Chuck Close; Two Page Review

            Chuck Close is an artist that has over come a lot in his lifetime. He is a painter and a photographer that specializes in portraits of people or what is also known as photorealism. However, in most people’s eyes the most amazing thing he overcame was a seizure that was cause by a spinal artery collapsing.  After “the event” Close was able to finally move his arms a little but now relies on a wheelchair to move around. He has made a remarkable recovery and is able to paint to this day.

            Many people will think that how he paints is in a sense cheating; he takes pictures of people and lays out his image before he paints it, using the image instead of an actual model. His method before “the event” and after “the event” remained the same; the style is the only variation. Close takes a photograph and then prints it out. One the photograph he makes a grid that is exactly the same grid, only smaller, that is on a huge canvas. The way he does this is looking at each individual square in a grid he is able to replicate these squares into what then will become an amazing portrait. As stated before, the only thing that changed after “the event” was the style in which he painted.

Before “the event” he was able to copy in image or a photograph exactly as it appeared as a photograph into a massive size painting on a canvas.

The images seen above are examples of Close’s work before “the event”. On the left is a self-portrait and on the left is a painting called “Mark”. Both of these paintings, along with all of his paintings, are acrylic and/or oil paint on canvases.

            The paintings that Close did after “the event” were more unique in style. He did the process of taking a photograph and making a grid on both the photograph and the canvas to lay out the image properly and proportionally, but his style of painting was not perfectly representational. He did something along the lines of painting pixels so that each individual square that he gridded out looked like a bunch of circles. However, he knew what colors went together to make what he wanted so that his image would come out the way the photographed depicted it.  

 

The images seen above are the up-close images of what Close actually paints. These individual pixels will result into a full size portrait, as seen below a self-portrait of him today.

            Chuck Close is a very inspirational person for many people. He struggled as a child, losing his father at a young age and not being very bright in school. Where he also struggles today after overcoming “the event”. He is a fabulous artist and has never said that he could not do what he wanted. He is an inspiration for not only artists but for others who aspire to fulfill their dreams but have had many struggles in life. 

Jasper Johns; Two Page Review

          Jasper Johns is an American artist who grew up in a small town in South Carolina. He is one of the most influential artists of all time. His art is very abstract, asking more questions than actually answering them, with the meaning of his art never clear. It is said that his art is “sophisticated or unsophisticated version of finger painting.” His abstract art makes everyday things stand out. He has been compared to Rembrandt. Johns’ art works with the idea of ambiguity, forcing his audience to think and figure out his art.

Johns works with ordinary images, such as numbers and with unique brush strokes and bright colors he makes them into abstract pieces of art.

     The first piece of art above is called “Numbers in Colors” painted in the years of 1958 to 1959. This image takes ordinary numbers with a combination of oranges, light teals, reds and yellows and represents them as something more than just numbers. Then there is the image to the right, simply called Maps that was painted in 1961. This painting is clear to be an abstract version of a map. With bold brush strokes of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow he portrays a version of the map of the United States.  These are some examples of Jasper Johns’ artwork that depict ordinary images made into abstract pieces of artwork.

            There however are other versions of Johns’ abstract art. He sometimes combines different well-known images and his own art to make a new piece of art. An example of this is “Racing Thoughts” which he did in 1984.

With this piece of art, Johns said that he saw images racing through his head that he could not get out until he got them onto a canvas. Johns made a set of paintings called “The Seasons” done in 1987.

These paintings did not necessarily portray the seasons of the year but the seasons of life. Such as youth, maturity, old age and so on.  These pieces of art by Jasper Johns show that his artwork is very deep, however, no one can really figure out what is means.

            Personally I do like Jasper Johns’ art. Even though it is unsure the meaning of his art, the images that he creates in the end are very fascinating. Johns knows how you use every medium, making him a very versatile artist. I have never been fond of abstract art, because a lot of it I do not believe is actually art. However, the art that Johns does is not something that you cannot tell what it is, it is understandable and recognizable. Without the meaning being clear, he has created ambiguity that makes his artwork stand out in that special way.

            Jasper Johns is a modern artist with a very unique style. He does work that does not always make sense, but has a lot of different meanings to it. He tries to make his audience figure out his work, and does a very good job about this. He has had some of the highest selling modern artwork today. Jasper Johns is amazing at making his artwork distinguish itself from others and is original with every piece he does.