He's been called the "reigning portraitist of the Information Age." He creates jumbo-size faces on canvas (8 or 9 feet high), copying them from photographs. They are painted in a dotted faux pointillist style. In 1989 Close suffered a stroke, which left him paralyzed from the neck down. Gaining partial use of his hand with a brace, he learned to paint all over again. There's currently a retrospective of his print work exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York titled Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration.
Copyright 2004 Fresh Air
