Chuck Close

Using a grid to enlarge artworks and images

Keywords for Students

• Photorealism

• Value

• Tint

• Shade

• Monochromatic Painting

• gridding

Value

• Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue or neutral color.

• A value scale is the range of values from black to white and light to dark.

• Tint is the light value of a color made by mixing with white.

• Shade is the darkness of a color; may be achieved by adding black.

Who is Chuck Close?

• Born 1940

• American Painter, Printmaker

• He began studying art when he was about ten years old.

• He is best known for his monumential, detailed paintings of portrait heads

His Works

Big Self Portrait

• 1967-68• Acrylic on canvas• 107 1/2 x 83 1/2" • Walker Art Center,

Minneapolis.

Dorthea

• 1995• Oil on canvas, 102 x

84"• The Museum of

Modern Art

Georgia

• 1984• Handmade paper, 56

x 45" • Signed, lower right

Fanny / Fingerpainting

• 1985• oil on canvas• 102 x 84 x 2 1/2 in. • National Gallery of Art

Self Portrait

• 1997• Oil on canvas• 102 x 84" • Private collection,

New York.

Lyle

• 2002• 147-color silk screen • 65 1/2 x 53 7/8 in. • Metroplitan Museum

of Art, NY

His Methods

• He begins each new work with an extreme close-up, usually of a face, taped to a board. The photograph is then squared so it can be enlarged and transferred by hand to canvas.

• He has painted in thousands of tiny airbrush bursts, thumbprints, or looping multi-color brushstrokes.

• The enormity of the completed painting magnifies each realistic detail of the subject's appearance, including wrinkles and freckles.

Maquette for April

• 1990• Polaroid Polacolor ER

print with tape, ink, and paint, mounted to foamcore

• Image: 20 x 24 in.• Getty Museum, LA• Along the right-hand

border of this image, Close tested a range of paint colors in an attempt to find the appropriate balance for the painting.

Self-Portrait

• 2000• 40 in. x 30 in. x 1/4 in. • Polaroid with tape,

ink, and oil, mounted on board

• Collection SFMOMA

• Notice the grid drawn on top of the image!!

Self Portraits / Scribble / Etching Portfolio

• 2001• 18 1/4 in. x 15 1/4 in. • etching on paper

Collection • SFMOMA

• This art work is monochromatic!!

gridding

The assignment

• As a class create a monumential portrait

• Each student will paint a value scale and a monochromatic scale

• The class will select a cultural icon to depict

• The image will be gridded in 2 inch sections

• Each student will be assigned one section to grid onto a 12” square sheet of paper

• each student will paint one monochromatic section using

Resourses and Credits

• http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=68433+0+none• http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/

chuck_close_b.htm• http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a9469-1.html• http://moma.org/exhibitions/1998/close/index.html• http://www.clemusart.com/educef/distance/html/

3126386.html• http://www.paintbygrids.com/• http://www.state.tn.us/education/ci/

cicurframwkmain1.htm