Chuck Close Keith Analysis

The image Keith by Chuck Close is a large and detailed painting with a plain background. The artist includes texture by drawing the pores and wrinkles that were on his friend’s face. In addition, there is a single strand for every hair on Keith’s head and eyebrows. Chuck Close even included black holes on the subject’s chin, which is where hair stubble was starting to grow. The image has a 3-d appearance and it is in black and white. Therefore, there are different shades of gray depending on where the light was hitting Keith’s face. The center of the subject face is the lightest area. Therefore, it is the main focus. Keith has blurry in areas that are not the main focus. There are many lines in this painting. However, most of the lines and
Photorealism created a link between painting and photography. Close would begin a project by taking a photo of his subject, creating grids on the photo and the material he was going to paint on, and then by painting the image. It is written that Chuck Close intention for creating Keith was just to have a series of paintings of his family and friends (Appleton). However, Close enjoys creating portraits because he enjoys exploring how self-identity is constructed in different individuals. He also likes to use grids in his paintings to symbolize how every part of an image is important in the construction of the whole piece (The Art Story). Lastly, Close likes to crop out the subject’s body language and background. The reason being, it allows him to invite the viewer’s attention (John Berggruen Gallery). The artist created six other large portraits of his family members and friends with the same technique. Chuck Close used a candid photo of Keith because he found candid photos to be more interesting to him than flattering images (Appleton). Close created the painting Keith in 1970, but I could not find where. I am presuming he created this painting in America. The reason being, after the painting was completed, he created additional prints of the photograph he used in San Francisco and Oakland, California (John Berggruen Gallery) (Grishin). However, the additional prints were created two years after the painting. In 1970, there were a lot of conservative backlashes. For example, there were multiple movements such as the anti-war movement, environmental movements, and women fighting for equal rights (History.com Staff). In addition, the voting age was lowered to 18, the Apollo 13 mission to the moon was abandoned, import duty taxes were increased to protect American jobs, and National Guards killed 4 protesters at Kent State University (The People History). I do not believe the events during this time