Close, Chuck (1940-2021), was an American artist known for his large-scale portraits. He began painting highly realistic portraits about 1967, working from photographs in a slow, painstaking method. Close enlarged a photograph onto a canvas as large as 8 feet (2.4 meters) high. He painted with a tiny airbrush and acrylic paint, which created detailed images and a totally smooth surface.
Close’s earliest images omitted color and expression. Their passive quality resembled a photo on a driver’s license or a passport. But their monumental size created an imposing, haunting effect. See Painting (People).
In the 1970’s, Close expanded his mediums to include water color, ink, pastel, oil paint, and printmaking. He maintained the passive quality and photographic nature of his images, but began to loosen their structure. Close even began painting with his fingers and creating collages (images made by gluing bits of paper and other materials to the canvas) with handmade paper chips.
In December 1988, Close suffered a collapsed artery in his spine that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. However, he continued to paint and produced many critically acclaimed portraits during the 1990’s.
Charles Thomas Close was born on July 5, 1940, in Monroe, Washington. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1963 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1964, both from Yale University. Close died on Aug. 19, 2021.
