Chuck Close’s “A Couple of Ways of Doing Something,” now showing at the Austin Museum of Art, is a new look at some old photographic techniques. Close’s use of an early form of the photograph, called a daguerrotype, forms the basis of the exhibit.
Unlike artists who show us alternate realities that don’t actually exist, Chuck Close shows us what we’ve been missing in the world right in front of our faces. “I have always been fascinated by how one way of doing something can kick open a door to another way,” Close has remarked. “For me, the original image serves as a matrix, from which I can explore issues of scale, information, and perception.”
“A Couple of Ways of Doing Something” features Close’s use of digital pigment prints, tapestries, and photogravures alongside poems by Bob Holman. The exhibit’s subjects include Holman, Cindy Sherman, Philip Glass, Terry Winters, Laurie Anderson (pictured above), and Close himself, among many other New York creative luminaries.
The exhibit runs through November 8th.