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By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art and architecture critic
POSTED: 05:56 p.m. EDT, Oct 11, 2009
When Linda Rosenkrantz sat down to have her picture taken back in 1971, little did she realize how much those few seconds would affect her life.
Rosenkrantz, who is the subject of the Akron Art Museum's prized painting Linda, by famed artist Chuck Close, said the sitting was brief.
''It's not like old master painting, where you sit there and are painted from life,'' she said. ''This was a photograph that took a couple of seconds and then it took him 14 months to reconstruct that photograph in paint. So you don't have the experience of posing so much.''
Rosenkrantz, Christopher Finch and Mark Greenwold participated in a symposium Sunday at the Akron-Summit County Public Library to give their recollections of Close and what it was like to sit for portraits by him.
Rosenkrantz said in an interview by telephone earlier that she had spoken with Close that morning to refresh her memory of the day her photograph was taken for the Linda portrait.
''He said he had taken five photographs of me that day, which I didn't remember. He wanted one with my mouth open, one with my mouth closed, and so on, like a mug shot. He didn't want big, smiley pictures, but just to look straight ahead and not too much emotion.''
After the painting was exhibited, it was like she had become a celebrity, Rosenkrantz recalled. She said people would come up to her on the street, at her bank and elsewhere and ask whether she was Linda.
Curls get attention
And it's changed her life in more ways than that.
''For one thing, I don't have curly hair,'' she said. ''My hair is naturally straight. It just so happened that back then I had recently gotten a permanent when Chuck saw me. He was attracted to the curls, and that's why he asked me to sit for the portrait.
''He later said he regretted that, because he spent months and months on my hair, getting each and every curl. But because of that portrait, I've kept the curly hair.''
Rosenkrantz said she met Close in 1971, right after she met her husband, Christopher Finch.
''They were already close friends,'' she said. ''He photographed Chris at the same time, but Chris moved, and the way Chuck works, if anything is out of focus, he can't use it.''
''He had photographed several people that day,'' said Finch, ''including Mark Greenwold. So the photograph for Mark's portrait was taken that day as well.''
Finch is the author of Chuck Close: Work, which the Akron Art Museum bookstore has stocked for this show. Finch is working on a second book, Chuck Close: Biography.
''I vaguely remember someone else being there that day, but what I do remember was that the studio lights were set up so that you came in and the loft was in darkness, except for the lights set up for the portraits, '' Finch said.
''My portrait was shot first, then Linda's. He photographs far more pictures than he paints. He has to find a photograph that he likes.''
Public collection
Finch was at one time an associate curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and in 1968 had persuaded the museum to buy a Close, which, as it happened, was the first Close to go into a public collection.
''I got a phone call one day in 1968 from my friend Robert Israel, who's now a very well-known theater designer, and he said, 'I just saw a fantastic painting today, and you must see it for yourself,' '' Finch recalled.
''I was in New York a week or two later and called Chuck and went over. When he showed me in, I saw the Big Nude and this huge Self-Portrait hanging there, and I was just knocked out. I persuaded the Walker to buy it.
''Chuck put a price of $1,300 on it in two installments. I asked him how he came up with $1,300, and he couldn't remember exactly, but he was deliberately pricing the work low because he wanted to sell to a public art museum.'' At the time, nobody had heard of Close, Finch said.
''When we lived in New York City, we lived about four blocks from Chuck and his wife Leslie,'' Rosenkrantz recalled. Both couples had children, and they would get together often, visiting galleries or cafes.
After her sitting, ''I didn't see my portrait for a year after it was finished,'' Rosenkrantz recalled. ''Chris and I came out to LA to research a book, at which point I had only seen the painting painted to the bottom of the nose, and I loved it.''
When they returned to the East Coast, they learned the painting was in a show in Philadelphia, and went to see it.
''When we walked into the museum, my daughter ran over and kissed the painting. I was a bit taken back, because it's scary to see your face magnified to that degree.
''The painting was first shown at the Pace Gallery, and it got a lot of publicity. Practically every critic said something about the lines in my face and that my curls looked like Medusa snakes.
''Then, I thought the painting made me look older. Now, of course, it looks younger. But the funny thing is, because of that painting, I haven't changed the way I do my hair or my makeup for 35 years.''
Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.
When Linda Rosenkrantz sat down to have her picture taken back in 1971, little did she realize how much those few seconds would affect her life.
Rosenkrantz, who is the subject of the Akron Art Museum's prized painting Linda, by famed artist Chuck Close, said the sitting was brief.
''It's not like old master painting, where you sit there and are painted from life,'' she said. ''This was a photograph that took a couple of seconds and then it took him 14 months to reconstruct that photograph in paint. So you don't have the experience of posing so much.''
Rosenkrantz, Christopher Finch and Mark Greenwold participated in a symposium Sunday at the Akron-Summit County Public Library to give their recollections of Close and what it was like to sit for portraits by him.
Rosenkrantz said in an interview by telephone earlier that she had spoken with Close that morning to refresh her memory of the day her photograph was taken for the Linda portrait.
''He said he had taken five photographs of me that day, which I didn't remember. He wanted one with my mouth open, one with my mouth closed, and so on, like a mug shot. He didn't want big, smiley pictures, but just to look straight ahead and not too much emotion.''
After the painting was exhibited, it was like she had become a celebrity, Rosenkrantz recalled. She said people would come up to her on the street, at her bank and elsewhere and ask whether she was Linda.
Curls get attention
And it's changed her life in more ways than that.
''For one thing, I don't have curly hair,'' she said. ''My hair is naturally straight. It just so happened that back then I had recently gotten a permanent when Chuck saw me. He was attracted to the curls, and that's why he asked me to sit for the portrait.
''He later said he regretted that, because he spent months and months on my hair, getting each and every curl. But because of that portrait, I've kept the curly hair.''
Rosenkrantz said she met Close in 1971, right after she met her husband, Christopher Finch.
''They were already close friends,'' she said. ''He photographed Chris at the same time, but Chris moved, and the way Chuck works, if anything is out of focus, he can't use it.''
''He had photographed several people that day,'' said Finch, ''including Mark Greenwold. So the photograph for Mark's portrait was taken that day as well.''
Finch is the author of Chuck Close: Work, which the Akron Art Museum bookstore has stocked for this show. Finch is working on a second book, Chuck Close: Biography.
''I vaguely remember someone else being there that day, but what I do remember was that the studio lights were set up so that you came in and the loft was in darkness, except for the lights set up for the portraits, '' Finch said.
''My portrait was shot first, then Linda's. He photographs far more pictures than he paints. He has to find a photograph that he likes.''
Public collection
Finch was at one time an associate curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and in 1968 had persuaded the museum to buy a Close, which, as it happened, was the first Close to go into a public collection.
''I got a phone call one day in 1968 from my friend Robert Israel, who's now a very well-known theater designer, and he said, 'I just saw a fantastic painting today, and you must see it for yourself,' '' Finch recalled.
''I was in New York a week or two later and called Chuck and went over. When he showed me in, I saw the Big Nude and this huge Self-Portrait hanging there, and I was just knocked out. I persuaded the Walker to buy it.
''Chuck put a price of $1,300 on it in two installments. I asked him how he came up with $1,300, and he couldn't remember exactly, but he was deliberately pricing the work low because he wanted to sell to a public art museum.'' At the time, nobody had heard of Close, Finch said.
''When we lived in New York City, we lived about four blocks from Chuck and his wife Leslie,'' Rosenkrantz recalled. Both couples had children, and they would get together often, visiting galleries or cafes.
After her sitting, ''I didn't see my portrait for a year after it was finished,'' Rosenkrantz recalled. ''Chris and I came out to LA to research a book, at which point I had only seen the painting painted to the bottom of the nose, and I loved it.''
When they returned to the East Coast, they learned the painting was in a show in Philadelphia, and went to see it.
''When we walked into the museum, my daughter ran over and kissed the painting. I was a bit taken back, because it's scary to see your face magnified to that degree.
''The painting was first shown at the Pace Gallery, and it got a lot of publicity. Practically every critic said something about the lines in my face and that my curls looked like Medusa snakes.
''Then, I thought the painting made me look older. Now, of course, it looks younger. But the funny thing is, because of that painting, I haven't changed the way I do my hair or my makeup for 35 years.''
Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Akron, OH
Posted 07:06 PM, 10/11/2009
Would have been nice, ABJ, to include a photo of Linda: now and then.
akron, oh
Posted 09:40 PM, 10/11/2009
really...
Posted 11:10 PM, 10/11/2009
Ya exactly...a photo of her NOW would be REALLY nice. Geeeeez.
Posted 11:11 PM, 10/11/2009
Actually a photo of her NOW would be more interesting than the actual story. Was someone too lazy to get a photo?
oıɥo 'uoɹʞɐ, ㏊㏊
Posted 11:53 PM, 10/11/2009
Akron, Oh
Posted 04:02 AM, 10/12/2009
I remember that picture from way back. It was so detailed and she doesnt look bad now. I see she managed to keep the hairstyle. lol
Akron, OH
Posted 08:25 AM, 10/12/2009
@Mr King,
Keeping the hairstyle seems to be the thing here in the Midwest. Apparently, there is some unwritten Ohio law that says a woman must keep the hairstyle she had when she left or graduated high school.
:0/
