Self Portrait 1997

'Self Portrait 1997' is a portrait painted by Chuck Close, he was born in America in 1940, Chuck Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970's. Over the years, Close's works have evolved from harsh black-and-white images to colourful and brightly patterned canvases of an almost abstract painterliness.

The self portrait is of a man looking directly above him or looking up into space, it can mean anything, he might be thinking about life, or he might be looking at something that is above him, like admiring a painting at the museum or watching builders build. 

The paint used on this canvas is oil paint, with canvas measuring 8' 6'' (259.1 x 213.4 cm).

The colours used in this painting are, pink, red, blue, green, black, brown, dark green. white, peach, purple, grey, burgundy, dark blue. The image is placed in the middle of the canvas, making the mans face fill up the whole of the canvas.

The art piece has a very unique style of painting, Chuck Close uses diamond shapes instead of lines, in each diamond there's little circles of different colours inside, giving it extra colour. the self portrait also looks three dimensional and bumpy, the art piece has a very realistic illusion. 

I really like this piece of art because it has amazing details, I like how from a distance you see it as just a good self portrait but once you get closer you see all these little diamonds and little bubbles bursting with colours, its amazing, and a very unique piece also, I would say the atmosphere in this painting is very straight forward, the mans staring up, but it questions its viewers if he is just looking up or if he's thinking about something precious to him, or if there's a hidden meaning behind this painting.