Available in Our Library

Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress
Videotape, 1997
Produced, directed, and written by Marion Cajori

For 40 years, Chuck Close has blasted his huge hyper-real images into elemental parts and then reassembled into revealing facial maps. He photographs his subjects, blows up the image, divides it into a detailed grid and then uses colors and patterns to reconstruct the face. Up close the portraits are abstract, a series of tiny paintings filling the squares of the grid. It's a bit like pixilization: The whole indeed is greater than the sum of its parts. Step back, the paintings become magical and sometimes brutal mugshots of Close's family, friends and fellow artists.

Close's drawings, paintings, photographs and prints have been the subject of more than 100 exhibitions in over 20 countries. In this 57-minute documentary, he's wonderfully articulate about his work and his influences. He says he was so empowered by Willem de Kooning that "I was de Kooning." Later, he had to purge the influence as his own artistic identity grew.

Close, 68, has been painting for the last 20 years from a wheelchair. A spinal artery collapse paralyzed him in 1988. Of course as a very successful artist, he feared he would not be able to paint again. While rehabbing at New York's Rusk Institute, an OT set up a studio in the basement so Close could get back to work. His hand function came back; he can hold a brush with a splinted right hand. He still works with huge canvases; motors move them around so Close can paint from his chair. He's still at the top of his game.

In this video, Close talks about his process, his disability, his work style. It's a compelling documentary that includes appearances by contemporary New York artists Leslie Close (his wife), Philip Glass, Mark Greenwold, Alex Katz, Dorothea Rockburne, and Kiki Smith.

It's available by interlibrary loan from the Reeve Paralysis Resource Center library.

A Reeve Foundation Fact Sheet on Arts and Creativity (PDF)

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Library Books and VideosFind resources within the PRC library catalog.

FREE: a comprehensive information tool for people affected by paralysis and for those who care for them. In English and Spanish. Request your copy. Read the online version.

Check out programs in your area on our one-of-a kind online searchable Quality of Life program database. You can search by location or topic. GO

The information provided in the Paralysis Resource Center was supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number 1U59DD000338 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.