Chuck Close

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Chuck Close
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• Born  July 5 1940  Monroe, Washington, USA
• He is still living. He lives in New York City
  with his family.
• Chuck Closes prominence and popularity are due
  mostly to his photographs and the giant portraits
  he has painted since the 1960s. Based on
  photographs, the portraits are monumental
  close-ups of heads (his family and friends)
  produced under various limitations.
• In a 1997 interview, Close told New York Times
  reporter, Michael Kimmelman, My (early) learning
  disabilities also affected what I did as an
  artist. I could never remember faces, and Im
  sure I was driven toward portraits because of the
  need to scan, study and commit to memory the
  faces of people who matter to me. The other thing
  is that Ive always been incredibly indecisive
  and overwhelmed by problems, and Ive learned
  that breaking them down helps, which is exactly
  how I paint a portrait I break it down into
  bite-size pieces, into lots of little manageable
  decisions...

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• PERSONAL HISTORY In 1988 a spinal artery in
  Close's body suddenly collapsed. All the muscles,
  from his shoulders down, were affected to some
  degree, forcing him to use a wheelchair. He had
  to relearn to paint, with brushes strapped to his
  hands. (He has painted that way ever since.) He
  viewed this setback as another potentially
  creative limitation.

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His Technique

• Can you guess it?
• SCALE ENLARGEMENT!!!!

This is NOT Closes work just an example of the
technique.
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MORE INFO
Lets go to http//www.getty.edu/art/collections
/bio/a9469-1.html
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More works.
This oil painting was done with his FINGERTIPS
in 1985. The title is Fanny.
This is a PAINTING on canvas. He did this one in
1969. The title is Frank.
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Chuck CloseKiki, 1993
Look at how he painted this one!!
Detail of Kiki
From http//www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/ident
ity/close.html
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More images
Close up of him painting.
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Assignments

• Color value and Chuck Close
• (Student work examples from Madison Middle
  School)
• Related assignments Scale enlargement drawings
  and Scale enlargement paintings

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Resources

• http//www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/identity/cl
  ose.html
• http//www.allposters.com/
• http//www.davidcobley.co.uk/images/close.jpg
• http//www.escaner.cl/escaner3/port2.JPG
• http//www.zombiesheep.com/met2003/DSCN2191.JPG
• http//mms.d321.k12.id.us/webart/index.html
  (Madison Middle school website)
• http//search.famsf.org8080/view.shtml?record303
  229list1And
• http//www.artsmia.org/uia-bin/uia_doc.cgi/list/20
  0?ufmia_collection.ldbkeypaintingsnoframesxh
  rnullnd355
• http//www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object684330no
  ne
• http//www.artlex.com/

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Vocabulary

• Photorealism - Realist paintings and sculptures
  involving thorough reproduction of detail. In
  painting the results were nearly photographic--
  in fact made from photographs (although painters
  had been working from photographs since the early
  days of photography).
• Scale enlargement technique- technique in which
  an image is enlarged using a grid or series of
  grids.
• Value-An element of art that refers to the
  lightness or darkness of a color.

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• Value scale- A series of spaces filled with the
  tints and shades of one color, starting with
  white or the lightest tint on one end, and
  gradually changing into the darkest shade or
  black on the other
• Contrast- having a wide range of values or
  extreme difference in texture, shape, color or
  form.
• Highlight- The area on any surface which reflects
  the most light
• Visual Impact- when an image makes a strong,
  immediate impression
• Most of the above definitions from
  http//www.artlex.com/

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Understandings and Thoughts..

• That limitation of any kind should not prevent
  someone from making art.
• That artists make art sometimes to make us aware
  of what our values and concerns are. ( For
  example Chuck Close painted his family and
  friends- dont we value our friends and family?)
• Who are some of the heroes in our culture? Who
  and what do we admire and value in our society?
• Who are YOUR heroes and why?