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Exhibition Introduction

Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments


Introduction
Keith
John
Leslie
Self-Portrait

Introduction
Touched Red
Green
Combination
High Green Version 1

Introduction
17 Drawings by Thoreau
Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing)
Changes and Disappearances
Where R=Ryoanji
Fire
The Missing Stone
75 Stones
Eninka
Stones
Where There is Where There

Introduction
Anne Appleby
Pia Fries
Darren Almond
Susan Middleton
Joel Fisher
Brad Brown
Tom Marioni

Introduction
Mamma Andersson
Sol LeWitt
Fred Wilson
Robert Bechtle
Kiki Smith

Introduction
Julie Mehretu
Wayne Thiebaud
Jockum Nordström
Tomma Abts
Nathan Oliveira
Chris Ofili

Introduction
Pat Steir
Laura Owens
Wayne Thiebaud
Amy Sillman

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie
1986
watercolor
sheet: 30 1⁄2 × 22 1⁄4 (77.5 × 57)
Barbara R. Palmer
Photograph by Ellen Page Wilson, Courtesy Pace Gallery
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie (working proof 1)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie (working proof 2)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie (working proof 3)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie (working proof 4)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Leslie
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 3⁄4 × 21 1⁄2 (62.8 × 54.6)
sheet: 33 3⁄4 × 25 1⁄4 (85.7 × 64.1)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,
1997
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie
1986
watercolor
sheet: 30 1⁄2 × 22 1⁄4 (77.5 × 57)
Barbara R. Palmer
Photograph by Ellen Page Wilson, Courtesy Pace Gallery
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie (working proof 1)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie (working proof 2)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie (working proof 3)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie (working proof 4)
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 13⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 (63 × 54.5)
sheet: 30 9⁄16 × 25 1⁄4 (77.7 × 64.2)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crown Point Press
Archive, Gift of Crown Point Press
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery
Chuck Close, Leslie, 1986

Detail, Leslie
1986
color woodcut on Japanese paper
image: 24 3⁄4 × 21 1⁄2 (62.8 × 54.6)
sheet: 33 3⁄4 × 25 1⁄4 (85.7 × 64.1)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,
1997
© Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Challenged by the opportunity to have one of his portraits translated into a Japanese-style woodcut, Close devised a watercolor prototype made up of thousands of irregular blots and diamonds distributed across a grid. Specialized craftsmen in Japan translated the watercolor, carving it into a series of wooden blocks. Fifty-one blocks were required to produce Leslie, with many printed more than once. Indeed, each print in the edition was created by impressing the paper onto inked wood blocks 117 times.

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Chuck Close with the printer Tadashi Toda in Kyoto, Japan, 1986, photograph by Kathan Brown, Courtesy Crown Point Press

Banner image: Detail, Chuck Close, John (proof for unpublished print), 1972, color photo-etching on wove paper, Gift of Kathan Brown © Chuck Close, Courtesy Pace Gallery

Next: Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2010–2013

"Yes, No, Maybe: The Art of Making
Decisions," lecture by exhibition curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

Julie Mehretu, artist, in conversation with curator Judith Brodie, Diamonstein-Spielvogel lecture (audio)

"An Insider's Perspective," lecture by Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press (audio)

Exhibition tour by curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

Chuck Close in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Crown Point Press prints in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

 

Press release