Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait

Chuck Close has pioneered ideas of scale, form, and colour through the theme of portraiture, a genre that he has fundamentally redefined. Although Close has painted himself far more often than any of his other subjects, the majority of those other subjects have been fellow artists. This book details more than thirty years of Close's remarkable career, exploring the evolution of both his self-portraits and artist portraits and the compelling man behind them. Divided into three sections, the book's first section includes a comprehensive biography of Close that deals with his childhood and college years, his struggles with learning disabilities, the origins and perfecting of his near photographic painting technique, and his sudden illness in 1988, which led to almost complete paralysis, and the degree of recovery that enabled him to continue his painting career. The second section is an examination of his self-portraiture. The final section deals with the artist's paintings of fellow artists, including Cindy Sherman, Francesco Clemente, Jasper Johns, and William Wegman. The text includes Close's insightful comments about these works and interviews with the subjects. Examples of each artist's self-portraits are also represented and discussed.