Nat 1971

Chuck Close made 'Nat', measuring 100 by 90 inches, with I'm guessing, oil paint, maybe acrylic too – it's so smooth it's hard to tell. Up close, you can see how the painting is built from tiny marks, like mosaic tiles. The face emerges gradually, bit by bit. I think about the labor involved in this type of process. There is a certain tension between the overall image and the individual marks, between control and something more chaotic. Look closely at how he painted the skin around the eyes, layering slightly transparent washes of color to create depth. It's about building form with color. Close’s process reminds me of pointillism. What he's doing here is related to what Seurat was doing, just with a more contemporary spin. Ultimately, painting is about pushing paint around, but it's also a conversation with art history.