Close, Chuck

born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Wash., U.S.

U.S. artist.

After early Abstract Expressionist experiments, in his first solo exhibition Close showed a series of enormous black-and-white portraits that he had painstakingly transformed from small photographs to colossal, Photorealist paintings. Throughout his career, he concentrated on portraits

from the neck up

based on photographs he had taken. In addition to self-portraits, the paintings were usually of friends, many of whom were prominent in the art world. He experimented with a variety of media and techniques, including using fingerprints and colourful tiles that, seen from a distance, combined into an illusionistic whole. In 1988 a spinal blood clot left Close almost completely paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. A brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm, however, allowed him to continue working.

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▪ 1999

      In February 1998 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective of some 120 portraits, most of them large-scale, by American artist Chuck Close. The exhibit, which moved to Chicago in June and Washington, D.C., in October and was scheduled to finish in Seattle, Wash., in 1999, documented the evolution of Close's style and highly inventive techniques. Visually, his body of work was diverse—his earliest work consisted of meticulously detailed hyperrealistic studies in gray, whereas his later works were colourful gridded abstractions. Yet all his work was remarkably similar in some respects; his subject was always the human face, he painted only from photographs he took of his friends and family, and his fascination with the process of creating a work of art was always evident.

      Charles Thomas Close was born on July 5, 1940, in Monroe, Wash. When he was 14, an exhibition of Jackson Pollock's abstract paintings helped influence him to become a painter. Close studied at the University of Washington School of Art (B.A., 1962) and at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture (B.F.A., 1963; M.F.A., 1964). In 1964 he won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Vienna. Close taught (1965-67) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he gradually rejected the elements of Abstract Expressionism that had initially characterized his work.

      Close's first solo exhibition in 1970 was a series of enormous black-and-white portraits painstakingly transformed from small photographs to colossal paintings. He reproduced and magnified both the mechanical shortcomings of the photograph—blurriness and distortion—and the flaws of the human face: bloodshot eyes, broken capillaries, and enlarged pores. To make his paintings, Close superimposed a grid on a photograph and then transferred a proportional grid to his gigantic canvases. He then applied acrylic paint with an airbrush and scraped off the excess with a razor blade to duplicate the exact shadings of each grid in the photo.

      During the 1970s and '80s, Close began using colour and experimenting with a variety of media and techniques. Using only red, yellow, and blue, he simulated the printing process, applying only one layer of colour at a time. He developed one of his most innovative techniques for his "fingerprint series," in which he inked his thumb and forefinger and pressed them to the canvas to achieve a subtle range of grays. Viewed up close, the whorled patterns of his fingerprints could be easily seen; from a distance the method was unidentifiable.

      In 1988 a spinal blood clot left Close almost completely paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. A brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm, however, allowed him to continue working. In the 1990s the minute detail of his earlier paintings was replaced by a grid of tiles daubed with elliptical and ovoid shapes. Viewed up close, each tile was in itself an abstract painting; when seen from a distance, the vividly multihued tiles became a dynamic deconstruction of the human face. Close was called a photo-realist, a minimalist, and an Abstract Expressionist, but such labels were probably premature, as the 1998 retrospective clearly proved that his style was still evolving.

ELIZABETH LASKEY

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▪ American artist

in full  Chuck Thomas Close 

born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Washington, U.S.

      American artist noted for his highly inventive techniques used to paint the human face. He is best known for his large-scale, Photo-Realist portraits.

      Close began taking art lessons as a child and at age 14 saw an exhibition of Jackson Pollock (Pollock, Jackson)'s abstract paintings, which helped inspire him to become a painter. He studied at the University of Washington School of Art (B.A., 1962) and at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture (B.F.A., 1963; M.F.A., 1964), and in 1964 he won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Vienna. While teaching at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1965–67), he gradually rejected the elements of Abstract Expressionism that had initially characterized his work.

      Close's first solo exhibition included a series of enormous black-and-white portraits that he had painstakingly transformed from small photographs to colossal paintings. He reproduced and magnified both the mechanical shortcomings of the photograph—blurriness and distortion—and the flaws of the human face: bloodshot eyes, broken capillaries, and enlarged pores. To make his paintings, Close superimposed a grid on the photograph and then transferred a proportional grid to his gigantic canvases. He then applied acrylic paint with an airbrush and scraped off the excess with a razor blade to duplicate the exact shadings of each grid in the photo. By imposing such restraints, Close hoped to discover new ways of seeing and creating.

      Throughout his career, Close continued to concentrate on portraits—from the neck up—based on photographs he had taken. In addition to self-portraits, the portraits were usually of friends, many of whom were prominent in the art world. These images represent a very human, flawed view of the subjects, given the scale of attention given to imperfections, while also presenting a rather grand, iconic view of the sitters, given the monumental and confrontational quality of the works. During the 1970s and '80s, Close began to use colour and to experiment with a variety of media and techniques. One technique involved simulating the printing process: he used only cyan, magenta, and yellow and applied one layer of colour at a time to the canvas. He developed one of his most innovative techniques for his “fingerprint series,” in which he inked his thumb and forefinger and pressed them to the canvas to achieve a subtle range of grays. Viewed up close, the whorled patterns of his fingerprints can easily be seen; from a distance the method is unidentifiable, and the fingerprints combine to create an illusionistic whole.

      In 1988 a spinal blood clot left Close almost completely paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. A brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm, however, allowed him to continue working. In the 1990s he replaced the minute detail of his earlier paintings with a grid of tiles daubed with colourful elliptical and ovoid shapes. Viewed up close, each tile was in itself an abstract painting; when seen from a distance, the tiles came together to form a dynamic deconstruction of the human face. In 1998 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a major retrospective of Close's portraits. Close has been called a Photo-Realist, a Minimalist, and an Abstract Expressionist but, as the 1998 retrospective proved, his commitment to his unique vision and his evolving techniques defy any easy categorization.

Additional Reading

Important monographs of the artist's work include Lisa Lyons and Robert Storr, Chuck Close (1987); and Robert Storr, Kirk Varnedoe, and Deborah Wye, Chuck Close (1998), which accompanied the retrospective of the artist's work. A biography is Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Chuck Close, Up Close (1998). Also insightful is Joanne Kesten (ed.), The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects (1997), which includes conversations with art-world figures who posed for Close, including Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Serra.

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