Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Chuck Close was renowned for his highly inventive techniques of painting the human face and was best known for his large-scale, photo-based portrait paintings.
After earning his MFA from Yale in 1964, Close took his place atop the American art world by creating large-scale, Photorealistic portraits that have creatively blurred the distinction between photography and painting. In 1988, Close was paralyzed following a rare spinal artery collapse; despite the physical limitations, the artist pressed forward with his work. With a brush taped to his wrist, he continued to paint.
In 2000, Close was presented with the prestigious National Medal of Arts by President Clinton and was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
"Yes, it is hard to paint blur," Close said. "There are some works I made by using a grid of string to help me perceive changes in depth of focus — something artists have done for centuries. The depth of field in the daguerreotypes is a function of the process of making an image that way, with a very short, very bright flash of light."
Although Close had employed various painterly styles throughout his career, he is perhaps best known for his grid set on the diagonal. Close’s paintings are all-over images where the background of the picture – the negative space – is as important as the face itself, and one cannot exist without the other.
Close often took his family and friends as models, making monumental and classical works that are bold in their simplicity. His work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions in more than 20 countries, including major retrospective exhibitions at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia de Madrid and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
(Biography provided by Weng Contemporary – ArtXX AG)
Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Film, Paper
1960s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Digital
1960s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Paper, Photographic Film, Silver Gelatin
1950s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper, Photographic Film
1950s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
1950s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Archival Paper, Archival Ink, Giclée, Archival Pigment
1950s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigme...
1960s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Paper, Photographic Film, Silver Gelatin
2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Photographic Paper, Digital
1990s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Archival Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment, Photographic Film, Pi...
1980s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Black and White, Photographic Paper, Pigment, Archival Paper, Archival P...
1990s Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Archival Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment, Photographic Film, Pi...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Chuck Close Black and White Photography
Giclée, Rag Paper
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Artists Similar to Chuck Close
- Where did Chuck Close live?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertMay 3, 2024Chuck Close lived in a few places. He was born in Monroe, Washington, in 1940 and grew up in the area. Close attended Everett Community College in Everett, Washington, and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. Then, he relocated to Connecticut to pursue a master's degree from Yale University. His studies would also prompt him to move to Vienna, Austria, to take courses at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. After graduation, Close settled in the Amherst, Massachusetts, area while working at the University of Massachusetts. In 1967, he moved again to New York City, New York, to establish his own studio in Soho. Close died in 2021 in Oceanside, New York. Explore a variety of Chuck Close art on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022Chuck Close is most well-known for doing paintings, but he also worked as a photographer. The American artist is most famous for creating huge portraits of himself in both abstract and photorealistic styles. Find a collection of Chuck Close art on 1stDibs.