Fanny Fingerpainting

This Week's Artwork: Fanny/Fingerpainting (1985) by Chuck Close

Chuck Close created this work by applying pigment to the canvas using his fingertips. He used a black and white photograph of his mother-in-law, divided it into smaller units by using a grid and then transferred the images to a much larger grid.

I saw this painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the amazing thing about seeing it in person is its vast size--8.5 feet by 7 feet. They have to hang it in a very large room because in order to take it all in, you have to stand some distance away. And yet you still want to move closer to see the individual fingerprints that make up the giant image.

They don't fingerpaint like that in kindergarten!