and reproductions, they’re all influenced by photo-vision.”^18 The pho-
tograph’s formal qualities also intrigued her, and she used photo-
graphic techniques by first projecting an image in slide form onto the
canvas. By next using an airbrush(a device that uses compressed air to
spray paint, originally designed as a photo-retouching tool), Flack
could duplicate the smooth gradations of tone and color found in
photographs. Most of her paintings are still lifes that present the
viewer with a collection of familiar objects painted with great optical
fidelity.Marilyn is a still life that incorporates photographs of the ac-
tress’s face. Flack’s commentary on Monroe’s tragic death differs from
that in Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych (FIG. 36-25). Flack alludes to Dutch
vanitas paintings (FIG. 25-21), and her still life includes multiple refer-
ences to death. In addition to the black-and-white photographs of a
youthful, smiling Monroe, fresh fruit, an hourglass, a burning candle,
a watch, and a calendar all refer to the passage of time and the tran-
sience of life on earth.
CHUCK CLOSEAlso usually considered a Superrealist is Amer-
ican artist Chuck Close(b. 1940), best known for his large-scale
portraits, such as Big Self-Portrait (FIG. 36-28). However, Close felt
his connection to the Photorealists was tenuous, because for him re-
alism, rather than an end in itself, was the result of an intellectually
rigorous, systematic approach to painting. He based his paintings of
the late 1960s and early 1970s on photographs, and his main goal
was to translate photographic information into painted informa-
tion. Because he aimed simply to record visual information about
his subject’s appearance, Close deliberately avoided creative compo-
sitions, flattering lighting effects, and revealing facial expressions.
Not interested in providing great insight into the personalities of
those portrayed, Close painted anonymous and generic people,
mostly friends. By reducing the variables in his paintings (even their
canvas size is a constant 9 by 7 feet), he could focus on employing his
methodical presentations of faces, thereby encouraging the viewer to
deal with the formal aspects of his works. Indeed, because of the
large scale of Close paintings, careful scrutiny causes the images to
dissolve into abstract patterns (see “Chuck Close on Portrait Paint-
ing and Photography,” above).
DUANE HANSONNot surprisingly, many sculptors also were
Superrealists, including Duane Hanson(1925–1996), who per-
fected a casting technique that allowed him to create life-size figural
sculptures that many viewers initially mistake for real people. Han-
son first made plaster molds from live models and filled the molds
with polyester resin. After the resin hardened, the artist removed the
outer molds and cleaned, painted with an airbrush, and decorated
the sculptures with wigs, clothes, and other accessories. These works,986 Chapter 36 EUROPE AND AMERICA AFTER 1945I
n a 1970 interview, the art critic Cindy
Nemser asked Chuck Close about the scale
of his huge portraits (FIG. 36-28) and the rela-
tionship of his paintings to the photographs
that lie behind them. He answered in part:
The large scale allows me to deal with infor-
mation that is overlooked in an eight-by-
ten inch photograph ...My large scale
forces the viewer to focus on one area at a
time. In that way he is made aware of the
blurred areas that are seen with peripheral
vision. Normally we never take those pe-
ripheral areas into account. When we focus
on an area it is sharp. As we turn our atten-
tion to adjacent areas they sharpen up too.
In my work, the blurred areas don’t come
into focus, but they are too large to be
ignored....In order to ...make [my
painted] information stack up with photo-
graphic information, I tried to purge my work of as much of the bag-
gage of traditional portrait painting as I could. To avoid a painterly
brush stroke and surface, I use some pretty devious means, such as
razor blades, electric drills and airbrushes. I also work as thinly as pos-
sible and I don’t use white paint as it tends to build up and become
chalky and opaque. In fact, in a nine-by-seven foot picture, I only use
a couple of tablespoons of black paint to cover the entire canvas.*- Cindy Nemser, “Chuck Close: Interview with Cindy Nemser,”Artforum8, no. 5
(January 1970), 51–55.
Chuck Close on Portrait Painting
and PhotographyARTISTS ON ART
36-28Chuck
Close,Big Self-
Portrait,1967–1968.
Acrylic on canvas,
8 11 6 11 .
Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis (Art
Center Acquisition
Fund, 1969).
Close’s goal was to
translate photo-
graphic information
into painted informa-
tion. In his portraits,
he deliberately
avoided creative
compositions,
flattering lighting
effects, and revealing
facial expressions.1 ft.