Phil I
Artist
Chuck Close
(American, born 1940)
Date1982
Mediumdyed hand-made paper collage
Dimensionsimage: 175 × 133.6 cm (68 7/8 × 52 5/8 in.)
ClassificationsCollages / Assemblages
Credit LineGift of Sidney and Rosalie Rose
Object number1986.184
Label TextDespite their remarkably accurate detail, Chuck Close’s monumental portraits (or “heads” as he prefers to call them) have much in common with the conceptually based, systematic processes of artist Sol LeWitt and composer Philip Glass. Using as a reference a black and white Polaroid photograph he took of Glass (frontally posed against a neutral background), Close constructed Phil I square by square, using the formal system of the grid. The final image is both a highly abstract yet ordered composition of individual paper-pulp units and a finely rendered likeness of his subject. In an unusual reversal of the process of anonymity accruing over time, this image initially of “the artist’s friend Phil” has become an icon of both the now-renowned composer and Close’s signature portrait style.ProvenanceSidney Rose, Worcester, MAOn View
Not on view
