not paying for it, so they can’t ask for their nose to
be straightened. It requires some bravery and gen-
erosity on their part.’’
In December 1988, Close suffered a rupture to a
congenitally weak spinal artery. A violent seizure
left him paralyzed from the neck down. After
months of physical therapy, he regained limited
movement in his arms and now paints with a
brush Velcro-strapped to his hand. He also con-
tinues to explore photography.
In 1996, Close began working with printmaker
David Adamson to produce a series of portraits as
digital IRIS prints for the Pace/MacGill Gallery in
New York. Close also collaborated with Jerry
Spagnoli in 1999 to update the daguerreotype proc-
ess. For two years, Close photographed a score of
musicians and artists, including himself, for a
handmade book that includes poems by Bob Hol-
man. Adamson scanned the daguerreotypes and
made digital prints for the limited-edition series of
75 books titledA Couple of Ways of Doing Some-
thing, completed in 2003.
Although art critics of the 1970s grouped Close
with the nascent Photorealists, the narrow label
inadequately describes the scope of his work. The
distinguishing characteristic of Photorealism is its
reliance on the camera to produce work that is
veristic yet hand wrought. Close chafes at the
label ‘‘realist’’ because he feels the artificiality of
the work deserves equal weight. As an artist who
deliberately shows his hand, Close reveals the
magic in an attempt to differentiate between illu-
sion and reality. Demystifying the process, accord-
ing to Close, is the truth behind realism.
RenataGoldenBiography
Born Charles Thomas Close in Monroe, Washington, July
5, 1940. University of Washington, B.A., magna cum
laude, 1964. Attended Yale Summer School of Music
and Art, Norfolk, CT, 1961. Graduated from Yale
University School of Art and Architecture, B.F.A.,
1963 and M.F.A., 1964, both with highest honors.
Received numerous honorary degrees and honored by
many cultural institutions throughout the United
States. Awarded Fulbright Grant to study work of
Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele in Vienna, Austria,
1964–65. Taught painting and photography in the
Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts,
1965–67; at the School of Visual Arts in New York,
1967–71; and at New York University, 1970–73. Taught
summer school at the University of Seattle, 1970 and
the Yale Summer School of Art and Music, 1971 and
- Awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fel-
lowship, 1973; Skowhegan Medal for Painting, 1991;
University of Washington Alumnus Summa Laude
Dignatus, 1997; National Medal of Arts and National
Humanities Medal Award, 2000. Disabled by a spinal
blood clot in 1988. Lives and works in New York City
and Long Island.Solo Exhibitions
1982 Chuck Close Photographs; California Museum of
Photography; University of California, Riverside, CA;
University Art Museum, UC Berkeley, CA
1985 Chuck Close: Photographs; Pace/MacGill Gallery;
New York, NY
1985 Chuck Close: Large Scale Photographs; Fraenkel Gal-
lery; San Francisco, CA
1987 Chuck Close: Polaroids; Aldrich Museum of Contem-
porary Art; Ridgefield, CT
1988 Chuck Close: Prints and Photographs; Pace Editions;
New York, NY
1989 Chuck Close; Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, IL,
(traveled to the Friends of Photography, Ansel Adams
Center, San Francisco)
1996 Chuck Close: Photographic Portraits; Pace/MacGill
Gallery; New York, NY
1998 Chuck Close; The Museum of Modern Art; New York,
NYGroup Exhibitions
1981 Seven Photorealists from New York Collections; The
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; New York, NY
1982 Momentbild: Kunstlerphotographie; Kestner-Ges-
sellschaft; Hanover, Germany
1983 Photographic Visions by Martha Alf, Chuck Close,
Robert Cumming, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg,
Ed Ruscha; Los Angeles Center for Photographic Stu-
dies; Los Angeles, CA
1985–86Self Portrait: The Photographer’s Persona, 1840–
1985 ; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1986 50 Years of Modern Color Photography; Cologne,
Germany
1986 Viewpoint: The Artist as Photographer; New Jersey
Center for the Visual Arts; Summit, NJ
1997 Photorealists; Savannah College of Art and Design;
Savannah, GA
1999 Photorealism/Periphery; Museum of Art Brigham
Young University; Provo, UT
2000 ThePersistence of Photography in American Portrai-
ture; Yale University Art Gallery; New Haven, CT
2003 New to View: Recent Acquisitions in Photography; Art
Institute of Chicago; Chicago, IL
2004 Speaking With Hands: Photographs from the Buhl
Collection; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; New
York, NY
2004 Printed Light — Photographic Vision and the Modern
Print; National Gallery of Australia; Parkes, CanberraSelected Works
Philip Glass(working photograph for painting), 1969
Self-Portrait/Composite/Nine Parts, composite Polaroid
photograph, 1979
Self-Portrait (3 Parts), Polaroid photograph, 1980
Lucas, 1993
Lorna I, digital ink jet print on kozo paper, 1996CLOSE, CHUCK