The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Paul III

Paul III

1996
(American, 1940–2021)
America, 20th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 259.6 x 213.5 x 7.5 cm (102 3/16 x 84 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1997.59
© Chuck Close, courtesy The Pace Gallery
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

In 2005, composer Phillip Glass was commissioned by concert pianist Bruce Levingston to write a 15-minute musical portrait of Close.

Description

Throughout his career, Chuck Close has relied on portraiture as the key component in his art and is known for paintings in which his subjects' faces loom large. This monumental painting represents a new direction his work took in the mid-1990s. The entire canvas is filled with a portion of the subject's tightly cropped, frontally positioned face, and background space is almost totally eliminated. Close does not accept commissions—he paints only self-portraits, members of his family, friends, and people associated with the art world. His paintings are derived from photographs taken of his subjects. For this work, his model was Paul Cadmus (1904–1999), a prominent American figurative painter best known for his works of the 1930s. In the 1960s Close began to use a grid to organize his compositions. In Paul III this grid is rotated 45 degrees, forming diamond shapes that are filled with bright, multicolored circles, loops, and dots. Each diamond is an independent abstract painting, bursting with energy, gesture, and color. The overall effect is like a kaleidoscope, always changing as the viewer moves. Up close, the image is nearly impossible to read. At a distance, however, the individual elements crystallize into recognizable facial features.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “Museum Acquires Major Chuck Close Painting, 19th-century Fire Screen, Rare Prints & Drawings,” June 9, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Glaubinger, Jane, "Chuck Close", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 38 no. 01, January 1998 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
  • Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
    Familiar Faces: Chuck Close in Ohio Collections. Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (organizer) (September 5, 2009-January 3, 2010).
    Akron Art Museum (9/5/2009 - 1/3/2010): "Familiar Faces: Chuck Close in Ohio Collections"
    The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 141, p. 124, color repr. p. 93.
    Chuck Close Retrospective. Museum of Modern Art, NY (February 25-May 26, 1998); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (June 1-September 6, 1998); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (October 15, 1998-January 9, 1999); Seattle Art Museum (February 1-May 1, 1999).
    NY, Museum of Modern Art; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; DC, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden; Seattle Art Museum "Chuck Close Retrospective" (2/25/98 - 5/9/99) p. 197.
  • {{cite web|title=Paul III|url=false|author=Chuck Close|year=1996|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.59