Chuck Close

PAINTER/PHOTOGRAPHER/PRINTMAKER



Project: Create a portrait of the artist Kara Walker



A photorealistic portraitist who emerged from a generation of abstract painters, Close has often imposed limitations on his work, as when he created a nine-square-foot painting with just two tablespoons of paint. Since suffering partial paralysis in 1988, he's overcome new limitations to develop an iconic style that combines the rigidity of a grid with fluid, abstract shapes. Close is at work now on a portrait series of female artists and describes the process he used to capture his fellow painter Kara Walker.