Painter of huge portraits that explored the relationship between painting and photography
In the 1960s Chuck Close, fresh from art school, was sitting in a New York restaurant when Jasper Johns walked in, passing by his fellow diners in total anonymity despite the older painter’s great fame. After seven decades of self-portraits, Close, who has died aged 81, never suffered the same fate, his face recognisable to generations of museum-goers. In 2017 this storied career abruptly ended following sexual misconduct allegations.
Close painted on a huge scale, the acrylics or oils flatly applied with little discernible brushstrokes. He always started with a photograph as source material, rigidly divided by an overlaid grid, which he would replicate, colours and forms, square by square, on to canvas using a variety of tools including razorblades, electric drills and airbrushes. The artist also brought the faces of his peers from obscurity, completing portraits of Kiki Smith, Alex Katz, Cindy Sherman, Roy Lichtenstein and other artists, as well as the more readily recognisable Barack Obama, Al Gore, Brad Pitt and Kate Moss.