CHUCK CLOSE (1940-2021)
Laurie Anderson
Print in Colors, Printed in the 2000s
15" x 11"
Chuck Close was an American artist known for his large-scale Photorealist portraits. He constructed his paintings through a grid system, in where each square on the canvas corresponded with a squared off cell on a reference photograph. His works focused mainly on self-portraits or portraits of his family and friends, including the artists Richard Serra, Alex Katz, Cindy Sherman, and Cecily Brown. Similar to the Pointillist works of Georges Seurat, Close’s compositions come in to focus the further an observer stands from them. “I realized that to deal with your nature is also to construct a series of limitations which just don't allow you to behave the way you most naturally want to behave,” he said of his technique. “So, I found it incredibly liberating to work for a long time on something even though I'm impatient.” Born on July 5, 1940 in Monroe, WA, the artist struggled with dyslexia and facial blindness throughout his life. He went on to receive his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1962, while at Yale he worked in an Abstract Expressionist style. It was after seeing Sol LeWitt’s process-based work that Close began experimenting with the grid system he is now known for. On December 7 1988, Close suffered a spinal artery collapse which left him paralyzed and wheelchair bound. Undeterred, the artist adapted his method of painting to compensate and now works with a brush strapped to his wrist. His works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among others. Close passed away on August 19, 2021 at the age of 81.

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