But in terms of duplicating the work’s initial impact- these are the first paintings that anybody saw.īA: This is a very iconic beginning-the Gallery of Worthies.ĬC: Phil said in an interview-he and Richard and a bunch of other people were all photographed on the same day-that anybody who showed up ended up being well-known in their field. Also, I think it’s coming to the Whitney for a nude show there.

Well, I did show it in Europe, at a 1994 retrospective. I also felt that to start out with a nude would upstage the surprise of coming into this gallery, where you really see him hit it with the heads.ĬC: And, actually, nobody has really seen the nude. The interior spaces wouldn’t have permitted it because of the height of the ceiling. ROBERT STORR: The only place we could have put it is on the balcony overlooking the garden. We thought for a while about putting it in but decided just to stick with heads.īA: How did you decide against the nude? I mean, it was the most surprising image in the catalogue.

This is the earliest painting, 1967–68- Big Self-Portrait.īA: Is this where you feel your work begins?ĬC: Well, I did a nude just before this which I consider part of my mature work. And, in the essay that follows, art historian Richard Shiff provides a critical overview.īROOKS ADAMS: So we’re opening with the big grisaille portraits from the late ’60s and ’70s, right?ĬHUCK CLOSE: Uh-huh. Photographer Tina Barney shot the proceedings for Artforum. As the 120-odd portraits in Chuck Close’s full-scale retrospective found their places on the walls of New York’s Museum of Modern Art this February, Brooks Adams visited the installation in progress and talked with the artist and the show’s curator Robert Storr about the work, its development, and the issues surrounding its presentation.

But Worse Will Come by C.C. Adams