Self-Portrait
Chuck Close
American
2004-2005
My first impressions:
The color choices for this painting fascinate me because sometimes the colors are very different than what they appear to be. The small shapes allow Close to use a variety of colors (it appears that he uses just two for each square); but since the details are so small, when we step back we see a mixture of the colors and suddenly we are looking at an entirely new color. For instance he uses some warm reds in the background, however when we are at a distance they disappear among the rich cool blues. I am impressed that he incorporates value into his paintings, which shows careful preparation and planning for which specific colors he wants to use.
What I have learned:
Chuck close begins his portraits with a photo and then marks the photo with a grid. He does this so he can visualize painting the image on a much larger scale. He claims that breaking it down in to small pieces lets the artwork evolve naturally instead of having him speculate what it should look like. The process is much more random that Close makes it look like. After he was paralyzed and started painting again, he used much more color in his artwork that made a writer in New York quote that Chuck Close is, "one of the greatest colorists and brush wielders of his time."
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