World’s Strangest

This ain’t fingerpainting you did in kindergarten! That’s artist Chuck
Close "painting" a portrait of his grandmother-in-law with his
fingertips. From The
National Gallery of Art:

Fanny/Fingerpainting, a portrait of Close’s grandmother-in-law,
represents one of the largest and most masterly executions of a technique
the artist developed in the mid-l980s. That technique involved the direct
application of pigment to a surface with the artist’s fingertips. By
adjusting the amount of pigment and the pressure of his finger on the
canvas, Close could achieve a wide range of tonal effects. Typically,
he worked from a black and white photograph which he would divide into
many smaller units by means of a grid. He then transposed the grid onto
a much larger canvas and meticulously reproduced each section of it.
The result is a monumental, close-up view that forces an uncomfortable
intimacy upon the viewer.

Seen from a distance, the painting looks like a giant, silver-toned
photograph that unrelentingly reveals every crack and crevice of the
sitter’s face. Closer up, the paint surface dissolves into a sea of
fingerprints that have an abstract beauty, even as they metaphorically
suggest the withering of the sitter’s skin with age. The fingerpaintings
provide a far more literal record of the artist’s touch than most abstract
expressionist brushwork — but are at the same time dictated by an abstract,
distinctly impersonal system.

Bored Panda has more pics: Link
| Chuck Close’s
website

Previously on Neatorama: This
Is a Fingerpainting