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Dots and ovals bubbling across a fine grid form the head and shoulders of a smiling, silver-haired man with peach-colored skin, wearing a navy-blue jacket, a white collared shirt, and a pink tie in this vertical portrait painting. The grid runs diagonally to create mostly diamond-shaped squares, with a few rectangles, each of which is filled with concentric circles or ovals around a dot. The man’s face fills most of the composition, and he looks at us with blue eyes. He has a rounded nose and bright white teeth show between full, rosy lips. His hair is short on the sides and a little longer and brushed back on top. The background is mostly slate blue but also has squares and circles in brick red, mustard yellow, and teal green. The overall effect is of a slightly unfocused, pixelated image because of the grid and nested circles used to create each unit.

Chuck Close

President Bill Clinton, 2006

Not on View

Medium

oil on linen

Dimensions

overall: 275.6 x 213.4 cm (108 1/2 x 84 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ian and Annette Cumming

Accession Number

2007.151.1

Artists / Makers

Chuck Close (artist) American, 1940 - 2021

Image Use

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Inscription

Provenance

Ian M. Cumming [1940-2018], Jackson, Wyoming; gift 2007 to NGA.

Associated Names

Cumming, Ian M.

Exhibition History

2007: Chuck Close: Family & Others, White Cube, London, 2007, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2008: Chuck Close: Seven Portraits, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2008, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2009: American's Presidents [a permanent exhibition], National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., shown 2009-2012, no catalogue.

2009: Chuck Close: Selected Paintings and Tapestries, 2005-2009, PaceWildenstein, New York, 2009, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

2007: Finch, Christopher. Chuck Close: Life. Munich, Berlin, London, and New York, 2007: 303, repro. 310, 311, 333.

2010: Finch, Christopher. Chuck Close: Life. Munich, Berlin, London, and New York, 2010: repro. 304, 305-311.