Close, Chuck: Nat (1972–73)

Chuck Close is one of the best-known representatives of hyper-realist style; the feature of such a descriptive painting that it uses not the material environment but its photograph as a model. Close began to paint his friends, his colleagues and later his family using drawings, polaroid photographs in the second half of the sixties. He enlarges the photo divided into small parts and re-paints it in a huge size, millimetre by milimetre. He also follows the photographic process in setting the model, the background is unfocused, the image keeps blurring from the center to the outside. Subjects wear their everyday clothes, their expression is natural, free of all mannerisms. The artist does not beautify or idealize his models, frizzy hair, fleshy nose or bad teeth are lifelike. The watercolour Nat belongs into the artist's colour period. In contrast to the quick-drying acrylic used on his early works, representing photo-realistic quality with the easy-flowing watercolor is a painterly feat. The meticulous painting technique lets you see the pores and wrinkles of the model, while details outside the original photo focus, hair contours, ear and shoulders remain blurry in the painting. Brush-work cannot be seen on the smooth paint, which further enhances the photographic effect. It is the characteristic feature of Close' works, that photographic impersonal nature of his paintings makes a special combination with the intimate exposition of the enlarged portraits. K. Ü.