President Bill Clinton

2006

Chuck Close

Artist, American, 1940 - 2021

Dots and ovals bubbling across a fine grid form the head and shoulders of a smiling, silver-haired man with peach-colored skin, wearing a navy-blue jacket, a white collared shirt, and a pink tie in this vertical portrait painting. The grid runs diagonally to create mostly diamond-shaped squares, with a few rectangles, each of which is filled with concentric circles or ovals around a dot. The man’s face fills most of the composition, and he looks at us with blue eyes. He has a rounded nose and bright white teeth show between full, rosy lips. His hair is short on the sides and a little longer and brushed back on top. The background is mostly slate blue but also has squares and circles in brick red, mustard yellow, and teal green. The overall effect is of a slightly unfocused, pixelated image because of the grid and nested circles used to create each unit.
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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Ian M. Cumming [1940-2018], Jackson, Wyoming; gift 2007 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2007

  • Chuck Close: Family & Others, White Cube, London, 2007, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2008

  • Chuck Close: Seven Portraits, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2008, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2009

  • American's Presidents [a permanent exhibition], National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., shown 2009-2012, no catalogue.

  • Chuck Close: Selected Paintings and Tapestries, 2005-2009, PaceWildenstein, New York, 2009, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

2007

  • Finch, Christopher. Chuck Close: Life. Munich, Berlin, London, and New York, 2007: 303, repro. 310, 311, 333.

2010

  • Finch, Christopher. Chuck Close: Life. Munich, Berlin, London, and New York, 2010: repro. 304, 305-311.

Inscriptions

center reverse: President Bill Clinton / © 2006 Chuck Close / oil on linen

Wikidata ID

Q20198136


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