Renowned photorealist painter Chuck Close died at 82 on Thursday, August 19, at a hospital in Oceanside, New York. Writes about this The Washington Post.
Close’s death was confirmed by his lawyer John Silberman.
Close was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2015 and that the immediate cause of death was congestive heart failure, said Adrian Elgarrest, public affairs director for the Pace art gallery in New York.
RIP Chuck Close.
He had a visual condition called prosopagnosia that made it difficult for him to recognize faces. So he would break down each face into a grid and paint/draw each section until it collectively revealed the full picture. pic.twitter.com/hFM3j04ebA– Anna Fine AF (@somefinetweets) August 19, 2021
Charles Thomas Close was born in Monroe, Washington on July 5, 1940. He became famous for his large-format paintings, painted from photographs. Close created large portraits from small pictures that resemble a mosaic. Thanks to this painting technique, a 3D effect was achieved.
In 1988, as a result of a spinal injury, the artist was paralyzed, but he continued to work. In 2000 he was awarded the United States National Medal for the Arts.
In 2015, one of his self-portraits was auctioned for $ 2.4 million.
In 2017, two women accused Close of indecent conversations and requests to undress, while the original conversation was about art, wrote HuffPost and The Times. In subsequent interviews, he apologized for making women feel uncomfortable. But when the National Gallery of Art canceled an exhibition of his work, scheduled for 2018, the artist called the accusations a lie, calling himself “a supporter of women and artists in particular” who “did nothing wrong.”