exhibition

Chuck Close : Family & Others

10.Oct.07 - 17.Nov.07
Tue-Sat 10-6

White Cube Mason's Yard
25-26 Mason's Yard
London SW1Y 6BU
020 7930 5373
enquiries@whitecube.com
www.whitecube.com
Tube Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Mayfair / Cork Street

an exhibition of new paintings, tapestries and photographs by American artist Chuck Close. Over the past 40 years, through his unstinting study of the human head in both painting and photography, Close has transformed our understanding of portraiture and carved out a unique space in contemporary art.

The exhibition will feature seven large-scale paintings: five members of the artist’s family, a self-portrait and a portrait of President Bill Clinton. Close has always refused commissions, preferring instead to choose his subjects, especially from among his friends or family members. Taking three or four months to paint, these methodical depictions of the unique visual structure of each face are vivid collisions of rigorous study, intimacy and abstraction.

The exhibition will also feature eight tapestries made on modern Jacquard looms. Based on Close’s daguerreotypes of artist friends – Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and Andres Serrano among them – the tapestries transfer the photographic space of the original, with its shallow depth of field and sharp detail, into the weft and woof of a tapestry. The resulting portraits are at once intimate and, with their enormous, looming presence, monumental. Finally, Close has also taken a series of daguerreotypes of the model Kate Moss that will also be exhibited.