Floor 4: Chuck Close (exiting Richter)
Overview
Gallery Wayfinding
You are in the Chuck Close Gallery. This gallery contains giant, colorful paintings that feature vibrant mosaic portraits of different artists.
You've entered from the back right corner of this small square gallery, facing the far front wall. The gallery has seven 2-D artworks and an artist panel with a video about Close, which is located in the back left corner. To access the audio, use the handheld listening device attached to the panel.
The exit to the Richard Serra Gallery is in the front right corner of the gallery. The QR code is at the threshold on the right wall, marked with a perpendicular tactile floor strip.
Label
"I always like the tension between the physical reality—that is, a bunch of marks distributed across a flat surface—and the way they warp into the space and have the life-associations that we have from having looked at people's faces."
—Chuck Close, 1984
Chuck Close
Born 1940, Monroe, Washington; died 2021, Oceanside, New York
For more than four decades, Chuck Close concentrated on the human face, often creating at a massive scale. While his paintings represent real people—himself, friends, family, and especially fellow artists—they are not conventional portraits. Close followed a rigorous procedure for what he called his "heads": He photographed the sitter, gridded out the Polaroid, then painstakingly transferred the image, square by square, onto canvas. Close had face blindness—difficulty recognizing faces—and this partly motivated his systematic approach. In 1988, a collapsed spinal artery also left the artist partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, but he was able to develop a method of painting with brushes strapped to his wrist.
A Complex Legacy
In 2017, amid the broader #MeToo movement, multiple women reported that Close had sexually harassed them in his studio, with allegations dating back to 2001. A planned exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC was indefinitely postponed, and the artist largely retreated from public life until his death in 2021. Close's works remain in many public collections in recognition of his contributions to contemporary art, even as institutions and audiences continue to reckon with these specific aspects of his legacy.
Related Media
Transcript
Chuck Close:
I'm using a grid to blow something up. It goes back, you know, at least to the Egyptians, but the reason that I used it, I think, goes back to my learning disabilities. When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s, nobody knew about learning disabilities or dyslexia; you were just dumb and lazy. I'm often overwhelmed by the whole, and I found that if I break things down into small, bite-sized pieces, this big, overwhelming problem becomes much more solvable. You solve this little piece, and then that little piece.
As we progress, you'll see those squares get larger and larger. They're 3.5in square, which allows for many more colors on each square, and then the opportunity for them to run together and connect with something else. Sometimes they have a diagonal axis, and sometimes they have a horizontal vertical axis. Sometimes they have a dark center with light around it, or a light center with dark around that. Or, you know, they run together to make a hotdog shape, or they stay a donut, or they become a sock shape or whatever. So the pictorial syntax is the same as writing. You know, you develop a vocabulary, and each painting gets off the ground with a kind of color world that you're dealing with—a range of colors that you're using—plus this vocabulary that you're evolving in the very act of making this painting. Each one is really different in terms of that vocabulary.
People look at these things and they ask me if I go back and forth, and I, in fact, don't. I'm never any further away than arm's length. So there’s why, you know, how can you make these decisions? The analogy that I use is a composer going into a room by himself or herself to score a piece, with no musical instruments or musicians, and simply writing notes and assigning this note to the oboe, and this note to the bassoon, and this note to a French horn. And from years of experience, you know what the resultant chord will sound like of those notes being played at the same time. And I'm making the visual equivalent of a musical chord.
I'm putting 4 or 5 or 6 colors together that, from years of experience, I will know what those read like from a distance. So it's not necessary, you know, for me to go back and forth. That doesn't mean that I could necessarily mix all those colors ahead of time and tell you those five colors will do it; what I'm always doing is getting a little bit closer. Now, what do I need? And I get something else.
Objects
7 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Artwork Label Text
1994
Oil on linen
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 2000
Close had admired the subject of this painting, the artist Roy Lichtenstein, since his student days. Here he transforms Lichtenstein's signature style into his own visual vocabulary. Like Lichtenstein's benday dot paintings (on view nearby), the individual gridded units that form Close's work can be appreciated in their own right and also make up a larger image.
Visual Description
A large, oil-on-linen painting—about the size of a single-car garage door—shows a centered, head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist Roy Lichenstein, depicted here as an older white man with light skin. The portrait is constructed from a mosaic-like grid of small units of tightly packed squares, each containing ringed circles, ovals, or short rounded rectangles. Seen from a distance (more than six feet), the painting reveals a portrait with clear facial features; however, when viewed at closer distances, the facial features appear more like a dense, abstract grid of square-shaped cells.
The man faces forward with a calm, neutral expression. His pale blue-gray eyes look straight at you beneath softly arched brows, with pinkish shading around the eyelids. His nose and lips are modeled with warm peach, coral, and rose tones, and faint smile lines and subtle cheek contours are suggested by the varying colors within the grid. His mouth is partially open with some teeth visible. He has a high forehead and thinning, straight gray hair. The ear on the left side of the painting is clearly delineated in pale tones, while the right side of the head fades into the patterned field. He wears a dark jacket over a dark blue collared shirt, the clothing also broken into the same grid language with deep blues, teals, and muted purples.
The background is a continuous field of darker navy and cobalt squares filled with circular shapes.
Artwork Label Text
1994
Dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid), ink, graphite, and masking tape on foamboard
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 2001
Close had admired the subject of this painting, the artist Roy Lichtenstein, since his student days. Here he transforms Lichtenstein's signature style into his own visual vocabulary. Like Lichtenstein's benday dot paintings (on view nearby), the individual gridded units that form Close's work can be appreciated in their own right and also make up a larger image.
Visual Description
A marked-up Polaroid photograph about the size of an average wall poster—a study for the large painting Roy 1 that is hung nearby on the same wall—presents a head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist Roy Lichtenstein, depicted here as an older white man with light skin. It is overlaid with a grid and masking tape.
The man, centered against a deep navy background, has light skin, a high forehead with a few light-colored age spots, thinning straight gray hair, bushy gray eyebrows, heavy eyelids, blue eyes, and a slightly open mouth revealing his front teeth. Wrinkles surround his eyes, and his face is turned a little toward our right.
He wears a collared shirt under a darker outer layer, with the collar and upper chest visible at the bottom of the frame. Masking tape frames the image on all sides, with additional pieces securing corners and edges. The tape has aged to a warm beige with slight curling and wear. A fine grid with uniform square cells has been drawn over the entire portrait. Along the top and bottom edges of the image, over the masking tape, the grid’s columns are labeled alphabetically with letters ascending from "A" to "S". Running down the left side, the rows are similarly labeled with numbers, from "1" through "24".
Above the portrait, the artist has handwritten in graphite "Roy, I" in quotation marks. In the bottom margin, below the portrait, is the artist's signature and the year (1994), also handwritten in graphite. The sheet on which the photo is printed has been mounted on a foamboard support that shows creases, scuffs, and slight tearing. This piece is floated in a white frame.
Artwork Label Text
1998
Oil on canvas
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
"Superhuman" is how artist Agnes Martin—whose work is on view nearby—described this portrait of her when she first encountered it at an exhibition in Taos, New Mexico. Close's giant, colorful painting of his friend is also an homage to Martin's use of the grid, a form that was essential to both artists' work. Here, the cells form individual paintings that spread, mosaic-like, across the canvas. Together, the individual abstract units gather force to present Martin in a way that is both sensitive and monumental.
Visual Description
A large oil-on-canvas painting—roughly the size of a single-car garage door—depicts a front-facing, head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist Agnes Martin. She is depicted here as an older white woman with light skin rendered with a dense grid of small, colorful, tightly packed square and rectangular tiles. Each tile contains ringed circles, ovals, or rounded inner rectangles. Seen from a distance (more than six feet), the painting reveals a portrait with clear facial features; however, when viewed at closer distances, the facial features appear more like a dense, abstract grid of circles and rectangles.
Her face fills most of the composition and is constructed from hundreds of these repeated tiles. Each tile is filled with layered strokes in peach, cream, pink, tan, and muted orange, creating a mosaic effect. Darker tiles in deep teal, green, and blue form the surrounding background and the mass of blue/gray hair, which frames the head and descends along both sides to a length that covers half of her ears.
The facial features emerge through concentrated clusters of darker shapes. To our right , one eye is clearly defined with a pale lid and a vivid blue iris. The other eye to our left is partially abstracted and fragmented into darker blocks. A nose and closed mouth appear through aligned bands of lighter tiles, with subtle blush tones and shadowy maroons around the lips and cheeks.
The overall surface reflects pattern and repetition as well as smooth modeling, so the portrait shows both an abstract grid and a recognizable human face. The brightest highlights are concentrated across the forehead, bridge of the nose. The cheeks have greater concentrations or warm pinks and reds and look blushed.
A low museum stanchion has been placed on the floor around this piece.
Artwork Label Text
1998
Dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid), ink, graphite, oil paint, and masking tape on foamboard
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
"Superhuman" is how artist Agnes Martin—whose work is on view nearby—described this portrait of her when she first encountered it at an exhibition in Taos, New Mexico. Close's giant, colorful painting of his friend is also an homage to Martin’s use of the grid, a form that was essential to both artists' work. Here, the cells form individual paintings that spread, mosaic-like, across the canvas. Together, the individual abstract units gather force to present Martin in a way that is both sensitive and monumental.
Visual Description
This marked-up Polaroid photograph about the size of an average wall poster—a study for the large painting _Agnes _that is hung nearby on the same wall—features a front-facing, head and shoulders portrait of the artist Agnes Martin, depicted here as an older white woman with short, gray hair, light skin, and light-colored eyes.
The woman has a light olive skin tone, rosy cheeks, and deep wrinkles. She also has bushy eyebrows, heavy lidded eyes that are looking right at us, and straight, short gray hair with short bangs. Her cheeks are plump, and her lips are pursed and slightly downturned. She is centered against a solid black background and wears a dark, patterned sweater with a low collar. A rectangle of white masking tape has been placed around her face, cropping it off from the rest of the photo. Over this section of the photo, a grid has been drawn in graphite and ink, segmenting her facial features from forehead to chin, with the columns and rows numbered along the top and left edges of the tape.
The Polaroid is surrounded by a white border that contains the name "Agnes" written in cursive ink at the top, while the bottom margin features a loose, scrawled artist signature and the year 1998. Thick, multicolored oil paint smears and drips are applied directly across the lower portion of the photograph and the foamboard base. The top edge of the Polaroid print is characterized by a jagged, perforated texture. The sheet is floated in a white frame.
Artwork Label Text
1998
126-color screenprint, ed. 2/80
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1998
This work depicts the sculptor John Chamberlain, whom Close met in New York in the late 1960s and whose work is on view nearby. Close translated his own earlier painting of the artist into this 126-color screenprint with the aid of a master printer (a professional who helps artists create their fine-art prints). In a painstaking two-year process, each color was forced through its own unique stencil, made by painting emulsion onto a fine mesh screen.
Visual Description
A vertically oriented, 126-color screenprint—roughly the height of a short adult but narrower than their outstretched arms—presents a close-up portrait of the artist John Chamberlain. He is depicted here as an older white man with medium-light skin. The portrait is built from a diagonal grid that forms a tightly packed and repeating series of diamond-shaped cells filled with circles and ovals of various colors. Seen from a distance (more than six feet), the painting reveals a portrait with clear facial features; however, when viewed at closer distances, the facial features seem more like a dense, abstract grid of diamond-shaped cells.
His head fills most of the composition, turned slightly to our right, with slightly wavy gray hair combed back from a high forehead and a full mustache. His expression is neutral and direct, with pale, blue-gray eyes. The left side of his face is brighter, while the right side falls into deeper shadow. His mouth is partially open. Reds, oranges, pinks, yellows, greens, blues, and purples interlace in small units so that skin tones, hair, and shadows are layered fields rather than smooth gradients.
He wears a dark jacket or coat over a red-orange shirt collar that peeks up at the base of the neck. The clothing is also broken into the same lattice of marks. Behind him, a dark, blue-black ground is similarly textured with the repeated motif.
Along the wide, off-white margin at the bottom, faint pencil markings include the edition number ("2/80") on the left, a lightly written artist signature across the center, and the year 1998 on the right. There is also handwritten cursive text, in pencil, that reads "For Don & Doris, with great thanks & appreciation, love, Chuck." The screenprint is floated in a white frame.
Artwork Label Text
1993
Dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid)
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
Visual Description
A large, vertically oriented, black-and-white Polaroid photo about the size of an average wall poster presents a tightly framed, head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist Lorna Simpson, a Black woman with medium-dark skin tone.
The woman faces forward in a symmetrical, passport-like pose, looking directly at us with a calm, neutral expression and relaxed mouth. Her hair is long, dark, and tightly curled, falling in thick ringlets on both sides of her face and slightly past her shoulders. A few strands curl outward along the right side. Soft, even lighting emphasizes her skin texture across her forehead, cheeks, and nose, with gentle shadows defining her eye sockets and the line of her jaw. She wears a dark ribbed knit top or cardigan with a V-shaped neckline.
The background is a smooth mid-gray, and the photographic area shows the characteristic Polaroid material edges, with a slightly uneven black band along the top of the image area and subtle rippling or irregular borders at the sides. Handwritten in cursive graphite or ink on the white border, centered above the image area, is the word "Lorna."
Along the bottom white border, a larger cursive signature reads "Chuck Close," followed by the year 1993 on the lower right. A small solid neon-orange dot sticker sits near the bottom-right corner of the white border. The sheet on which the Polaroid is printed is cut unevenly at the top and bottom and is floated within a white frame.
Artwork Label Text
1995
Oil on canvas
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1996
In addition to older artists and members of his own generation, Close also depicted younger artists whose work he admired, such as Lorna Simpson. Simpson first emerged in the early 1990s with works that combine photography and text to explore representations of gender, race, and identity. With its highly diagonal grid and irregular blobs of paint, Close’s painting calls attention to how it was made and reminds us that all representations, regardless of medium, are constructed—never purely objective.
Visual Description
A large, oil-on-canvas portrait—roughly the size of a single-car garage door—shows a head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist Lorna Simpson, a young Black woman, in grayscale. She is centered and front-facing with a neutral, closed-lip expression.
The portrait is built from a diagonal grid that forms a tightly packed and repeating series of diamond-shaped cells filled with circles and ovals. Seen from a distance (more than six feet), the painting reveals a portrait with clear facial features; however, when viewed at closer distances, the facial features appear like a dense, abstract grid of these repeating diamonds, circles, and ovals.
Each cell within this diagonal grid is filled with concentric circular shapes and rings of gray paint in a range of different hues and values. The woman has medium-to-dark skin tones translated into silvers and charcoals, large dark eyes, a straight nose, and softly modeled cheeks. Her thick, dark hair frames her face and extends down past her shoulders. A pale highlight runs down the center of her forehead and nose, while darker tones pool around the eye sockets, under the cheekbones, and beneath the chin. She wears a dark outer garment that has a V-shaped neckline, with the clothing and background similarly broken into the same lattice of diamonds.
The background is an even field of cool gray tones, and the facial features emerge primarily through contrast within the repeating pattern.