Charles Thomas Close was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using
Close in 2009
Mark (1978–1979), acrylic on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Detail at right of eye. This is a photorealistic painting representative of Close's earlier style, in contrast to his later "pictorial syntax" using "many small marks of paint". Laboriously constructed from a series of cyan, magenta, and yellow airbrushed layers that imitated CMYK color printing, It took close to fourteen months to complete.
Lucas (1986–1987), oil and graphite on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Detail at right of eye. Representative of his "later, more colorful and painterly style", "the elements of the picture are seen as separate abstract markings" when viewed close-up, while simultaneously maintaining the illusion of a realistic portrait at a distance. The pencil grid and thin undercoat of blue is visible beneath the splotchy "pixels." The painting's subject is fellow artist
Tombstone of Chuck Close in Green-Wood Cemetery. It features a mosaic version of his Self-Portrait (Yellow Raincoat) (2013).
Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible
Chuck Close
…Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very large format camera. He adapted his painting style and…
John's Diner with John's Chevelle, 2007. John Baeder, oil on canvas, 30×48 inches
Dream of Love (2005), oil on canvas. Example of Photorealist Glennray Tutor's work