SALZBURG.- Chuck Close (*1940) has been one of the most prominent representatives of photorealism since the 1970s. Throughout his artistic career he has experimented with new forms of expression of visual perception. The exhibition Multiple Portraits is dedicated to the artist‘s prolific graphic oeuvre, featuring more than 150 works. His graphic prints, like his paintings, mainly depict frontal portraits of family members, friends and fellow artists, including Philip Glas, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein and Lucas Samaras. Printmaking plays a key role in Chuck Close‘ oeuvre.
The artist has been preoccupied with this medium as a form of artistic expression for more than thirty years and sees it as a constant challenge. While printmaking is regarded by many artists as a rather unimportant aspect of their work, mainly used for the reproduction of originals, Close ingeniously finds unique and innovative ways of probing and expanding the boundaries of the multi-faceted possibilities and techniques of this medium, also within the context of the tradition of art history. The scope ranges from traditional relief printing techniques, such as copper-plate engraving, woodcut or linocut, to gravure printing techniques, such as aquatint, etching and mezzotint, to screen printing, stamp printing, finger printing and collage printmaking techniques.
More recently, the artist has also been preoccupied with the production of elaborate tapestries, whose countless knots are another form of expression of reproducing image generation. With their astounding technical brilliance, these tapestries are one of the highlights of the exhibition. In contrast to painting, which involved many hours of working alone and making each decision himself, the realization of the elaborate prints required a close and mutually inspiring cooperation between Chuck Close, who designed the tapestries, and the specialists who carried out the work.
The retrospective exhibition not only showcases numerous works from different creative phases, but also features numerous exhibits which illustrate the elaborate and lengthy production process of graphic printing and explain the different stages of the printing process to the final product in a clear and descriptive manner. This survey exhibition of graphic prints by Chuck Close, which has been developed in close cooperation with the artist, will be presented at the MdM SALZBURG following several museums in the United States and Rotterdam as European premiere.
