1.500,00 €
Description
Scribble Book: Self Portrait
Chuck Close
signed limited edition
100 copies, 10 APs and 2 HCs
Each copy is signed and numbered by the artist on the inside cover of the clamshell box.
Two hand-bound, linen-wrapped hardcovers accordions; one stitched 8-page booklet; linen-wrapped clamshell box.
Page format 29.2 x 34.3cm (11.5 x 13.5 in.); dimensions of each unfolded accordion: 280.6 x 34.3cm (110.5 x 13.5 in.); box dimensions: 32.5 x 39 x 5.1cm (12 7/8 x 15 3/8 x 2 in.)
Weight: 3.6 kg
2013
ISBN 978 3 944630 00 7
Printed in Germany by Steidl
Scribble Book: Self Portrait
Chuck Close
signed limited edition
The idea of a book without words had resonance for Chuck Close. As a child, his severe dyslexia stood in the way of reading, making images all the more important. He remembers a visual encyclopedia from his early years and the feeling of being overtaken by the intensity of its pictures. The idea also resonated with his ongoing interest in revealing the process of his work, which he accomplishes largely through visual presentation, using very few words, if any.
Scribble Book is a self-portrait that emerges step-by-step out of the printing process, one plate and one color at a time. The viewer follows a series of nine individual plate proofs (volume 1) along with a corresponding series of nine progressive proofs (volume 2). By comparing the plate proofs against the progressives, the viewer may ascertain not only the effect as one color is added to another to create the final nine-color portrait, but also the compositional decisions and careful modifications made by the artist at each stage of the project.
A similar work was made with twelve plates and included in the exhibition Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. It was an immediate success. However, Close became fully aware of the effectiveness of the work only by means of an error: two of the prints were hung out of sequence, a circumstance that evaded the notice of both Close and the museum staff. It was not long before representatives of the museum received letters from two visitors who had noticed the error. “And just imagine,” Close relates, “if two people took the time to write letters, how many more must have figured it out and not bothered to write in!” Careful viewing was all that was needed, and the work inspired just that.
Scribble Book is presented in this Little Steidl edition as two accordion-fold books. The first shows the series of plate proofs, and the second the series of progressive proofs, culminating with a 9-color self-portrait. For those seeking a more detailed understanding of the process, these books are accompanied by a separate text in which the artist gives a personal account of his drawing process as recorded through printmaking.
Read more under “Technical Details”.
Additional information
| Weight | 3,6 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 29,2 × 34,3 × 5,1 cm |