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).
Richard Estes is an American artist, best known for his photorealist paintings. The paintings generally consist of reflective, clean, and inanimate city and geometric landscapes. He is regarded as one
Richard Estes at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2014
Telephone Booths (1968), Oil on canvas. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid