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Chuck Close Art

American, 1940-2021

Chuck Close was renowned for his highly inventive techniques of painting the human face and was best known for his large-scale, photo-based portrait paintings.

After earning his MFA from Yale in 1964, Close took his place atop the American art world by creating large-scale, Photorealistic portraits that have creatively blurred the distinction between photography and painting. In 1988, Close was paralyzed following a rare spinal artery collapse; despite the physical limitations, the artist pressed forward with his work. With a brush taped to his wrist, he continued to paint.

In 2000, Close was presented with the prestigious National Medal of Arts by President Clinton and was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

"Yes, it is hard to paint blur," Close said. "There are some works I made by using a grid of string to help me perceive changes in depth of focus — something artists have done for centuries. The depth of field in the daguerreotypes is a function of the process of making an image that way, with a very short, very bright flash of light."

Although Close had employed various painterly styles throughout his career, he is perhaps best known for his grid set on the diagonal. Close’s paintings are all-over images where the background of the picture – the negative space – is as important as the face itself, and one cannot exist without the other.

Close often took his family and friends as models, making monumental and classical works that are bold in their simplicity. His work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions in more than 20 countries, including major retrospective exhibitions at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia de Madrid and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

(Biography provided by Weng Contemporary – ArtXX AG)

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Artist: Chuck Close
Self Portrait by Chuck Close
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Self Portrait, 2007 9 color screen print on Somerset Satin paper 38 x 30 inches Edition of 118 Printed at Watanabe Press Publisher: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Chuck Close was best known for the monumental heads...
Category

Early 2000s Photorealist Chuck Close Art

Materials

Lithograph, Screen

Process and Collaboration Met Museum poster (Hand Signed & dated by Chuck Close)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Process and Collaboration (Hand Signed by Chuck Close), 2004 Offset Lithograph poster (Hand Signed & dated by Chuck Close in 2014) Boldly hand signed and dated by artist ...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Untitled (Sunflower), Chuck Close, Pigment print, Limited editions
By Chuck Close
Located in Zug, CH
Chuck Close Untitled (Sunflower), 2011 Pigment Print Edition of 60 52 x 39 cm (20.4 x 15.3 in) Signed, numbered and dated in pencil on the front Accompanied by Certificate of Authen...
Category

2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Pigment

Phil (Limited Edition rubber stamp Portrait of Philip Glass, pencil no. 243/100)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Phil, 1976 Limited Edition Print on Strathmore 3-Ply Paper. Pencil numbered 243/1000 on the verso. Artist's printed copyright name verso. Accompanied by original envelope...
Category

1970s Realist Chuck Close Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Pencil, Lithograph, Offset

The 57th Presidential Inauguration, limited edition, plate signed Barack Obama
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close The 57th Presidential Inauguration, 2013 Offset lithograph 23 1/2 × 18 inches Edition 1191/2013 Bears Chuck Close's printed name; plate signed by Barack Obama numbered 11...
Category

2010s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Book: CHUCK CLOSE WORK (hand signed by both Chuck Close and Christopher Finch)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close CHUCK CLOSE WORK (hand signed by both Chuck Close and Christopher Finch), 2010 Hardback monograph with dust jacket (hand signed and inscribed by both artist and author) H...
Category

2010s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset

Uniquely Signed, dedicated and inscribed vintage card of Linda Rosenkrantz Finch
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Uniquely Signed, dedicated and inscribed vintage card, 1988 Thick card Boldly signed, dated, dedicated and inscribed in black ink on the front...
Category

1980s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph, Ink, Postcard

Book: Chuck Close Self-Portraits 1967-2005 (Signed and inscribed with a heart)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005 (Hand signed and inscribed to Michelle with heart doodle), 2005 Hardcover. Bound in publisher's origina...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Phil (Limited Edition Portrait of Philip Glass, uniquely signed by Chuck Close)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Phil (Uniquely Signed by Chuck Close), 1976 Print on Strathmore 3-Ply Paper, with accompanying envelope 8 × 8 inches Hand-signed by artist, Chuck Close exceptionally sign...
Category

1970s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Lithograph, Permanent Marker

Untitled from Doctors of the World Portfolio, hand signed & numbered Pop realism
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close Untitled Daguerreotypes, 2001 Two (2) pigmented digital output iris prints from daguerroeotype printed in a single sheet of wove paper 22 × 29 1/4 inches Signed in pencil, dated and numbered on the front from the edition of 100 Unframed The present work is a pencil signed and numbered daguerreotype that is part of the 2001 “Doctors of the World” series. Close has said “I’m not interested in daguerreotypes because it’s an antiquarian process, I like them because from my point of view, photography never got any better than it was in 1840… Photographs are often so big now that twenty or thirty people can view one at the same time, but a daguerreotype is the most intimate image made with a camera, because it is small and only one person can look at it.” Printer: Universal Limited Art Editions, East Islip, New York / ULAE & Brand X Editions Publisher: Doctors of the World / Art of this Century, NY Literature: "The Art of Healing" which catalogues the works from the portfolio. Chuck Close Prints...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Pigment, Lithograph, Pencil

Untitled (Sunflower), Chuck Close, Pigment print, Limited editions
By Chuck Close
Located in Zug, CH
Chuck Close Untitled (Sunflower), 2011 Pigment Print Edition of 60 52 x 39 cm (20.4 x 15.3 in) Signed, numbered and dated in pencil on the front Accompanied by Certificate of Authen...
Category

2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Pigment

Sunflower
By Chuck Close
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Polaroid polacolor II photograph Signed and dated in ink From: The Indominal Spirit Portfolio, 1990 The Indomitable Spirit Portfolio published in 1990 in an edition of 50. The portfolio, featuring works by John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Annette Lemieux...
Category

1980s Chuck Close Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Self Portrait
By Chuck Close
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A suite of four holograms by Chuck Close. "Self Portrait" is a contemporary artwork in a palette of blacks and blues by Chuck Close. Each piece measures 14 x 11 in. The work is editioned 16/23 with 2 PPs and is numbered CC(16)2. Chuck Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work that remains sought after by museums and collectors. Throughout his career, Close has endeavored to expand his contribution to portraiture through the mastery of such varied drawing and painting techniques as ink, graphite, pastel, watercolor, conte´ crayon, finger painting, and stamp-pad ink on paper; printmaking techniques, such as Mezzotint, etching, woodcuts, linocuts, and silkscreens; as well as handmade paper collage, Polaroid photographs, Daguerreotypes, and Jacquard tapestries. His early airbrush techniques inspired the development of the ink jet printer. Working from a gridded photograph, Close builds his images by applying one careful stroke after another in multi-colors or grayscale. He works methodically, starting his loose but regular grid from the left hand corner of the canvas. His works are generally larger than life and highly focused. Close has been a printmaker throughout his career, with most of his prints published by Pace Editions, New York. He made his first serious foray into print making in 1972, when he moved himself and family to San Francisco to work on a mezzotint at Crown Point Press for a three-month residency. In 1986 he went to Kyoto to work with Tadashi Toda, a highly respected woodblock printer. In 1995, curator Colin Westerbeck used a grant from the Lannan Foundation to bring Close together with Grant Romer, director of conservation at the George Eastman House. The artist has also continued to explore difficult photographic processes such as daguerreotype in collaboration with Jerry Spagnoli and sophisticated modular/cell-based forms such as tapestry. Close’s photogravure portrait of artist Robert Rauschenberg, “Robert” (1998), appeared in a 2009 exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, featuring prints from Universal Limited Art Editions. In the daguerreotype photographs, the background defines the limit of the image plane as well as the outline of the subject, with the inky pitch-black setting off the light, reflective quality of the subject’s face. Close’s wall- size tapestry portraits...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Mixed Media

Untitled (Kate #14)
By Chuck Close
Located in Calabasas, CA
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Untitled (Kates #14) Year: 2005 Medium: Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Satin paper Edition: 25 + Proofs; signed, dated and numbered in pencil Sheet: 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.64 cm) Frame: 22 5/8 x `18 5/8 inches (57.4 x 47.2 cm) Certificate of Authenticity included For its September 2003 issue, W. magazine commissioned artists Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami, Lisa...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Tavern, Abstract (1960)
By Chuck Close
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Tavern Year of Work: 1960 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed & Dated Upper Left Dimensions: framed 31 x 25 unframed 30 x 24 Provenance: Chuck Close, Marjorie Dalton (Dear friend of Chuck), Private Collection. Tavern, is truly a rare find, an original oil on canvas, in compelling blues and grays with a touch of gold and orange. This work reveals more imagery and detail the longer one enjoys it. This painting was created during his years studying in Yale Art School, and draws different qualities to each new viewer similar to a Rorschach. Close's work is in the collections of most of the great international museums of contemporary art, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City. and the Tate Modern in London. Artist Bio: Chuck Close – (1940-2021) an American painter, artist and photographer born in Monroe, Washington. Early childhood illnesses including a neuromuscular condition, nephritis and dyslexia were compounded later in life by a condition known as prosopagnosia (face blindness), which may have inspired him to do portraits. Most of his early, large-format portraits are based on photographs, using photorealism or hyperrealism, of family and friends, often other artists. Close often painted abstract portraits of himself and others, which hang in collections internationally. Even though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he continued to paint inspired by artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Close's first solo exhibition, held in 1967 at the University of Massachusetts Art Gallery, Amherst, featured paintings, painted reliefs, and drawings based on photographs of record covers. Being much in the mainstream of pop art, a fragment of Close's portrait of singer-songwriter Paul Simon...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Chuck Close Art

Materials

Oil

Dalai Lama
By Chuck Close
Located in Calabasas, CA
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Dalai Lama Year: 2005 Medium: Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper Edition: 300; signed, dated and numbered in pen...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Self Portrait
By Chuck Close
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Signed and numbered screen-print self-portrait by Chuck Close, benefiting the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. Artwork may be viewed...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Chuck Close Art

Materials

Screen

Untitled (Kate #11)
By Chuck Close
Located in Calabasas, CA
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Untitled (Kates #11) Year: 2005 Medium: Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Satin paper Edition: 25; signed, dated and numbered in pencil Sheet: 17 x 22 inches (43.18 x 55.88 cm) Frame: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches (49.53 x 62.23 cm) Certificate of Authenticity included For its September 2003 issue, W. magazine commissioned artists Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami, Lisa Yuskavage...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Renee Cox
By Chuck Close
Located in Calabasas, CA
Artist: Chuck Close Title: Renee Cox Year: 2012 Medium: Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper Edition: 25; signed, dated and numbered in pencil...
Category

2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

SELF PORTRAIT 2
By Chuck Close
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed, numbered and dated by the artist in pencil. From the Self Portrait 1-5 series. Artwork is in excellent condition. Image size: 25 x 19 inches. Frame size: 32.6 x 25.75 in...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Paper, Photographic Film

Self-Portrait (anamorphic)
By Chuck Close
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Close, Chuck Title: Self-Portrait (anamorphic) Date: 2009 Medium: 16 Color silkscreen on Tosahanga paper, polished steel cylinder, and maple wooden platform Framed Dimen...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Screen

Lyle
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Lyle 2000 Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Soft ground etching (Edition of 60) 18 x 15 inches, sheet Contact gallery for price. This work is offered by CLAMP in New ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Etching

Phil (Philip Glass)
By Chuck Close
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Created in 2002, this relief print with embossing on handmade paper is hand-signed by Chuck Close (Washington, 1940 - New York, 2021) in white crayon in the lower right margin and numbered from the edition of 40 in white crayon in the lower left margin. About the Framing: Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Chuck Close Phil...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Lithograph

Leslie
By Chuck Close
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Created in 1986, this color woodcut on Japon paper is hand-signed by Chuck Close (Washington, 1940 - New York, 2021) in pencil in the lower right margin and numbered from the edition of 150 in pencil in the lower left margin. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco. About the Framing: Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Chuck Close Leslie...
Category

1980s Modern Chuck Close Art

Materials

Woodcut

Self Portrait
By Chuck Close
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Chuck Close Self Portrait, 2012 is hand-signed by Chuck Close (Washington, 1940 - New York, 2021) in pencil in the lower right margin and is ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Archival Pigment

Cindy (Smile)
By Chuck Close
Located in Tallinn, EE
Cindy (Smile) Signed Chuck Close, dated 2013 and inscribed T.P. (in the lower margin) Archival watercolor pigment print on Hahnemühle rag paper 190.5 by ...
Category

2010s Pop Art Chuck Close Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Rag Paper

Untitled
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
1967/printed 1999 Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Iris print (Edition of 100) 30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm), sheet 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm), image Contact ga...
Category

1960s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Digital

James
By Chuck Close
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Utilizing a variety of vibrant colors in a myriad of varied, small geometric shapes, Chuck Close creates a startlingly lifelike portrayal of his subject of fellow artist James Siena....
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Screen

Inka
By Chuck Close
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 3 Archival watercolor pigment print on Hahnemühle rag paper
Category

2010s Chuck Close Art

Materials

Pigment

John II
By Chuck Close
Located in Morton Grove, IL
6-run direct gravure Edition 26/40 Chuck Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Though a catastrophic...
Category

1980s Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Photogravure

Phil, Fingerprint
By Chuck Close
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Signed by the artist.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Screen

Phil (WC print on Japanese HMP)
By Chuck Close
Located in San Francisco, CA
Watercolor pigment print on Awagami handmade BIZAN White Thick 200 grams, hand-coated Edition of 10 Magnolia
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Nat/Felt Hand Stamp
By Chuck Close
Located in San Francisco, CA
Felt hand stamp Edition of 40
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Chuck Close Art

Materials

Oil

Chuck Close art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Chuck Close art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Chuck Close in pigment print, lithograph, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Chuck Close art, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Elizabeth Catlett, Lesley Dill, and Christopher Wool. Chuck Close art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $280 and tops out at $275,000, while the average work can sell for $11,750.

Artists Similar to Chuck Close

Questions About Chuck Close Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022
    Chuck Close is most well-known for doing paintings, but he also worked as a photographer. The American artist is most famous for creating huge portraits of himself in both abstract and photorealistic styles. Find a collection of Chuck Close art on 1stDibs.

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