Chuck Close | “Big Self-Portrait" Often considered a Superrealist, Chuck Close is best kn

Chuck Close | “Big Self-Portrait" Often considered a Superrealist, Chuck Close is best known for his large-scale portraits, such as Big Self-Portrait. However, Close felt his connection to the Photo-realists was tenuous, because for him realism, rather than an end in itself, was the result of an intellectually rigorous, systematic approach to painting. He based his paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s on photographs, and his main goal was to translate photographic information into painted information. Because he aimed simply to record visual information about his subject’s appearance, Close deliberately avoided creative compositions, flattering lighting effects, and revealing facial expressions. Not interested in providing great insight into the personalities of those portrayed, Close painted anonymous and generic people, mostly friends. By reducing the variables in his paintings (even their canvas size is a constant 9 by 7 feet), he could focus on employing his methodical presentations of faces, thereby encouraging the viewer to deal with the formal aspects of his works. Indeed, because of the large scale of Close’s paintings, careful scrutiny causes the images to dissolve into abstract patterns. (x) -- source link

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