Chuck Close

Chuck Close was born on the 5th of July, 1940, Monroe, Washington. He suffers from severe dyslexia, causing him to do poorly in school but he then solace in making art. He earnt his MFA from Yale in 1964 and placed in the American art world by creating large-scale, photo-realist portraits that have a blurred effect creating a thin distinction between photography and painting. In 1988, he experienced a severe health issue where he suffered a sudden rupture of a spinal artery. After this incident, he was left almost entirely paralyzed but after rounds of physical therapy, he became permanently confined to a wheelchair but eventually regained partial use of his limbs.

Personal Analysis:

A reading on Close’s work would be incomplete with no discussion of the incident that had left him paralysed, his inability to recognise faces and the subsequent systems that the artist has created to help him navigate in an able bodied world.