2. Background
•Close was born in Monroe,
Washington in 1940 under the
name Charles Thomas Close.
•His father died when he was
eleven; this was said to have
had a great influence on his
life and art.
•Much of his early work were
Hyper-realistic portraits of his
family (who were often artists
and identified with this style of
art as well).
3. •Despite his early adherence to
Photorealism and related styles, Close
experimented with a variety of styles.
•He describes going to see Jackson
Pollock’s work at the Seattle Museum of Art
when he was eleven and says he was
confused and slightly angry because this
was far removed from what he considered to
be art.
•However, before he knew it, Close was
producing work in the vein of abstract
expressionism.
•Close attended the University of
Washington, Seattle, Yale University, and the
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna.
•At Yale, he was known for emulating
William De Kooning’s style, but later his workselected De Kooning paintings
5. •In Yale he “seemed destined
to become a third-generation
abstract expressionist,
although with a dash of Pop
iconoclasm.”
•In 1967, he vowed to make
art that was hard to make, he
wanted to limit himself so that
he could push his art to where
it never had been before.
•Close then began using a
variety of media to created
realistic portraits like he once
did in his youth.
6. • Chuck Close painted larger
than life portraits in a hyper-
realistic style.
•He created several of his
friend, composer Philip Glass
who he also depicted in
different ways to get a mixture
of effects (in drawings, with a
stamp pad and fingerprints,
and on gray paper he made
himself).
•It took Close about a year to
make each of them because
of his precision with creating
this photographic effect.
“Phil/Fingerprint” (1981)
7. •Though a master of
many media, Close is
considered a painter first
and foremost.
•In fact, his airbrush
techniques supposedly
inspired the development
of the ink jet printer.
•Close found his niche
using a grid to paint
portraits of his high profile
friends and
acquaintances.
8.
9. •Close used three colors
layered on top of one another
within the grid. He would paint
one square in one color and
then in another and another
until it achieved the desired
effect.
•Close suffers from
prosopagnosia (face
blindness) which means he’s
unable to recognize faces.
•He says that painting
portraits helps him to better
recognize faces and that his
fixation on portraits may have
to do with his disorder.
“Big Self Portrait”
(1968)
14. •Close changed his style slightly
•He still used the grid but achieved a realistic effect
using a mosaic-type method.
•Viewers would now liken this to that of a pixelated
“Lucas” (1986-87)
15. •In 1988, Close was at a
benefit honoring local artists
in NYC, complaining of
excruciating chest pain.
•He presented an award,
gave a speech, and
immediately went to the
hospital afterwards.
•He had a seizure leaving him
paralyzed from the neck
down.
•Through rehabilitation he
gained movement in his arms
and could walk for a few
steps.
•He painted with the brush
“Self Portrait”
(1997)
17. •More recently, Close has
created tapestries.
•Though they have a likeness
to black and white photos,
some of them are made with
many different colored
threads.
•There are around 17,800
threads in each tapestry.
18.
19. •Close has also preferred
photography in recent years.
•Some of his photographic
subjects include Robert
Deniro, Helen Mirren, and an
older Philip Glass.
•In 2010, Close was
commissioned for 12 mosaics
for a New York City subway
station.
