Chuck CloseChuck Close is a contemporary artist who paints enormous, mural-sized portraits of people in a modern gridded or pointillist style.

Chuck Close Chuck Close in 1969 with in 1969 with his portrait his portrait of Philip of Philip Glass. Glass. photo by photo by PaceWildenstPaceWildensteinein

The stark, monumental portraits by Chuck Close gained recognition in the early 1970s.

"Frank" by Chuck Close, 1969. Acrylic on canvas. Size 108 x 84 x 3 inches

The spinal-column blood clot that landed him in a wheelchair in 1988 made it difficult to paint without mechanical aids and help from assistants.

He was forced to find a new way to work: He uses a brace on his arm, and he has devised an entirely new way to interpret his portraits.

CHUCK CLOSE b. 1940 Georgia, 1984Handmade paper, 56 x 45"

Close does not paint commissioned portraits. "Anyone vain enough to want a nine-foot portrait of themselves," he stated, "would want the blemishes removed."

His subjects over the years have been friends and family and most recently his friends who are artists. The portrait Georgia, Close's daughter, assaults the viewer with its imposing scale and texture, but is also sensitive of the familial intimacy with which the portrait was nurtured.Georgia incorporates thirty-six separate gray values.

Chuck CloseRoy/Reduction Linocut, 1998Linocut