shots in his studio and the lopsided canvas on the wall; however, after he mentions how he suffered a spinal blood clot that caused him to be paralyzed. I realized how he was disabled but still doing what he loved to do most. He might have had to adjust to some things like using a movables canvas and a strap in his hands to hold the brush yet he created the best “head” painting I have ever seen. The first step into creating the painting was taking a picture of the “head” of a close friend or family member and then dividing it into grids, which is a great to make the picture come to life. Then he moved to the clean canvas that was carefully divided into similar yet bigger grids than the shot. His patience is also quiet astonishing because he would paint square by square with a different color, mixing colors including primary, secondary, and tertiary color. It seemed as if he could work magic with the colors and bring about the head shot in the picture at the same time. Yes, at first all the colorful squares seemed unnecessary from close up; however, as one moves further the picture becomes clearer and the colors join reconstructing the real image chuck was painting. I believe that his work or “heads “as he called them represent life itself and that each head or better yet face can say a lot about a person and about their lives. His colors to me meant that life is filled with different situations both good and bad, yet we shouldn’t complain over life’s adversities because life is wonderful and we should not give up on our dreams. His “head” portrait of himself told a story of an optimistic painter, where the wheelchair did not even exist.
ReplyDelete-Ruby Garcia