Download - Chuck Close
Chuck Close
Chuck Close
Who was he?
Born in Monroe, Washington in 1940
In his teens, muscular weakness and learning disabilities made sports and academics a challenge – he found drawing was what he was good at—and making people laugh!
He really was a smart and talented guy - Received a BA at the University of Washington, MFA at Yale, Fulbright Scholar in Europe
When he was a kid in Monroe, he studied with a neighborhood artist and was probably the only eight year old around drawing a nude model. This influenced him to continue his study of nudes at the University of Washington.
He had a lot of support from his mom and dad. His dad died when he was 11.
His work… Began painting in 1960’s- influence from
pop art.
One subject for 30 years – the human face› “I paint heads because heads matter to
everybody. If you paint a face big enough, it’s hard to ignore.”
Began as a photo- realist artist but a spinal injury forced a necessary change in his style.
“I had to recover to paint. There is nothing else I can do. There is nothing else I want to do.”
The process…
“I build a painting by putting little marks together – some look like hotdogs, some look like doughnuts – the way a writer makes a novel by slamming words together.”