Personal Analytical Framework

I will analyse the artwork by Chuck Close called “Emma” (2002) using the Personal Analytical Framework. I will be looking at his inspirations and reasoning for creating this artwork, also if there are any symbols or meanings in his artwork.

If you compare the artwork “Emma” to something like “Big self-portrait”, you can clearly see a difference in Close’s art style. This isn’t because he got bored of taking a photo of somebody then gridding it up to make it look photo realistic. It is because in 1988, Close suffered a heart attack of which left him paralysed from the neck down. After months in hospital and rehabilitation, Close was able to talk a short distance and able to move his wrists. He then created this new technique of which still briefly seems photo realistic, except he would gather up materials and have his assistant grid up his images. We can see this in his artwork “Emma”.

 In the artwork we can see all different types of shapes and colours of which make up an image of his niece Emma. The technique that Close used was he woodblocks of which his assistant spent weeks cutting up for him so that he could apply them to his artwork. This allowed his image to be created and allows us to see an image behind all of the woodblocks.

Majority of Close’s artworks are of friends and family. In the artwork “Lucas” he used the woodblocks to create an image of an artist named Lucas Samaras. From afar, we can see that his woodblocks are of an actual person, but close up all of the woodblocks seem individual and abstract.

Using the Personal Analytical Framework, we are able see that due to the event, Close was forced to change his art style, to continue to become a well known artist.