Chuck Close at Pace

Checked out Chuck Close at Pace on 25^th street.  These portraits may not be the most interesting pictures of people I’ve ever seen but the technique and paint handling combined with the use of color is everything that is good in this world.  Close uses thin washes of yellow, cyan, and magenta to build layers of thin, transparent, color in oil on canvas.  The effect looks a lot like layered watercolor.  Up close, the grid is beautiful and entirely fulfilling.  The self portraits are great and the midsize ones are the absolute best.  Each square seems to be almost 3-D standing about four feet away at an angle but up close the paintings are incredibly flat.  I loved the show.  New work from old ideas.  The back gallery was filled with some older sketches that directly inform the work in the larger gallery.   The show closed Friday.  I’m glad I squeaked in!

http://www.pacegallery.com/newyork/exhibitions/12759/chuck-close-recent-work