Description
The self-portraits in this gallery span thirty years and are made with a variety of photograph processes. The earliest, not included in the exhibition, was a maquette for the 1968 painting Big Self Portrait, which is in the collection of the Walker Art Center. Close refers to that painting as his first “head” portrait. The photograph on which it was based was made in 1967 with a borrowed 4x5 camera. At the time, Close knew little about the technicalities of taking photographs and he created an image with a great range of clarity—from very sharp in some areas to very blurry in others. Close’s attraction to experimentation was already apparent at that time – an attraction that led him to his extraordinary work in different media and diverse techniques.
You’ll also see more recent images of artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker, as well as two photographs of the sculptor John Chamberlain.