ART & ACTIVE LIVING
by Chuck Close
Recently, I visited the
National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; I heard about the “Roy Lichtenstein: A
Retrospective” exhibit that would be on display there from October 14, 2012 to
January 13, 2013 and I wanted to see it before they closed it.
Yet, ironically the highlight of my little escapade to the
museum was not the viewing of the “Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective” exhibit,
but Chuck Close’s “ Fanny” finger-painting. I've seen copies of it before, but it’s
nothing like seeing it in person.
According to the National Gallery of Art “Fanny” is “a
portrait of Close's grandmother-in-law, [it] represents one of the largest and
most masterly executions of a technique the artist developed in the mid-l980s.
That technique involved the direct application of pigment to a surface with the
artist's fingertips. By adjusting the amount of pigment and the pressure of his
finger on the canvas, Close could achieve a wide range of tonal effects.
Typically, he worked from a black and white photograph which he would divide
into many smaller units by means of a grid. He then transposed the grid onto a
much larger canvas and meticulously reproduced each section of it. The result
is a monumental, close-up view that forces an uncomfortable intimacy upon the
viewer.
Seen from a distance, the painting looks like a giant,
silver-toned photograph that unrelentingly reveals every crack and crevice of
the sitter's face. Closer up, the paint surface dissolves into a sea of
fingerprints that have an abstract beauty, even as they metaphorically suggest
the withering of the sitter's skin with age...”
The contrast in viewing the painting from a distance and
close up is what had me in awe for at
least 10 minutes. After, admiring the piece for so long, I was done. I knew that nothing else I would see after could compare,
so after a long day and one amazing piece I finished my day at the National Gallery of Art with a smile.
