Big Self-Portrait

By Chuck Close

107.5 x 83.5 x 2 inches

Acrylic on canvas

This is the second time I chose Close, because I think its is amazing that he can get such great detail and clarity from a painting. In the late 60’s Close was part of the super realists and they made photo real paintings. This is his first piece that was shown in the walker, and now part of their permanent collection. Although Close has done amazing super realistic paintings he has also shifted to the other end of the spectrum and has done abstract portraits. I think that this painting is men to show Close’s View of him self and everything around him, because his paintings and done step by step and square by square. I like this painting and his other paintings because of the difficulty and skill involved in making the complex paintings.

Kiki By Chuck Close

 

Kiki

By Chuck Close

1993

Oil on Canvas 

Kiki is a painting done by Chuck Close it is portrait of Kiki Smith; it was added to the walker’s collection in 1994 from the collections of Judy and Kenneth Dayton. Chuck close is know for his paintings and got his fame in the photo realist movement for a self-portrait done in 1967. I am actually a big fan of Chuck Close, even though my passion is photography it’s amazing to see that he can create a portrait of him self as good or even better then a camera could. And in many of his painting he is using a super realism to make it look like a photograph. Painting individual squares with abstract shapes and different colors makes up Kiki and a self-portrait of Close done in 2000. Close painted them this way because in 1988 he had a spinal blood clot, which left him a quadriplegic, unable to move either his legs or his arms. Because of this he dramatically changed his style of painting, from super realism to a more abstract type of work. Despite the disadvantage he might face I still think he is an amazing artist.

Viewing Kiki From different angles and distances the picture seems to move and change. This happens because of the way it’s painted. This painting allows the viewer to be involved as well, and it creates also most a game of sorts. You can stand up next to it and see a large abstract painting or go far back and see a large woman’s face. I think that the artists intention with this paint was to show a portrait in a new an exciting way. It creates a sense of chaos in what would be a normally mundane portrait. Yet the colors and shapes come to greater and form a greater whole. This painting different from other is the fact that by were you stand the whole design changes from abstract to realism.

My Experience with the kiki painting is that the closer and closer you get the more distorted the image get which might relate to a life experience that Chuck Close might have had with Kiki Smith. I think that the point of it was that if you look and see somebody from a distance versus close up, you cant see what they are made of or what they are all about as a person and individual. 

http://artsconnected.org/resource/90830/13/kikihttp://www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/identity/close.html

When at The Midway Art Gallery i can across an interesting video titled "Sternchnuppe(shooting star) by Michael Sailstorfer. its an exciting video full of suspense. It was made in 2002 with a Mercedes 123 a street light, aluminum, elastic rubber and electricity. Mush like all of his work Sailstorfer use alot of influence from his home country of Bavaria. He is know for his sculptures that have a resemblance to "do it yourself" construction while he works with professionals for some of his pieces. He is well know for his strange machines like the one above. Sternchnuppe is giant slingshot on the top of a car that shoots a streetlight. Sailstorfer wants to show the endless struggle of the human effort to create order ultimately produces disorder. Sterchnuppe works like many of his other works in that they are always more then a piece of art they are almost a living thing. In doing his piece he wants to invoke the senses of the viewer, for example the Sterchnuppe is showing the destruction of the piece and you see and hear it . also in the piece Zeit ist keine Autobahn the wheel rubs the wall creating a smell of burning rubber the play with the nose of the viewer. he wants to show that art isn't only visual its all of the senses together. in every piece it seems that Sailstorfer puts all of his heart into, its like he feel a connection to the art by relating it to his home land. He wants to show the real and raw materials that are used in each piece. All of his pieces seem simple but the are all intricate pieces of technology as well as art. Each piece has a emotion that has to be felt, like in Sterchnuppe you feel so hopeful for it to keep going and fly away until your hopes are thrown to the sides as is crashes to the ground.