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Introduction

For the last half decade, Chuck Close (born 1940) has examined portraiture through painting, photography, and printmaking, focusing mainly on self-portraits or portraits of friends and fellow artists, including Richard Serra, James Turrell and Cecily Brown. Close gained recognition early in his career for his large-scale photorealist paintings and drawings rendered in black and white that he reproduced from gridded photographs. In the 1970s Close began incorporating color into his work, utilizing a new technique wherein he constructed an image using a grid of individual colored squares. Up close, each square appears to be its own abstract painting, but when viewed from afar, they form a highly realistic portrait. Close suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness, and has said that painting portraits allows him to better recognize and remember faces. 

Over the last 50 years, Close has produced one of the largest, most ambitious and experimental bodies of contemporary prints and his work can be found in major institutions throughout the world. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Art Institute of Chicago; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Hayward Gallery, London among others. Close is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Skowhegan Arts Medal. 

Chuck Close began making prints at Two Palms in 1999. His Woodburytypes, printed at Two Palms in 2012 and 2013, are some of the first printed since the 1800s. His 2013 portrait of Barack Obama is the first Woodburytype of an American President since Hessler & Ayer’s Woodburytype portrait of Abraham Lincoln, printed in 1881.

New Works 2

New Works 2 Thumbnails
Self-Portrait (anamorphic), 2009
16 color silkscreen on Tosahanga paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and maple wooden box/platform
27 x 27 x 11 1/4 inches
Edition of 20

Self-Portrait (anamorphic), 2009
16 color silkscreen on Tosahanga paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and maple wooden box/platform
27 x 27 x 11 1/4 inches
Edition of 20

Inquire
Zhang Huan II, 2013
59 color silkscreen with airbrush on Lanaquarelle
57 1/4 x 48 inches
Edition of 60

Zhang Huan II, 2013
59 color silkscreen with airbrush on Lanaquarelle
57 1/4 x 48 inches
Edition of 60

Inquire
Self Portrait, 2004
19-color handprinted ukiyo-e woodcut
28 1/2 x 22 3/4 inches
Edition of 50

Self Portrait, 2004
19-color handprinted ukiyo-e woodcut
28 1/2 x 22 3/4 inches
Edition of 50

Inquire
Self Portrait #1, 1999
Relief print with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
25 x 20 inches
Edition of 50

Self Portrait #1, 1999
Relief print with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
25 x 20 inches
Edition of 50

Inquire
Phil (anamorphic), 2007
Engraving with embossment on white Twinrocker handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and wooden box/platform. 
25 x 25 x 12 inches
Edition of 20

Phil (anamorphic), 2007
Engraving with embossment on white Twinrocker handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and wooden box/platform. 
25 x 25 x 12 inches
Edition of 20

Inquire
Phil Crosshatch, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Phil Crosshatch, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Inquire
Phil Houndstooth, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Phil Houndstooth, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Inquire
Self-Portrait (anamorphic), 2009
16 color silkscreen on Tosahanga paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and maple wooden box/platform
27 x 27 x 11 1/4 inches
Edition of 20

Self-Portrait (anamorphic), 2009
16 color silkscreen on Tosahanga paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and maple wooden box/platform
27 x 27 x 11 1/4 inches
Edition of 20

Zhang Huan II, 2013
59 color silkscreen with airbrush on Lanaquarelle
57 1/4 x 48 inches
Edition of 60

Zhang Huan II, 2013
59 color silkscreen with airbrush on Lanaquarelle
57 1/4 x 48 inches
Edition of 60

Self Portrait, 2004
19-color handprinted ukiyo-e woodcut
28 1/2 x 22 3/4 inches
Edition of 50

Self Portrait, 2004
19-color handprinted ukiyo-e woodcut
28 1/2 x 22 3/4 inches
Edition of 50

Self Portrait #1, 1999
Relief print with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
25 x 20 inches
Edition of 50

Self Portrait #1, 1999
Relief print with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
25 x 20 inches
Edition of 50

Phil (anamorphic), 2007
Engraving with embossment on white Twinrocker handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and wooden box/platform. 
25 x 25 x 12 inches
Edition of 20

Phil (anamorphic), 2007
Engraving with embossment on white Twinrocker handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder, and wooden box/platform. 
25 x 25 x 12 inches
Edition of 20

Phil Crosshatch, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Phil Crosshatch, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Phil Houndstooth, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Phil Houndstooth, 2010
Engraving with embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper
52 x 40 inches
Edition of 30

Selected Exhibitions

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2017  Chuck Close: Selections from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, Pendleton Center for the Arts, Pendleton, OR
2016  Chuck Close Photographs, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, FL
2015  Chuck Close Photographs, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
2015  Chuck Close, Merchant House, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013  Chuck Close, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
2010  Chuck Close: People Who Matter to Me, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
2007  Chuck Close: Seven Portraits, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2007  Chuck Close: Paintings 1968–2006, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
2006  Chuck Close: A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2005  Chuck Close: Self Portraits 1967–2005, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2003  Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 
2002  Chuck Close Ritratti, American Academy in Rome, Italy

 

 

 

 

 

Selected Public Collections

Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Essl Museum—Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Austria
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Osaka City Museum, Osaka, Japan
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

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