An insightful and enthusiastic review of Chuck Close's current show at PaceWildenstein:
Here is a show of recent portraits by the great Chuck Close. As usual, Chuck is not someone who has a problem being productive. The paintings are done in the grid style that we are familiar with, but there are some first-time sitters here that liven up the series, most notably, President Bill Clinton. The freely drawn shapes within the gridded squares that Chuck uses to construct his images with are, in the President's case, particularly joyful, so that some of his personality really comes through. One can easily get the feeling that it must have been a very agreeable meeting for both the President and Mr. Close....
The idea of specific personalities coming through more strongly than they have in past works could apply to the whole show. Even with a visage as austere as Zhang Huan I & II, Chuck's brush marks take on a sense of calligraphy, almost as if we're looking at a coded message that represent the subject's thoughts, as if coming from a great distance...
But the real surprise of the show is the new medium Chuck has found to work with. Many of these portraits are not painted, but woven, into huge hanging tapestries... and you probably have to see them in person to get the full impact of the accomplishment. In these works, the grid disappears, and we're back to the photo-realism Chuck began with in the mid-'60's. Now that we've been educated to it, we can better appreciate the depth-of-focus variations that occur in each portrait. Conceptual artist Cindy Sherman is an especially good model here, she manages to pose so that just one eye is in ultra-sharp focus, and the rest of her facial topography proceeds from there...
- Jim McCabe, All Nite Diner & Two Leaf Gallery blog
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