EVERETT — If you have not yet been to the Schack Art Center to see the Chuck Close print show, here’s a word of encouragement: Go!
This will be counted as one of the Schack’s biggest exhibits ever and no local art lover should miss the return of Close’s work to his native Snohomish County.
In case you have been in Greenland for the past year, here’s a quick review. “Chuck Close: Prints, Process, and Collaboration” will be exhibited through Sept. 5 and Close, the internationally famous massive-scale-portrait-photo painter, is excited for local folks (who knew him when he was a student at Everett High and Everett Community College) to see that he has made good and get a chance to see his art.
The exhibition is expected to bring thousands of people to Everett during the next three months.
This touring print show, previously displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and others around the world, is making a West Coast appearance for only the second time. Here. At the Schack.
Born in Monroe, Close, 75, has lived most of his life in New York. But he grew up in Snohomish County and graduated in 1960 from Everett Community College, where he was encouraged by the legendary art teacher Russell Day. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington and his master of fine arts from Yale University.
Starting as you enter the Schack, with the large-scale mezzotint print titled “Keith” (1972), which was Close’s first master print as a professional artist, and ending with more recent, monumental watercolor digital prints such as “Lorna” (2012), the exhibit at the Schack shows the artist’s range of invention in etching, aquatint, lithography, handmade paper, multi-color silkscreen, traditional Japanese woodcut and reduction linocut.
Visitors to the exhibit can see Close’s creative and technical processes through the display of progressive proofs, woodcut blocks and etching plates that illustrate the steps involved in making a print.
The Schack’s docents and staff were trained by exhibit curator Terrie Sultan of New York. So visitors can ask questions of any sort and get good answers about Close and how he and his printing partners do what they do.
A general suggestion before you go. Get close to the Close prints and then step back. So cool.
Here are a few of the must-see parts of the exhibit:
The self-portraits of Close.
The prints of the iconic image of Close’s friend composer Philip Glass.
The prints and process behind the portraits of Close’s daughter Georgia.
The prints in which you can see his fingertips.
And the polished stainless steel cylinder sitting in the middle of a print. Look at the cylinder and see Close.
If you go
Chuck Close: Prints, Process and Collaboration, through Sept. 5, the Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Ave., Everett. While admission to the Schack is usually free, the cost of bringing the Close touring exhibit to Everett has necessitated a fee through Sept. 5: General admission is $10; Schack members, seniors, military and youth pay $5; children are free. Check the Schack website, www.schack.org, to find out about free-admission Mondays. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, Memorial Day and Labor Day. Closed Independence Day. Extended hours to 8 p.m. on May 19, June 16, July 21 and Aug. 18.
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