Keith
- Artist
- Chuck Close, American, 1940–2021
- Date
- 1970
- Material
- Acrylic on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 108 1/4 x 84 in. (275 x 213.4 cm)
framed: 109 5/8 x 85 3/8 x 4 in. (278.4 x 216.9 x 10.2 cm) - Credit Line
- Funds given by the Shoenberg Foundation, Inc.
- Rights
- © Chuck Close, courtesy Pace Gallery
- Object Number
- 793:1983
NOTES
Rendered in varying shades of gray, "Keith" is one of seven large-scale paintings that Chuck Close created of his family and friends between 1968 and 1970. The artist worked from a photograph, using a grid, an airbrush, and a small amount of black paint to transfer the details of the photo onto a sizable canvas. Through the massive scale of the work, Close transforms the familiar face of his friend into a monumental presence. The artist stays true to varying areas of focus and blur in the photograph, while carefully depicting minute facial features, such as pores, wrinkles, and hairs.
Provenance
Chuck Close (b.1940), New York, NY [1]
- 1983
Pace Gallery, New York, NY, acquired from the artist
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Pace Gallery [2]
Notes:
[1] "Keith" was one of Close's personal paintings, as it was his favorite - the only one of his early black and white paintings that he kept for himself at a time when all of his other black and white paintings were in museum collections [letter from Chuck Close to the Museum dated October 29, 1997, SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Acquistions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, May 12, 1983.
- 1983
Pace Gallery, New York, NY, acquired from the artist
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Pace Gallery [2]
Notes:
[1] "Keith" was one of Close's personal paintings, as it was his favorite - the only one of his early black and white paintings that he kept for himself at a time when all of his other black and white paintings were in museum collections [letter from Chuck Close to the Museum dated October 29, 1997, SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Acquistions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, May 12, 1983.