Chuck Close’s ‘Leslie/Fingerprint.’
|
|
|
|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
|
|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
Large Print
A superstar in the art world, Chuck Close is known for many things. His gigantic portrait paintings are rendered in a rigorously disciplined system of dots in a grid that come together to create the face. He’s also known for having discovered new techniques to make his art after having been rendered quadriplegic by a blood clot on his spinal cord in 1988.
His printmaking efforts have received considerably less press until now. He began with a mezzotint print of a friend named Keith in 1972 and spent the next 30 years branching out into all manner of printmaking techniques: etching, lithography, aquatint, Japanese woodcut, silkscreen, and others. His work in this field has not only pushed the boundaries of printmaking but also had considerable impact on his painting — he regards the process as essential to solving aesthetic problems, much like Rembrandt and Picasso before him.
Encompassing more than 100 of the artist’s prints, Chuck Close: Process and Collaboration was organized at the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston’s Art Museum. The show has spent the last two and a half years traveling to Miami, Knoxville, Charlotte, and Andover, Mass., as well as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now it arrives here to show us a neglected but vital aspect in the work of one of America’s most celebrated artists.
Chuck Close: Process and Collaboration runs Apr 9-Jun 25 at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St, FW. Admission is $4-8. Call 817-738-9215.
Email this Article...
