Painting

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.

Although Close continues to employ his photo-grid process, he always looks for new challenges. At different times he has experimented with an airbrush, colored pencils, watercolor, fragments of pulp paper, printing inks, and oil and acrylic paints to create his portraits. He even used fingerprints!

The artist’s impaired ability to recognize faces – a condition called prosopagnosia – is often cited as a reason for his obsessive rendering of faces. Close himself acknowledges his artistic debt to his unusual way of taking in the world.

80 years (July 5, 1940)

Leslie Rosem. ?–2011

Contemporary art

Yale University1964

Suffering from severe dyslexia, Chuck Close did poorly in school but found solace in making art. After earning his MFA from Yale in 1964, Close took his place atop the American art world by creating large-scale, photorealist portraits that have creatively blurred the distinction between photography and painting.

396 Artworks

Louis K. Meisel

: realism in art characterized by depiction of real life in an unusual or striking manner — compare photo-realism.