Chuck Close and the Fragmented Image

SPECIAL ARTICLE Pixels and Painting Chuck Close and the Fragmented Image

James G. Ravin, MD; Peter M. Odell, MD

he contemporary artist Chuck Close (1940- ) is well known for his large portraits of faces that are composites made from multiple small geometric forms. The individual elements of the images are very visible when viewed close up, but merge when seen at a distance. Close suffered from a collapsed spinal artery in the neck in 1988, which Tleft him partially quadriplegic, but he is still able to paint vigorously. Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(8):1148-1151

Chuck Close (1940- ) is one of the most THE IMAGES famous American artists working today. His distinctive paintings are huge can- When first confronted with a massive 2- vases that depict faces, often his own. He to 3-m face (Figure 1 and Figure 2), a works in a nontraditional manner by com- typical viewer is astonished by the mag- bining many small geometric forms, usu- nification of the image and its details, ally squares or rectangles, to create a por- which may or may not be complimentary trait. The individual elements he uses in or may reveal little emotion. After the ini- making an image may be termed pixels. tial response, the observer may note that The word pixel is a neologism used in com- the head is given little context and may be- puter technology to mean the smallest come fascinated by the technique. Close form in a digitized image and is a combi- has chosen his subjects from the chal- nation of the words picture and element. lenge that their facial details represent. He Chuck Close is a compelling indi- does little to model or round forms. His vidual who has endured a great physical compositions are usually based on pho- misfortune. In 1988 he experienced an oc- tographs taken with a large-format cam- clusion of a spinal artery in the neck, which era. He will retain the distortions in- left him quadriplegic. The occlusion has duced by his subject’s proximity to the affected the way he paints, but not his style camera and may even enhance the distor- of painting. Many experts have found it dif- tions. To cite one example, the artist Alex ficult to differentiate work done before the Katz (Figure 2) has complained that the onset of his quadriplegia from that done camera exaggerated the size of his small afterward. nose in portraits Close made of him.1 The paintings lead to important ques- The number of elements in a Close portions concerning visual perception and the trait has varied from a few hundred to more possibility of artificial vision. What deter- than 100 000. The individual pixels may mines our ability to combine many small range widely in size. Close or an assistant geometric units into a coherent image? will usually mark a grid pattern on a pho- How many different elements are needed tograph and then onto a canvas, maintain- to create an image? What are the effects ing the same proportions. To transfer the of changing colors within the elements? image to the canvas, he uses a set of co- ordinates, as though the photograph were Author Affiliations: Division of Ophthalmology, University of Toledo College of a map, with numbers on one axis and let- Medicine, Toledo, Ohio (Dr Ravin); and Department of Ophthalmology, Joan and ters on the other. Comparison of the pho- Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York tographs and the painted images reveals (Dr Odell). that he has often subdivided the grid so

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©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/30/2021 Figure 1. Chuck Close, American (1940- ). Self-Portrait, 2000-2001. Oil on Figure 2. Chuck Close, American (1940- ). Alex, 1987. Oil on canvas, canvas, 274ϫ213 cm. Art Supporting Foundation to the San Francisco 254.6ϫ213 cm. Toledo Museum of Art. Museum of Modern Art. that a single square in the photo- tably his masterpiece, the portrait had been dyslexic as a child, he graph may be represented by sev- Adele Bloch-Bauer I of 1907, which adapted well enough to receive an eral squares on the canvas. More re- recently entered the collection of the undergraduate degree from the Uni- cently, he has been placing irregular Neue Galerie in New York. There is versity of Washington and a master forms within each pixel. Some- an even earlier precedent. Mosaics of fine arts degree from Yale Uni- times he has united 2 or more pix- from Greek and Roman antiquity versity. A Fulbright grant enabled els when he has wanted to empha- were made of stone, metal, and glass him to study in Vienna at the Akad- size particular features, such as fragments, and their regularly emie der Bildenden Ku¨ nste, which, portions of the nose or glasses spaced, colored elements are com- he notes ironically, was the same frames. parable with Close’s technique. school Hitler attended. He then Close’s technique has affinities to However, when we asked Close if taught at the University of Massa- the work of other artists. The late any of these earlier approaches in- chusetts and worked in the ab- 20th century American artist Roy fluenced him, he replied that he was stract expressionist style typical of Lichtenstein (1923-1997) used mul- not thinking of any of them when that era. One of his students, Leslie tiple small circles of variable size to developing his style. Certainly, he Rose, became his wife in 1967. Fol- mimic the elements of cartoon art. knew of these predecessors. He ex- lowing their marriage, they moved The pointillist artists who painted in plained that he was working from to New York City and Close taught France during the late 19th and early photographs and was aware of the drawing, painting, and design at the 20th centuries, such as Georges small, regular elements that are vis- School of Visual Arts. Thinking that Seurat (1859-1891), also worked ible in photomechanical reproduc- abstraction had been stretched to its with small geometric forms. They tions of magazine and newspaper il- limits, he turned in a different di- were trying to find an alternative lustration. Initially, his goal was to rection, toward realism. style but also sought a scientific recreate an enlargement of a photo- He began to work from photo- means of mixing light rather than graphic image on canvas, which graphs, in essence reproducing the pigment. The early 20th century evolved into his current, pixelated reproduction. He created large- Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862- format. scale, dramatic portraits that mag- 1918) incorporated geometric ele- nified facial details, whether or not ments into many of his paintings. BIOGRAPHY they were flattering. As a result of Brilliant irregular shapes, usually these oversized works, critics de- rectangles, cover much of the can- Chuck Close was born in Monroe, scribed him as a “photo-realist.” He vas in some of his portraits, most no- Washington, in 1940. Although he experimented with an airbrush, fin-

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©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/30/2021 gerprint marks, fragments of paper biography describes what oc- ity. He is very generous with his time pulp, acrylic, oil, watercolor, print- curred: and energy and supports many chari- making, and even daguerreotype His wife, Leslie, was waiting for an el- table causes. photography. His recent paintings evator in their apartment building when have been highly sought by collec- she heard the phone ring. “As soon as I SCIENTIFIC CORRELATIONS tors, who may acquire them prior to got to the hospital,” she remembers, “he display. To illustrate the value of his had some kind of episode—chest pains. Close first exhibited a pixelated por- art, a Close portrait that was first He said he couldn’t move—he couldn’t trait in the fall of 1973. Just after that purchased for $9000 in 1972 sold for feel anything. The nurses were kind of show opened, he was amazed to see $4 832 000 at a Sotheby’s auction in dismissing it, thinking it might be the the November 1973 issue of Scien- New York in May 2005. result of whatever they had given him tific American at a newsstand, be- Close’s great catastrophe oc- intravenously. By the end of that night cause the cover contained a pix- he was paralyzed.” The seizure went on curred in 1988, when one of his an- for about twenty minutes, until he fi- elated, computer-generated color terior cervical arteries became oc- nally lapsed into a calm state. By then, portrait of George Washington. The cluded, leaving him partially he was almost totally paralyzed from the convergence of methodology aston- quadriplegic. He has become a dis- shoulders down. He could barely move ished him. Evidently, computer sci- tinctive figure in New York, where his head and neck; breathing was al- entists were experimenting with por- he ambulates in a motorized wheel- most impossible because only the up- traits in a manner very comparable chair and has a specially equipped per part of his lungs was working, the with his own. The computer im- van with a driver to facilitate his lower having filled with fluid. After ex- ages were made of multiple small tensive tests, his seizure was diagnosed travel. In retrospect, he dates his 2 rectangles, and the colors could be symptoms back 11 years before the as the result of an occluded spinal artery. manipulated just as his could. The occlusion. In 1978, at age 37 years, He was transferred to New York Uni- father of our country was depicted he and his wife were living in Soho, versity Medical Center, where he in low resolution, using 624 pixels. a district of New York where many spent a month in an intensive care Close did not work from computer- artists lived and worked. He devel- unit because of poor pulmonary generated images then and still does oped chest pain and was examined function, another month in critical not. medically. A myocardial infarction care, and then 6 months at the Rusk Also in 1973, a pixelated image was ruled out, but the cause of his Institute of Rehabilitation Medi- of Abraham Lincoln was published symptoms was not apparent. He had cine. on the cover of the journal Science, no health insurance at the time, Close’s quadriplegia is incom- accompanying a paper by Harmon which limited further testing. Act- plete. Although he has no function and Julesz.3 Julesz, the pioneer of ing on the suggestion of friend and of the lower extremities, he has random-dot stereoacuity imagery, fellow artist Jack Beal, he consulted enough strength in his arms and first described random-dot technol- a physician–art collector in Chi- hands to paint without assistance. He ogy in 1960.4 The story in Science cago, but no specific diagnosis was has a mechanism for raising and low- showed that Lincoln’s facial fea- made. Close returned home and un- ering his huge canvases from the tures could be recognized from a derwent further examination at the floor beneath his studio. When he very low–resolution computer- New York University Medical Cen- began to paint again in 1989, he generated image consisting of only ter and at the Hospital for Special briefly used a wrist support. Atro- 216 black and white squares. Har- Surgery. A definitive diagnosis, how- phy is visible in his hand muscles mon5 reported that the minimum ever, remained elusive. When chest and his handshake is weak. Close has number of squares required to al- pains recurred, cardiac evaluations moderately high myopia and with low facial identification was 108. continued to be normal. Close says corrective lenses has a visual acuity Lincoln’s face is so distinctive that he was prescribed nitroglycerine or of 20/20 for both distance and near he is recognizable from fewer pix- digitalis. While working in Japan in (P.M.O. has been his ophthalmolo- els than is Washington. In compari- 1986, another attack resulted in hos- gist for many years). A conver- son, the 2.5-m–high portrait Close pitalization there, but the language gence insufficiency exophoria was made of the artist Alex Katz in 1987, barrier hampered his assessment. Af- successfully treated with orthoptic just before Close’s vascular acci- ter his return to New York, testing therapy in 1974. He has a 10- dent (Figure 2), consists of 14 896 continued to be inconclusive. diopter vertical phoria, which is con- squares, each less than 2 cm across. On a December evening in 1988, trolled with prisms. The motility Viewers of Seurat’s masterpiece A the then 48-year-old Close was a findings predate his quadriplegia. His Sunday on la Grande Jatte at the Art guest of Mayor Ed Koch, who was stereoacuity is excellent, with a fu- Institute of Chicago have long been hosting a dinner to honor achieve- sional visual angle of 50°. aware of seeing individual spots of ments in the arts at the mayoral resi- Close has an international repu- color, which disappear when the dence, Gracie Mansion. During the tation and he and his wife are well- viewer moves farther away from the presentations, Close suddenly ex- known fixtures in the New York canvas. Mosaics from Greek and Ro- perienced back, chest, and arm pain. social and art scene. He is a strong- man antiquity give similar effects. A policeman assisted him across the willed, determined individual who Salvador Dalı´ enjoyed experiment- street to the emergency depart- attempts to minimize the limita- ing with the technique. Three years ment at Doctors Hospital. A recent tions placed on him by his disabil- after the pixelated image of Abra-

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©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/30/2021 ham Lincoln was published, Dalı´ in- for the individual elements.6 This sual recognition results. This is a ma- corporated it into a painting, Gala size measured in degrees is the width jor work in progress that cuts across Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea of the mark relative to the distance many disciplines, including oph- which at 20 Meters becomes the Por- of the viewer from the work. If the thalmology, neurobiology, psychol- trait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to visual angle of the separate ele- ogy, and art. Chuck Close’s imag- Rothko) (oil on canvas, 1976; Salva- ments is larger than this amount, the ery may be a provocative step on the dor Dalı´ Museum, St Petersburg, facial features are not recognized. If way to artificial vision. Florida). Dalı´ consciously made the the observer moves closer to the im- pixels far too large for the edges of age, the visual angle is increased, and Submitted for Publication: May 29, the separate elements to blur out at moving away does the opposite. In 2007; final revision received Octo- any reasonable viewing distance. Not slightly different words, Pelli notes ber 23, 2007; accepted October 25, the pointillist painters, ancient mo- that the threshold for seeing the 2007. saic makers, or Dalı´ exploited these painted elements as a portrait is the Correspondence: James G. Ravin, techniques to the extent that Close “visual mark size, which is simply MD, 3000 Regency Ct, Toledo, OH has. If the observer moves closer to the width of the mark relative to the 43623 ([email protected]). the image, he is well aware that it is viewer’s distance from the paint- Financial Disclosure: None reported. made up of multiple elements. The ing.”7 The marks make sense as a Previous Presentation: Presented at individual pieces dominate and the portrait when seen from more than the American Academy of Ophthal- figure disappears into a mass of geo- 200 mark-widths away. This is a mology Annual Meeting; Novem- metric forms. One must step back or phenomenon of perception, not of ber 12, 2006; Las Vegas, Nevada; and consciously unfocus the image to optics. (This critical size assumes the the Cogan Ophthalmic History So- make it coherent and recognize that viewer has normal visual acuity. If ciety Annual Meeting; April 1, 2006; features such as the eyes and nose the spectator normally wears glasses Hershey, Pennsylvania. exist. Close began with small pix- to improve distant vision and does Additional Contribution: We thank elated forms, just a few millimeters not use his glasses to see the image, Chuck Close for giving permission wide, and has been steadily increas- the individual elements become in- to describe aspects of his health. ing their size, which can reach 10 distinct and the picture becomes rec- cm. He has been enlarging the paint- ognizable as a face at a nearer view- REFERENCES ings as well as the pixels, though not ing distance.) necessarily proportionately. Pixel Close takes advantage of an- 1. Close C, Hickey D, Kesten J, Bartman W. The Por- size is only meaningful relative to other aspect of visual perception: lu- traits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation With 27 the size of the image and the view- minance (brightness). The neuro- of His Subjects. New York, NY: ART Press; 1997: ing distance. The evolution in his physiologist Margaret Livingstone 319. style toward larger elements makes explains that colors that blend in 2. Friedman M. Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait. New York, NY: Harry N Abrams Inc; it harder to avoid the complex some areas of his portraits are very 2005:16. effects of his image fragmentation similar in luminance. “Also, in many 3. Harmon LD, Julesz B. Masking in visual recogni- simply by moving farther away places, there are strong, luminance- tion: effects of two-dimensional filtered noise. from the canvas. defined local patterns that compete Science. 1973;180(91):1194-1197. 4. Julesz B. Binocular depth perception of computer- Close’s work has intrigued De- with—and are in a dynamic equi- generated patterns. Bell Labs Tech Journal. 1960; nis Pelli, one of the inventors of the librium with—the global face pat- 39:1125-1162. Pelli-Robson letter chart to mea- tern. It is the dynamic tension be- 5. Harmon LD. The recognition of faces. Sci Am. 1973; sure contrast sensitivity. Pelli has tween local and global patterns that 229(5):71-82. been interested in identifying the is so interesting in Close’s paint- 6. Pelli DG. Close encounters: an artist shows that size affects shape. Science. 1999;285(5429):844-846. critical size of the pictorial ele- ings, just as in the earlier Pointillist 7. Pelli DG. An artist’s work blurs lines between art 8 ments in Close’s works necessary for paintings.” and science. New York Times. August 10, 1999: D5. the image to take on an overall struc- Pixelation is being studied to de- 8. Livingstone M. Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. ture rather than to appear as an ab- termine how faces can be recog- New York, NY: Harry N Abrams Inc; 2002:184. 9 9. Thompson RW, Barnett GD, Humayun MS, Dag- straction. He found the threshold for nized for artificial vision. Silicon nelie G. Facial recognition using simulated pros- distinguishing facial features is a vi- chips have been implanted above thetic pixelized vision. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. sual angle of 0.3° (18 minutes of arc) and below the retina, and some vi- 2003;44(11):5035-5042.

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