Chuck Close (1940–2021)

I dug this book for the most part. I enjoyed Close's answers to kids' questions- he is far more guileless than his art led me to believe. I liked the mix and match pieces of his portraits. There's something not there, though, and I can't put my finger on it exactly, but this book didn't scratch all the itch it created somehow. It's breathtakingly hard to talk about the creative process, and even harder to do so when one's audience is children whose natural bullshit detectors are set to show more maximum gain. For my money, Close does a good job. show less

"Why do you only paint faces?"

"Why doesn't anyone in your art smile?"

"When you were paralyzed, were you afraid you wouldn't be able to paint again?"

These are some of the questions artist Chuck Close answers in his new autobiography for children. Filled with his portraits of mostly ordinary people, this book let's readers into Close's extraordinary life.

Born right here in Washington state in 1940, Close began taking art lessons at age 8. His severe dyslexia and prosopagnosia (face blindness) show more made school difficult, and so he put the full force of his attention into art. Over the years, Close developed his distinctive portraiture style featuring giant canvases filled with neutral faces, including many self-portraits. One great feature of this book is a section of Close's self-portraits divided horizontally into thirds so readers can mix and match his different works (you can see an example of this on the book's cover).

For 8- to 12-year-old budding artists and art lovers, there's no better non-fiction to read this summer. It's an inspirational story of an artist who overcame significant hardship to achieve success and fame. show less

I was fascinated by this book. It's structured as a Q&A with Chuck Close where he reflects on his process and his work. The book is beautifully designed. Starting with his problems in school, dealing with dyslexia and prosopagnosia, and then later after "the event" left him unable to move from the chest down.
Loved this quote from Close, "Inspiration is for amateurs. Artists just show up and get to wrok. Every idea occurs while you are working. If you are sitting around waiting for show more inspiration, you could sit there forever." (36) show less

A Couple of Ways of Doing Something replicates a deluxe limited-edition portfolio whose initial run was only 75 copies. This clothbound edition preserves the luxurious sensibility of the original with 22 extraordinary oversized daguerreotypes printed in rich tritone. Working with daguerreotype master Jerry Spagnoli to conquer the complexities of this venerable process, which yields images of astonishing detail and gravity, Chuck Close photographed many of the same artist-friends who have show more made regular appearances in his paintings over the years: Laurie Anderson, Lyle Ashton Harris, Cecily Brown, Gregory Crewdson, Carroll Dunham, Ellen Gallagher, Philip Glass, Bob Holman, Elizabeth Murray, Elizabeth Peyton, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, James Siena, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, Robert Wilson, Terry Winters, Lisa Yuskavage and himself. Each image is complemented by a poem on its subject by Bob Holman, the celebrated and widely published New York School poet who originated and hosted the famous Poetry Slams at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and now runs the Bowery Poetry Club. With the counterpoint of Holman's engaging poetry, the collected work becomes a transfixing group portrait of Close's influential and highly creative circle of friends and colleagues, as well as an exploration of a challenging photographic medium. A traveling exhibition of the work will launch in November 2006 at the Aperture Gallery. show less