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Home>Yes No Maybe Introduction>Yes No Maybe Close Introduction>Yes No Maybe Close Leslie

# 

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, Leslie, 1986

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*1986watercolorsheet: 30 1⁄2 × 22 1⁄4 (77.5 × 57)Barbara R. PalmerPhotograph by Ellen Page Wilson, Courtesy Pace Gallery© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*(working proof 1)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*(working proof 2)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*(working proof 3)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*(working proof 4)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
*Leslie*1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 3⁄4 × 21 1⁄2 (62.8 × 54.6)sheet: 33 3⁄4 × 25 1⁄4 (85.7 × 64.1)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,1997© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*1986watercolorsheet: 30 1⁄2 × 22 1⁄4 (77.5 × 57)Barbara R. PalmerPhotograph by Ellen Page Wilson, Courtesy Pace Gallery© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*(working proof 1)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*(working proof 2)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*(working proof 3)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*(working proof 4)1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point PressArchive, Gift of Crown Point Press© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986
Detail, *Leslie*1986color woodcut on Japanese paperimage: 24 3⁄4 × 21 1⁄2 (62.8 × 54.6)sheet: 33 3⁄4 × 25 1⁄4 (85.7 × 64.1)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,1997© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Challenged by the opportunity to have one of his portraits translated into a Japanese-style woodcut, Close devised a watercolor prototype made up of thousands of irregular blots and diamonds distributed across a grid. Specialized craftsmen in Japan translated the watercolor, carving it into a series of wooden blocks. Fifty-one blocks were required to produce *Leslie*, with many printed more than once. Indeed, each print in the edition was created by impressing the paper onto inked wood blocks 117 times.

Chuck Close with the printer Tadashi Toda in Kyoto, Japan, 1986, photograph by Kathan Brown, Courtesy Crown Point Press

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: Chuck Close, *Self-Portrait*, 2010–2013

"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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