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Home>Yes No Maybe Introduction>Yes No Maybe Close Introduction>Yes No Maybe Close Self-Portrait

# 

Exhibition Introduction

Note to the ReaderAcknowledgments

IntroductionKeithJohnLeslieSelf-Portrait

IntroductionTouched RedGreenCombinationHigh Green Version 1

Introduction17 Drawings by ThoreauSeven Day Diary (Not Knowing)Changes and DisappearancesWhere R=RyoanjiFireThe Missing Stone 75 StonesEninkaStonesWhere There is Where There

IntroductionAnne ApplebyPia FriesDarren AlmondSusan MiddletonJoel FisherBrad BrownTom Marioni

IntroductionMamma AnderssonSol LeWittFred WilsonRobert BechtleKiki Smith

IntroductionJulie MehretuWayne ThiebaudJockum NordströmTomma AbtsNathan OliveiraChris Ofili

IntroductionPat SteirLaura OwensWayne ThiebaudAmy Sillman

# Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait* (working proof for unpublished print)2010color photogravureplate: 29 × 23 1⁄4 (73.7 × 59.1)sheet: 33 3⁄8 × 30 1⁄2 (84.8 × 77.5)Chuck Close© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait* (working proof for unpublished print)2010color photogravure with crayon additionsplate: 29 × 23 1⁄4 (73.7 × 59.1)sheet: 33 3⁄8 × 30 1⁄2 (84.8 × 77.5)Crown Point Press © Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait* (working proof for unpublished print)2010color photogravureplate: 29 × 23 1⁄4 (73.7 × 59.1)sheet: 33 3⁄8 × 30 1⁄2 (84.8 × 77.5)Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait* (study for unpublished progression print)proofs printed 2010, study assembled 2013color photogravure: four color-separation proofs andone full-color working proofeach plate: 29 × 23 1⁄4 (73.7 × 59.1)sheets (overall): 33 3⁄8 × 71 (84.8 × 180.3)Chuck Close© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

After halting work on *Self-Portrait* in 2010, Close returned to the project in 2013, exploring ways to push the image further. This study separates a color photogravure’s production into its component parts: magenta, cyan, purple (the mixture of magenta and cyan), and yellow. The sequence of prints suggests a time-lapse progression of this study’s creation.

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait* (collage study for unpublished print withdiscarded cut-up proofs)proofs printed 2010, collage study assembled 2013cut-and-arranged color photogravure proofs with scrapcuttingscollage (excluding scraps): 13 1⁄2 × 13 3⁄4 (34.3 × 34.9)Chuck Close© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Close experimented by assembling collages — comparing his procedure to selecting cards or puzzle pieces from a randomly arranged pile and then figuring out how to “play” or place them. Work on this particular test was discontinued. Close likes the ideas explored in this and the related collages (see slides 4 and 6), but not enough to publish any of them as prints. He is not sure that he will resume work on the color-photogravure project. But if he were to, he says he would most likely “do something completely different.”

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013
*Self-Portrait*(collage study for unpublished print)proofs printed 2010, collage study assembled 2013cut-and-arranged color photogravure proofscollage: 33 3⁄8 × 30 1⁄2 (84.8 × 77.5)Chuck Close© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

This collage relates back to *John*, 1972, and the experimentally inked *Self-Portrait*, 2010 (see slide 3). While their palettes do not match exactly, the three compositions are divided into corresponding zones. This represents Close’s latest attempt to solve a creative problem — how to make a tricolor photomechanical etching visually and conceptually compelling. After more than four decades, Close has yet to find an answer that satisfies him.

Chuck Close, *Self-Portrait* (working prooffor unpublished print), 2010, color photogravure, National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Artist, 2104, © Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

The printers at Crown Point Press produced more than sixty proof impressions of Close’s self-portrait color photogravure. In color photogravure, a process developed in the nineteenth century, photographic images corresponding to the primary printing colors magenta, cyan, and yellow are etched into metal plates. Inked and printed consecutively on one sheet of paper, the three plates yield a full-color image. In the twentieth century a fourth plate, inked in black, was often added to bolster the dark areas. The proof reproduced to the right includes a black plate, but Close was determined to master the process with just three colors. While some consider this print a technical success, it fails to interest Close and remains unpublished.

Banner image: Detail, Chuck Close, *John* (proof for unpublished print), 1972, color photo-etching on wove paper, Gift of Kathan Brown © Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Next: Richard Diebenkorn

"Yes, No, Maybe: The Art of Making Decisions," lecture by exhibition curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)Julie Mehretu, artist, in conversation with curator Judith Brodie, Diamonstein-Spielvogel lecture (audio)"An Insider's Perspective," lecture by Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press (audio)

Exhibition tour by curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

Chuck Close in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Crown Point Press prints in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

 

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