Richard Estes
Richard Estes is an American Photorealist painter known for detailed city streets, glass storefronts, mirrored reflections, and bright urban daylight.
Painter
Chuck Close
Chuck Close was an American Photorealist painter whose monumental portraits grew from photographic grids, airbrushed tones, and later colored cells.
Chuck Close quick facts
Close enlarged photographs into monumental painted heads, moving from nearly photographic sprayed tones to colorful, mosaic-like grids in later works.
| Full name | Charles Thomas Close |
|---|---|
| Born | 1940 · Monroe, Washington, United States |
| Died | 2021 · Oceanside, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Photorealism (early portraiture) |
| Paint types | Acrylic Paint · Oil Paint · Watercolor |
| Other media | Photography · printmaking |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper (watercolors) |
| Painting methods | Enlarging photographs with penciled grids, spray-gun or airbrush applications, and layering patterned oil-color marks within cells |
| Common subjects | Faces, self-portraits, fellow artists, musicians, friends, and family members |
| Notable works | Big Self-Portrait · Phil · Robert/104,072 · John II |
Sources: Whitney: Phil, acrylic and graphite on canvas, MoMA: Big Self-Portrait, acrylic on canvas, MoMA: Robert/104,072, acrylic and ink on canvas, The Met: John II, oil on canvas, Smithsonian: Chuck Close biography.
Paint types used by Chuck Close
Close’s large portraits shifted between acrylic and oil, while grid-based enlargement and repeated marks made the painted surface part of the image.
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Acrylic paint
MoMA records acrylic and ink with graphite on gessoed canvas in Close’s Robert/104,072 (1973–74). The gridded, segmented marks assemble a portrait from a photographic source. Acrylic is named alongside ink and graphite, which contribute separate drawn elements to the image.
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Oil paint
The Met catalogs John II (2011) as oil on canvas, documenting Close’s later return to oil for a large portrait. The work differs in medium from the acrylic and ink used in Robert/104,072. Both records show how he applied distinct paints to the portrait format across different periods.
Sources: MoMA: Robert/104,072; The Met: John II.; Whitney: Phil, acrylic and graphite on canvas
Painting surfaces used by Chuck Close
Collection records document canvas in Chuck Close’s practice; each row links a named work’s support to its recorded materials and painted surface.
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Canvas
Close’s portraits, including Whitney’s Phil, MoMA’s Robert/104,072, and the Smithsonian’s Big Self-Portrait, are documented on canvas. The support carries both his segmented acrylic portraits and later oil paintings. Collection records show canvas across large-scale works made with different materials and at different points in his career.
Sources: Whitney: Phil, acrylic and graphite on canvas, MoMA: Big Self-Portrait, acrylic on canvas, MoMA: Robert/104,072, acrylic and ink on canvas, The Met: John II, oil on canvas, Smithsonian: Chuck Close biography.
Painters similar to Chuck Close
Estes and Flack also translated photographic sources into detailed paintings, although Close concentrated on human faces and changing grid structures.
Audrey Flack
Audrey Flack was an American Photorealist painter known for luminous still lifes, symbolic objects, religious imagery, and richly detailed surfaces.