Chuck Close, the king of portraits

«My art has been greatly influenced by a brain that sees, thinks, and accesses different information ;really of others. I was not aware that I had chosen to paint portraits because I had difficulty recognizing faces.«

From a very young age, the painter suffered from prosopagnosia which forced him to resort to painting. only being able to memorize faces in two dimensions. However, this will not prevent Chuck Close from becoming a reference for realist painters as well as current illustrators. Who is Close? What is the work of this modern painter?

The first steps of this figurative painter

Charles Thomas «Chuck» Close was born on July 5, 1940 at Monroe in Washington State. At the age of 18, the painter studied abroad. University from Seattle. He completed his Bachelor of Art at university from Washington in 1962 before training at art in Yale a year later to obtain his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree as well as a Master of Fine Arts in 1964. The same year, thanks to a scholarship, Close has the opportunity to to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris Vienna.

This figurative painter first considered himself an artist. as a third wave abstract expressionist imitating the styles of Willem Kooning and Arshile Gorky. Small small, it goes from biomorphism to; the figuration.

The human face: «a road map of human experience» (Close)

In 1965, Close returned to the United States to teach painting at a university. Amherst, University of Chicago of Massachusetts. Close to the will to break the gestural style which had characterized his student work. The painter moves towards pop-inspired figuration before turning to the tools of commercial art and illustration.

He received his first individual exhibition in 1967 where he received his first solo exhibition. his nude paintings sparked controversy. His exhibition resulted in a historic trial which aims to extend freedom of expression in the visual arts.

Chuck Close reduces his palette to black and white by basing his paintings on photographic images which gives his painting a unique feel. large scale Big Nude(1967), a painting 3 meters high by 6.5 meters wide. That same year, this painter, considered As one of the most influential American figurative painters, he moved towards his favorite theme: portraits. This marks the first cycle of the painter's hyperrealistic portraits. He takes photos of his models which he then reproduces on very large formats.

A Hyperrealist Painter

By installing to New York, the painter continues to explore explore realism. He paints black and white photographic portraits of those around him, with very precise details, on large format canvases using watercolor paint. airbrush.

Close painted the portrait of the composer Philip Glass in 1969. His portrait Phil is representative of the hyperrealist artistic movement.

In 1970, he exhibited his paintings alongside Richard Van Buren and Lynda Benglis in Paris. the Bykert Gallery at New York. That year, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis acquired Big Self Portrait, a self-portrait of the painter made by the artist. three years ago. He gives up little to nothing. little its strictly monochromatic palette in favor of a trichromatic palette (red, blue and yellow). In 1971, he received his first major museum exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Methods that evolve

At the end of the 70s, Chuck Close began to use a grid system to obtain works that read like pixelated mosaics. Whether fingerprints, superimposed color shapes, the viewer's perception blends distinct areas of juxtaposed colors into a unified image. Perception therefore varies depending on the facing position; the canvas.

In 1980, the Walker Art Center Minneapolis is organizing Close Portrait, the first retrospective of this figurative painter. This one traveled in Missouri at the Saint Louis Art Museum, at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in New York. Chicago to finish at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Chicago. New York.
By continually questioning modes of representation, Chuck Close studies all possible techniques. The painter's work includes:

• painting
• engraving
• the drawing
• screen printing
• lithography
• collage
• polar photography
• the sculpture
• the tapestry

A passionate painter; and determined

Continued; a rare case of collapse of the spinal arteries caused by by a spinal cord infarction, Close found himself tetraplegic in 1988. Refusing to stop painting, he was fitted with a medical aid. a brush holding device attached to the brush his wrist as well as’ his forearm. To overcome his handicap, Chuck Close then developed a new way of painting. His painting then becomes more colorful and brighter.

From 1991, he continued his work on portraits by creating silk tapestries. In 2003, he produced portraits of large scale Jacquard tapestry. He died on August 19, 2021 in Paris. Oceanside in New York State.