Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Chuck Close is well known for his portraits and self-portraits. He has made more than a hundred works of his own face during his career. Close has been face-blind since his youth, and it is this incapacity to remember a face that has motivated this part of his practice. Following an accident in 1988 which left him ​​quadriplegic, Close returned to the easel to explore the limits of disabilities, old and new. In retrospect, Close said: "Everything in my work is directly related to my learning disabilities. [...] People's faces have urgency for me. I don't care about anything as much as knowing who people are." (1)

Close’s photographic practice was initially intended to support his realist paintings. His first large and impactful self-portrait, “Big Self-Portrait”, 1967–1968, purchased by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, is an oil on canvas made after a photograph taken by the artist. Fascinated by the photographic process, Close investigated the daguerreotype, the Polaroid and even the Woodburytype. His portraits of celebrities include Kate Moss, Brad Pitt, Alex Katz and other defining personalities of our time.

This “Self-Portrait Portfolio,” 2002, a suite composed of five self-portraits shows the artist at the age of 62, attempting to capture different angles of his face from one side to the other, forming a sort of topography of his head as if to keep track of his face and features.

(1) https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/dyslexia-paralysis-face-blindness-nothing-comes-between-legendary-artist-chuck