Chuck Close was born in Monroe, Washington, 1940. His parents were artistic, and gave their son encouragement to pursue his creative interests. However, Close suffered from severe dyslexia, which had him struggling through all of his schoolwork except for art. To add to it, he has some sort of neuromuscular condition that kept him from playing sports. He also has a disorder called prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, which means he cannot recognize faces on a three-dimensional plane. He realized that, working with photographs, he could see and recognize people’s faces only on a two-dimensional plane.
At age eleven, his father died, and his mother was ill with breast cancer. Close himself became ill with a kidney infection which kept him bedridden for almost a year. Despite this, at fourteen, he saw an exhibit of Jackson Pollock paintings, which further drove his love for art. He went to the University of Washington School of Art and Yale University School of Art and Architecture.
Close became well known for his large scale paintings, specifically the hyper-realistic portraits. He did quite a few photo-realistic self-portraits, as well as of other people. However, he only did portraits of women he knew well or whose work he admires, such as Hilary Clinton. He uses a technique he calls “knitting,” which are basically pixels of tiny brush strokes. This is what helps him achieve the realism that has made him famous for blurring the line between photography and hyper-realism.
1988 he had a rare spinal artery collapse. It left him nearly all paralyzed. Even after physical therapy, Close became permanently bound to a wheelchair with only limited use of his limbs. Because of this, he can no longer make his photo-realistic portraits. Instead, he makes portraits that are more surreal and less precise. To do this, he has a brush taped to his wrist.
In 2000, Close was given the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton, and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. To tag to that, he was just recently selected by President Obama to be on The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
I’ll admit, Close is one of my favorite artists. Not just because of his super realistic portraits, but also he persevered through all the different ailments and tragedies that were thrown at him through the years, and kept on going so he could do what he wanted to do: art.
Sources:
http://www.biography.com/people/chuck-close-9251491
http://www.pacegallery.com/artists/80/chuck-close
http://www.biography.com/people/chuck-close-9251491#early-life&awesm=~oC386sMAHU7Vz8
http://www.a-sense-of-place.com/2012/07/artsmart-roundtable-chuck-close-and-photorealism.html
http://worldsciencefestival.com/videos/chuck_up_close