Self Portrait, 1996
Photo engraving on silk tissue mounted on Hahnemuhle fine art paper
9 ¾ × 7 ¾ in.
Signed in pencil on mat recto
Edition 49 of 200
Published by Pace Editions for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
September 29, 2025
This classic self portrait by Chuck Close embodies his deep exploration of sight itself, and how it could be rendered. When Close emerged in the 1970s alongside other photorealist painters, his work was always distinguished by both his attention to mark making, and his voracious interest in exploring a wide variety of materials and processes.
Close’s career-long focus was portrait photography, and he favored straight ahead shots that could be used for a passport photo. Working from gridded photographs, his cellularly constructed images were a visual corollary to the minute dots of the halftone printing process, used in all manner of 20th century printed matter. His work continues to resonate today, because his methods of image construction also anticipated the proliferation of pixelated images in the digital age.
This work exemplifies the way that he operated in the meeting place between photography, printing, and painting. This handsome print on silk paper was created with a photoengraving process, and works like this one never cease to dazzle, as a field of seemingly abstract marks comes together to form a portrait. Close's art reminds us that visual art emerges from the hand but, like vision itself, it is assembled in the mind.
