Chuck Close facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chuck Close
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Close in 2009
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Charles Thomas Close
July 5, 1940 Monroe, Washington, U.S.
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| Died | August 19, 2021 (aged 81) Oceanside, New York, U.S.
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| Education | University of Washington (BA, 1962) Yale University (MFA) |
| Known for | Photorealistic painter, photographer |
Charles Thomas Close (born July 5, 1940 – died August 19, 2021) was a famous American artist. He was known for his huge, super-realistic paintings and photos of people, including himself. Close also took photo portraits using a very large camera. In 1988, he became paralyzed, but he found new ways to create his amazing art.
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Early Life and Art Education
Chuck Close was born in Monroe, Washington. His father died when Chuck was eleven years old. As a child, Chuck had health problems, including a condition that made it hard to lift his feet. He also missed a lot of school because of an illness called nephritis. He struggled in school because of dyslexia, which was not diagnosed at the time.
Many of his early artworks were very large portraits. He based them on photographs of his family and friends, often other artists. He used a style called photorealism, which means making paintings look exactly like photos. Close said he had prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. This condition makes it hard to recognize faces. He thought this might be why he was drawn to painting portraits.
When he was 14, Close saw a painting by Jackson Pollock at the Seattle Art Museum. He said it was very different from what he thought art should be. But within a few days, he was trying to drip paint onto his own old paintings. He felt like he had been chasing that exciting art experience ever since.
Close went to Everett Community College from 1958 to 1960. He then earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1962. He also won a special scholarship to the Yale Summer School of Music and Art. The next year, he went to Yale University for his master's degree in fine arts, which he finished in 1964. Many other famous artists were his classmates at Yale.
After Yale, he studied art in Vienna, Austria, with a special grant. When he returned to the United States, he taught art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1967, Close moved to New York City and set up his art studio in a neighborhood called SoHo.
Chuck Close's Art Style and Techniques
Chuck Close was known for his unique way of making portraits. He used many different art methods throughout his career. These included drawing with ink, graphite, and pastels. He also used watercolors, finger painting, and even stamp-pad ink.
He explored various printmaking techniques like mezzotint, etching, and silkscreens. Close also made art using handmade paper collages, Polaroid photos, and daguerreotypes (an early type of photograph). His early airbrush techniques even helped inspire the invention of the ink jet printer.
Developing His Unique Style
As a student at Yale, Close was known for his skilled brushwork. He experimented with different art styles. In 1967, he decided to challenge himself and make art in a new way. He stopped using paintbrushes for a while. Close wanted to try things he wasn't good at to push his art in new directions.
He often worked from a gridded photograph. He would draw a grid on the photo and then on his canvas. Then, he would copy the image cell by cell. His artworks were usually much larger than real life and very detailed. From far away, his paintings looked like perfect photographs. But up close, you could see the individual marks and colors.
Close explained that painting portraits helped him recognize and remember faces. He said that this difficulty with faces was a big reason why he kept painting portraits for so long.
"The Event" and New Ways to Paint
On December 7, 1988, Close had a sudden medical emergency. He became paralyzed from the neck down due to a problem with an artery in his spine. This day was a big turning point in his life, and he called it "The Event." For months, he worked hard in physical therapy to regain strength. He eventually got some movement back in his arms and could walk a few steps, but he used a wheelchair after that.
Even with his paralysis, Close continued to paint. He would strap a brush onto his wrist. He created large portraits using a grid system, with an assistant helping to set up the canvas. When viewed from a distance, these squares of color and marks came together to form a clear, realistic image.
Close proved that he could create amazing art even with difficult materials and new challenges. In his later years, he often painted portraits of other artists who also focused on portraiture.
Prints and Tapestries
Close was also a skilled printmaker throughout his career. In 1972, he made his first serious print, a large mezzotint. He also worked with famous woodblock printers in Japan.
He explored other photographic processes like daguerreotypes. In these photos, the dark background made the subject's face stand out brightly.
Since 2012, Close created a series of watercolor prints. These prints used his grid format and digital printers to layer water-based colors. Each "pixel" in the print would show different colors, creating a unique effect. These works were seen as his first major step into digital art.
Close also created large tapestry portraits. These wall-sized artworks were made by weaving thousands of colored threads together. Subjects included famous people like Kate Moss and Philip Glass. No printing was involved; the colors and details came from how the threads were combined. This process was similar to his grid paintings, where many small parts create a whole image.
Special Art Projects
In 2010, Chuck Close was asked to create twelve large mosaics for a new subway station in New York City. These mosaics covered a huge area, more than 2,000 square feet!
In 2014, Vanity Fair magazine featured a collection of 20 Polaroid portraits taken by Close. He photographed movie stars like Robert De Niro and Julia Roberts. Close asked his subjects to be photographed without makeup or special hair styling.
A part of Close's portrait of singer Paul Simon was used as the cover art for Simon's 2016 album, Stranger to Stranger.
Art Exhibitions and Recognition
Chuck Close had his first solo art show in 1967 at the University of Massachusetts Art Gallery. This show caused some discussion, but a court decided in favor of the artist.
His career really took off when the Walker Art Center bought his painting Big Self-Portrait in 1969. This was the first painting he ever sold. His first solo show in New York City was in 1970. His art has been shown in more than 150 solo exhibitions around the world. This includes major shows at famous museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 2013, his work was shown in London at the White Cube gallery. This exhibit, called "Process and Collaboration," showed not only finished artworks but also the tools and materials he used to create them.
Close's art is now part of the collections of many major museums of modern art worldwide. These include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Modern in London.
Awards and Public Service
Chuck Close received many honors for his art. In 2000, President Bill Clinton gave him the National Medal of Arts. He also received over 20 honorary degrees from universities, including Yale University.
In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Close to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Close later resigned from this committee in 2017.
In 2005, the composer Philip Glass wrote a 15-minute piano piece inspired by Close.
Art Market and Fundraising
Close's artworks were very valuable. In 2005, one of his paintings, John (1971–1972), sold for $4.8 million.
Close also used his art to help others. In 2012, he created tapestries and prints of President Barack Obama. These were sold to raise money for Obama's election campaign. He also donated art to help organizations like the Coalition for the Homeless.
In 2013, Close was one of eight artists who joined President Obama's Turnaround Arts initiative. This program aimed to improve schools by using the arts to help students learn. Close mentored students at a school in Connecticut, sharing his artistic knowledge.
In the Media
Chuck Close's life and art have been featured in several documentaries and books. In 1998, a documentary called "Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress" was nominated for an Emmy award. A longer film about him was made in 2007.
He also appeared on the TV show The Colbert Report in 2010. A children's book about his life, Rocks in His Shoes: The Story of Chuck Close, was also written.
Personal Life
Chuck Close lived and worked in different places in New York, including Bridgehampton and New York City's East Village. He had two daughters with his first wife, Leslie Rose. They divorced in 2011. Close later married artist Sienna Shields, but they also divorced.
In 2015, Close was diagnosed with a type of dementia. He passed away on August 19, 2021, at the age of 81, due to heart problems.
Images for kids
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Mark (1978–1979), acrylic on canvas. This painting shows Close's early photorealistic style.
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Lucas (1986–1987), oil and graphite on canvas. This artwork shows his later, more colorful and painterly style.
See also
- List of Chuck Close subjects
- The Portrait Now
