Why is Chuck Close important?



Chuck Close, in full Chuck Thomas Close, (born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Washington, U.S.—died August 19, 2021, Oceanside, New York), 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.

What is the meaning of Chuck Close art?

Chuck Close is known for his innovative conceptual portraiture, depicting his subjects, which are transposed from photographs, into visual data organized by gridded compositions. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Close used art as a means of navigating a learning disability.

What was the event that changed Chuck Close life the most?

His grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. And Close, an only child, spent most of the year in bed with nephritis, a nasty kidney infection. Chuck Close at work. One thing did help him cope with the mind-numbing agony, sadness and misery: art.

What art movement was Chuck Close apart of?





Photorealism

Close emerged from the 1970s painting movement of Photorealism, also known as Super-Realism, but then moved well beyond its initially hyper-attentive rendering of a given subject to explore how methodical, system-driven portrait painting based on photography’s underlying processes (over its superficial visual …

What advice does Chuck Close offer himself about his learning disabilities?

NEVER let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don’t apply to you. VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING I’ve done is influenced by my learning disabilities. I think I was driven to paint portraits to commit images of friends and family to memory.

What was Chuck Close subject matter?

Their accounts were of alleged sexual harassment from 2001, 2009, and 2013. Most of the allegations were from women in their 20s, during the time that Close was in his 60s and 70s. Many of the allegations were from college students, including from Yale University.



How did Chuck Close find a way to continue painting in spite of his paralysis?



In 1988, Chuck Close suffered a collapsed spinal artery, which at first left him paralyzed from the neck down. After a partial recovery, he was able to paint from his wheelchair, using brushes strapped to his hand.