Chuck Close Biography

By the late 1960s he had started to gain prominence and his work was displayed in important New York galleries and at the Whitney Museum of American Art. With time he became more popular and was exhibiting in prestigious international exhibitions in the early 1970s.

Over his illustrious career he had created several wall-size tapestry portraits in which each image is composed of thousands of combinations of woven colored thread. Some of the subjects he depicted on his tapestries include Barack Obama, Lou Reed, Kate Moss, Lucas Samaras, and Philip Glass.

He held several solo exhibitions in his career, and also participated in almost 800 group exhibitions, including documentas V (1972) and VI (1977), the Venice Biennale (1993, 1995, 2003), and the Carnegie International (1995). His most recent retrospective—‘Chuck Close Paintings: 1968/2006’—was held in 2007.

His first marriage was to Leslie Rose with whom he had two daughters. The couple divorced in 2011.

In 2013, Chuck Close married artist Sienna Shields. They later parted ways. 

In 1988, he suffered a seizure which left him paralyzed from the neck down. He spent months in rehab strengthening his muscles with physical therapy and learned to use a wheelchair. Ever the resilient soul, he returned to painting and re-established himself as one of America’s favorite artists.

In 2015, Close was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Chuck Close died on 19th August 2021, from congestive heart failure, in Oceanside New York. He was 81.

Chuck Close was known for his unique artistic process, which involved creating large-scale portraits using a grid system and intricate patterns of shapes and colors.

Despite facing physical limitations due to a spinal artery collapse in 1988 that left him partially paralyzed, Close continued to create art using innovative techniques and adaptive tools.

Close had a deep appreciation for the artistic process and often collaborated with other artists and experts in various fields to push the boundaries of traditional portraiture.

He was a strong advocate for the arts and was involved in numerous educational initiatives to support young artists and promote arts education in schools.

Close's work has been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries around the world, cementing his legacy as a groundbreaking and influential figure in contemporary art.