Chuck Close

Lucas (1987) by Chuck Close

"It's just colored dirt on some cloth wrapped around wood strips....paintings can make you cry, [but] it's just colored dirt." Chuck Close on the emotional impact a painting can bring its viewer with the ironic reminder of what it is in its simplest form.

It is interesting to hear this artist break down his work in such a way, but really that is his method for creating his pieces...to break down his subject's face and rebuild it pixel by pixel until it is recognizable at a distance. Close has a rare learning disability, prosopagnosia or facial blindness, and cannot recognize faces. His brain literally cannot remember any person's face in life, however, by putting them in 2-dimensions and flattening them out somehow he can commit them to memory. His artistry has focused on faces for the past 30 years and is self serving in that it is therapeutic by helping him memorize faces and allowing him to connect with human faces in a way that he cannot otherwise. Close is a quadriplegic after suffering a spinal artery collapse in 1988 at 48 years old.

His disabilities have not stopped him from continuing to create portraits of some of the most influential artists, politicians, and actors of our time. His portraits will make you stop in your tracks if you see them in person...due to both their size (most of his work is very large around 9 ft tall)  and photorealism. Once you step closer you begin to see the painstaking detail taken to achieve such life-like images. The piece below is composed by his thumbprints...

Phil/Fingerprint (2009) by Chuck Close

Kate (2005) by Chuck Close