Chuck Thomas Close was born July 5, 1940; in Monroe, Washington. He is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Though a catastrophic blood clot in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work which remains sought after by museums and collectors.
Most of his early works are very large portraits based on photographs. In 1962, he received his B.A. from the University of Washington. He then attended graduate school at Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1964. After Yale, he lived in Europe for a while. When he returned to the US, he worked as an art teacher at the University of Massachusetts.
In 1988, Close had a spinal artery collapse, on the day he was to give a speech at an art awards ceremony. He felt ill beforehand, asked to be first, gave his speech, then painfully went to a hospital across the street. A few hours later he was a quadriplegic and his painting career might have been terminated. However, Close continued to paint with a brush held between his teeth, creating large portraits in low-resolution grid squares created by an assistant. Viewed from afar, these squares appear as a single, unified image which attempt photo-reality, albeit in pixilated form. Eventually Close managed to recover some movement in his arm and legs, and now paints with a brush strapped to his hand. Close’s paintings are labor intensive and time consuming, and his prints are more so. While a painting can occupy Close for many months, it is not unusual for one print to take upward of two years to complete.
I consider Chuck Close an inspirational person. While reading his life story I was amazed at all that Close had overcome and still managed to succeed. Before this assignment I had not heard of this artist and even when beginning the assignment I was not sure I had chosen a good candidate to critique. Although his work may not be to the likings of every individual, it’s the concept behind the painting that has to be admired.
To see more on Chuck Close visit these links: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3
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