CHUCK CLOSE

Since the 1970s, Close has been known for his innovative approach to conceptual portraiture, systematically transposing his subjects’ likenesses from photographs onto gridded paintings and drawings. Over the course of five decades, his work has challenged conventional modes of representation. The artist posed radical propositions with his work, going against the grain of art world trends during the late 1960s and 1970s, when Minimalism, Pop art, and abstraction were dominant, and portraiture and photorealism were largely considered taboo.

However, upon closer inspection, his larger-than-life images are strictly limited in their construction. A single mark—the blast from an air brush, the square from a stamp pad, the pressure of an inked-up fingerprint—creates familiar imagery. By these minimalist means, Close was able to convey the difference between the liquidity of eyes, the hard enamel of teeth, the weave of textiles, and strands of hair. With the most minimal means, he created the most maximalist paintings of his time. In doing so, Close gave permission to a generation of artists to return to portraiture and figuration, and, along with Lucas Samaras, gave credibility to Polaroid photography.

This exhibition will bring together works on paper from the 1970s to the 2010s. On view will be a selection of his large-scale watercolors—including his 1976 portrait of Klaus Kertess, the longtime director of New York’s Bykert Gallery who gave Close his first solo show in New York—and several of his smaller-scale ink on paper portraits.

The presentation will also feature Close’s large-scale Polaroids of his friends and fellow artists—including Jasper Johns, Agnes Martin, Lucas Samaras, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, Kara Walker, Zhang Huan, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein—and his iconic self-portraits.

Later this year, Cahiers d’Art Institute (CDAI) will publish Chuck Close: Works on Paper, the second volume in the artist’s catalogue raisonné.