Lucia Tro Santafe
International Senior Specialist
Lot 150TP
Chuck Close(American, born 1940)Kate
13 June 2019, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£45,000 - £65,000
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Chuck Close (American, born 1940)
Kate
Archival watercolour pigment print in colours, 2013, on Hahnemühle rag paper, signed, dated and numbered 4/10 in pencil, printed and published by Magnolia Editions, Oakland, with their blindstamp, the full sheet, in very good condition
Sheet 1905 x 1524mm. (75 x 60in.)
Archival watercolour pigment print in colours, 2013, on Hahnemühle rag paper, signed, dated and numbered 4/10 in pencil, printed and published by Magnolia Editions, Oakland, with their blindstamp, the full sheet, in very good condition
Sheet 1905 x 1524mm. (75 x 60in.)
Footnotes
The 'watercolour print' was invented by Chuck Close and the printer Donald Farnsworth at Magnolia Editions, Oakland, as a new medium and process to allow Close to explore yet another pictorial dimension in his work. The process starts in a similar way to Close's photorealist paintings: with an existing large photograph and a grid, this time manipulated both physically and digitally to render a digital print that resembles watercolour in its look and effect.
To create such an effect, Close has assembled and matched more than ten thousand unique and hand-painted monochromatic watercolour marks on paper to the gridded scanned photograph, digitally manipulating and layering no less than twelve colours of ink through multiple passes on a large-scale printer to generate the colour-blending and wetness effect of a watercolour. Rag paper and water-based inks are used to complete the general result.
If his painting technique had been seen by some as reminiscent of digital printing, the watercolour prints in turn blur the boundary between painting and printmaking, and between the physical and the digital. All the while, the work is instantly recognisable as from the artist's hand and inscribes itself within Close's lifelong interest in colour-separation innovation.