Reviews: Chuck Close and Mark Grotjahn

Mecca Alim

Senior Project

Dr. Susan Canning and Professor Emily Stern

10/7/2015

Chuck Close: Red Yellow Blue

Sept 11, 2015 – Oct 17, 2015

534 West 25th Street

New York NY 10001

Review: Chuck Close, Red Yellow Blue at Pace Gallery

Entering Chuck Close’s recent gallery exhibit, Red Yellow Blue, I was quickly bombarded with repeated colorful portraits of the artist. Instantly captivated, I continued further, receiving yet another blast of powerful hues. I saw that by using a grid, he places down colors that relate to and contrast from one another, until it becomes a complete piece.

Looking at these portraits close up, I could not help but relate them to pixels associated with digital media. 72 pixels in an inch is less quality compared to 300 pixels in an inch. More pixels and squares will be visible the lower the quality becomes. Looking up close to these portraits instantly made me think of low- resolution images.

The basic colors that Close uses are reminiscent to color models such as RGB (red, green blue) as well as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key). Is it possible that he intentionally linked these color models to his portraits? Mixing red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black creates a combination of even more colors. 

Magenta, Cyan, Magenta combined against Cyan, Yellow, and blue, red combined with greens, etc.

Some portraits even look different when photographed with a camera. When I viewed some of these works of art using only my eyes, they still looked quite pixelated. But when viewed through my Smartphone, they looked clearer and complete. This may be yet another connection between Close’s paintings and digital media.

My phone managed to capture a better image of this portrait than my own eyes!

But by possibly playing around with how a computer sees colors and pictures, might Close also be playing with how he himself sees colors and pictures? Or maybe even how he sees another human being? This is when awareness comes into play. The carefully drawn squares created from the grid may have assisted in Close’s own perception of the human face.

Chuck Close is greatly known for using interesting patterns and designs to create a complete portrait. He cleverly comes up with new ideas on how to represent the human face. We can only wonder how he will portray his future subjects in his next show.

Mark Grotjahn: Painted Sculpture

September 10 - October 29, 2015

532 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

Review: Mark Grotjahn, Painted Sculpture at Anton Kern Gallery

During our trip to Chelsea, I took the time to discover Mark Grotjahn’s new solo exhibition, Painted Sculpture. I previously read Roberta Smith’s review of his work, and I was curious to see for myself. I was never familiar with this artist and I have never seen his previous work, but viewing this exhibition has intrigued me enough to research him and the art that he creates. 

Entering the gallery, I was a bit surprised to find it quite empty, but perhaps it was the rain’s fault. The bronze sculptures were free standing and stood on their own, seemingly confident and unafraid of falling off their pedestals. They were all separated and scattered from one another, filling up as much space as they possibly could. All of the sculptures have almost the same structure, with the placement of the eyes, long tube-like nose (some pieces having two) and mouth being identical. Carefully dodging the long, protruding noses of the artwork, I was curious to view up close and around. I noticed that the casts managed to even capture the details of the corrugated cardboard and its ridges. Traveling towards the back, I observed one more sculpture, isolated and unseen from the rest.

The way the eyes and mouths were shaped gave off a definite humorous and cartoon-like essence. The simplicity of the faces offered a strong juxtaposition against the chaotic style and method in which the paint was applied on all of the sculptures. 

What’s different between every sculpture are the colors and textures. Minimally blended and bright warm and cool palettes are splattered throughout, with oranges coming into contact with blues, pinks colliding with yellows, and more. Looking up close, you can examine his signature along with numbers he places on his sculptures, non-discernable symbols, and handprints with textures possibly caused from him dragging his fingers through the paint.Though all of the sculptures are very similar in displaying strong patches of color and texture, the different words, numbers, and palettes shown on them are enough to differentiate them from one another.

Being a combination of both painting and modeling, Mark Grotjahn’s Painted Sculpture is an exhibition I would definitely recommend to my friends and family. The show offers a very mysterious aura that is quite difficult to understand, but is very exquisite nonetheless.