Chuck Close

Chuck Close, also known as Charles Thomas Close, was born in 1940 in Monroe, WA. He is one of the most important American artist. His huge portraits are the most well-known paintings. Chuck Close got his BA in University of Washington, Seattle. Then, he went to Yale University. In Close’s early career, he painted abstract. He mimicked other artists. Like the works from his early career, we can clearly see the pop art influences. However, these paintings did not bring him success. There are a variety of medium he uses, such as woodcuts, silkscreens, airbrush, etching, oil, and photography.

In 1964, he started to paint portraits. After two years, he began to paint huge portraits with abstract squares. His huge paintings look very realistic from a distance, but consisted with abstract color squares. Besides, some of his super-realism work, or so-called photorealism portraits are very famous. He depicted the details of faces, but these portraits are not emotional or narrative. And the reason why he started to use small squares/patterns to paint huge portraits is because he got sick. It is an illness called Prosopagnosia, which means he cannot recognized faces. However, this experience helped him find out a unique way to depict portraits.

In 1988, Close paralyzed from the neck down because of the seizure. He has to rely on a wheelchair after that. However, Close never stop making more art. Even though, he has to stay on wheelchair, he does not make smaller painting because of this. He created more huge portraits after the event. His works has been exhibited and collected internationally, including Modern Art Museum New York, the Center Georges Pompidou in Pairs, the Tate Modern in London, and etc. Chuck Close and his extraordinary life story become a role model for all artists.