Legendary Chuck Close
The Shadow of Scandal Falls Upon Him
One of the most prominent and controversial artists of our time, Chuck Close, died on Thursday, August 19, at age 81. Known for his large-scale abstract and photorealistic portraits, this painter/photographer continued to create art despite the medical problems he faced throughout his life. After a long, fruitful career, Close was praised for his innovation. However, despite the medical challenges, his legacy is forever damaged by allegations of misconduct.
Charles Thomas Close was born in 1940 in Monroe, Washington. He suffered from several conditions as a child, and during these early years, he realized art helped with his learning difficulties. He continued developing his skills through private art lessons and obtaining a BA from the University of Washington in 1962, a BFA (1963), and MFA (1964) from Yale University. He then studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna (1964) on a Fulbright grant before returning to the United States in 1965. He was one of the first artists to embrace Photorealism and spent a lot of time exploring the concept and potential of portraiture. In the early years of his career, he considered himself on the path to becoming a third-wave Abstract Expressionist. Still, he switched and began creating portraits from black and white photographs. In 1967 he made the painting Big Nude, and that same year a controversial solo exhibition that featured male nude images ended up in court. In the 1970s, he began creating his famous pixelated portraits, for which he used a grid system. The process consisted of different parts that formed a clear image when blended in the viewer’s eyes. In 1988, Close faced another major medical challenge and was left significantly disabled after a spinal artery collapse. For most, partial paralysis would mark the end of a career, but Close found a way to continue making art. He painted by using a brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm. As he once stated: “If I’m only going to be able to still do something that I used to do, I’m pretty lucky that it turned out to be painting.”
For most of his life, Close was highly admired and appreciated among the artist community. That was until, in 2017, several women accused him of sexual and verbal harassment and some disturbing and unforgivable truths about him were revealed. This led the National Gallery (the first of many institutions) to cancel his show. Since then, his work has never been looked at the same way, and women continue to allege and describe negative interactions with him. Unfortunately, Chuck Close died of congestive heart failure on August 19, 2021, and it is hard to say what his legacy will be in the future.
It’s a situation where you have to ask if the artist and his work can ever be separated. But, no matter how outstanding and innovative his creations were, are they important enough to overshadow the misogyny and intense character flaws revealed more recently? I doubt it, but only time will tell.
