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Chuck Close: Work
Now available in a newly revised and expanded edition, this book offers the definitive critical examination of one of America’s most celebrated living artists. Chuck Close reinvented portraiture more than four decades ago with a series of nine-foot-tall, black-and-white likenesses of himself and fellow artists, which astonished an art world dominated by Minimalism and Conceptualism. Close has since explored the possibilities implicit in his original breakthrough in an array of media. This lavish, large-format volume deals with all aspects of Close’s career and places them in a biographical context. Christopher Finch’s insight into Close’s achievement comes by way of hundreds of studio visits and thousands of hours of conversation since he met Close in 1968. The author provides an engaging, in-depth analysis of Close’s portraits on canvas, from the continuous-tone airbrushed heads of the 1960s and 1970s to the painterly "prismatic grids" of the past decades. Featuring 365 illustrations, the book surveys almost all of Close’s paintings, including his most recent work, together with a selection of prints and multiples and examples of his photographic oeuvre. This beautifully designed volume reveals not only the variety of pictorial strategies Close has devised, but also the extraordinary personality of the artist behind the work.
- GenresArtNonfictionBiography
370 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2007
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28 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Finch
69 books37 followersChristopher Finch was born in Guernsey in the British Channel Islands, and now lives in Los Angeles. He is an artist and a photographer who has had one person shows in New York and California, and he is the author of almost thirty non-fiction books including the best sellers Rainbow: the Stormy Life of Judy Garland, The Art of Walt Disney, Jim Henson: the Works, and Norman Rockwell's America. Recently he has embarked on a series of noir-inflected mystery novels set in New York in the late 1960s and featuring the private investigator Alex Novalis. The first of these, Good Girl, Bad Girl, is to be published by Thomas & Mercer in 2013. These books draw on his own experiences in the New York art world at a time when today's SoHo was an urban wilderness with rats frolicking in the gutters and artists eking out a living in barren loft spaces. He is married to Linda Rosenkrantz, an author and a co-founder of the website Nameberry.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 17, 2025
Christopher Finch’s Chuck Close: Work is not merely a retrospective of one of the most distinctive painters of the 20th and 21st centuries; it is an intricate tapestry that interweaves Close’s artistic evolution, technical rigor, and personal tribulations into a compelling study of modern portraiture. As a literary and art scholar, one must approach this book with an understanding of its dual nature—part biography, part analytical discourse—both of which elevate Close’s work beyond the visual and into the realm of intellectual inquiry.
At its core, Finch’s book examines Close’s methodology with an intensity that mirrors the meticulous nature of the artist himself. Close’s famed large-scale portraits, composed through techniques that range from photorealistic airbrush to pixelated color grids, are dissected with the precision of an art historian who understands that Close’s work transcends mere representation. Finch does not simply catalogue the paintings; he situates them within the trajectory of modern and postmodern artistic traditions, noting how Close subverts traditional portraiture by emphasizing process over expression.
One of the book’s most engaging aspects is its exploration of Close’s resilience. After a spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him largely paralyzed, Close adapted his practice, painting with a brush strapped to his wrist. Finch does not reduce this phase of Close’s career to an inspirational narrative; rather, he demonstrates how disability transformed Close’s approach, pushing his aesthetic into new territories of abstraction and color theory. This shift, Finch argues, is not a compromise but a continuation of Close’s relentless formal experimentation—an assertion that aligns with contemporary critical discourse on the intersection of disability and creative practice.
Finch’s prose is scholarly yet accessible, striking a balance between technical analysis and biographical storytelling. His deep knowledge of art history enables him to draw connections between Close and his predecessors—Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura, Seurat’s pointillism, Warhol’s mechanical repetition—while positioning Close within the larger conceptual movements of his time. However, Finch wisely avoids over-intellectualizing, allowing Close’s process to emerge organically through interviews and firsthand observations.
Visually, the book is a triumph. The high-quality reproductions offer a tactile experience of Close’s work, allowing readers to appreciate the nuances of texture, color, and form that are often lost in discussions of his method. The inclusion of preparatory sketches and unfinished works provides insight into Close’s laborious process, reinforcing Finch’s argument that Close’s work is as much about the act of seeing as it is about the finished image.
Ultimately, Chuck Close: Work is more than an art book; it is a meditation on the nature of artistic perseverance, the mechanics of visual perception, and the interplay between limitation and innovation. Finch captures the paradox of Close’s oeuvre—his adherence to rigorous structure yields some of the most profoundly human images of the contemporary era. For scholars and enthusiasts alike, this book offers a rich, multifaceted portrait of an artist who, even in the face of physical adversity, never ceased to explore the infinite possibilities of the painted face.
At its core, Finch’s book examines Close’s methodology with an intensity that mirrors the meticulous nature of the artist himself. Close’s famed large-scale portraits, composed through techniques that range from photorealistic airbrush to pixelated color grids, are dissected with the precision of an art historian who understands that Close’s work transcends mere representation. Finch does not simply catalogue the paintings; he situates them within the trajectory of modern and postmodern artistic traditions, noting how Close subverts traditional portraiture by emphasizing process over expression.
One of the book’s most engaging aspects is its exploration of Close’s resilience. After a spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him largely paralyzed, Close adapted his practice, painting with a brush strapped to his wrist. Finch does not reduce this phase of Close’s career to an inspirational narrative; rather, he demonstrates how disability transformed Close’s approach, pushing his aesthetic into new territories of abstraction and color theory. This shift, Finch argues, is not a compromise but a continuation of Close’s relentless formal experimentation—an assertion that aligns with contemporary critical discourse on the intersection of disability and creative practice.
Finch’s prose is scholarly yet accessible, striking a balance between technical analysis and biographical storytelling. His deep knowledge of art history enables him to draw connections between Close and his predecessors—Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura, Seurat’s pointillism, Warhol’s mechanical repetition—while positioning Close within the larger conceptual movements of his time. However, Finch wisely avoids over-intellectualizing, allowing Close’s process to emerge organically through interviews and firsthand observations.
Visually, the book is a triumph. The high-quality reproductions offer a tactile experience of Close’s work, allowing readers to appreciate the nuances of texture, color, and form that are often lost in discussions of his method. The inclusion of preparatory sketches and unfinished works provides insight into Close’s laborious process, reinforcing Finch’s argument that Close’s work is as much about the act of seeing as it is about the finished image.
Ultimately, Chuck Close: Work is more than an art book; it is a meditation on the nature of artistic perseverance, the mechanics of visual perception, and the interplay between limitation and innovation. Finch captures the paradox of Close’s oeuvre—his adherence to rigorous structure yields some of the most profoundly human images of the contemporary era. For scholars and enthusiasts alike, this book offers a rich, multifaceted portrait of an artist who, even in the face of physical adversity, never ceased to explore the infinite possibilities of the painted face.
June 11, 2010
It is befitting the work of painter Chuck Close that he has a large format coffee table collection of his mammoth sized groundbreaking portraiture output. After all, it was Close who uniquely created the wall format, head-shot paintings that have solidified his decade’s long reputation as one of America’s premier portrait artists.
Author and curator Christopher Finch has been following Close ‘closely’ (sorry…) since arranging for Minnesota’s Walker Art Museum to make the first museum purchase of one of Close’s paintings almost four decades ago. In ‘Work’ (re-released in conjunction with a complimentary volume, ‘Life,’), Finch showcases nearly all of Close’s significant work alongside numerous examples of the artist’s work in progress as well. From his famed ‘prismatic grid’ paintings to large format polaroids; from portraits of ordinary people to famous faces like Philip Glass and Bill Clinton, ‘Work’ showcases the full range of Close’s work from 1969 to the present.
In addition to Close’s remarkable work, Finch reveals much of the artist’s personal life including the challenge of regaining his painting career in the wake of a debilitating stroke. After four decades, Close is clearly one of America’s most important living artists and Finch’s ‘Work’ does both an excellent and complete job of elucidating exactly that.
Author and curator Christopher Finch has been following Close ‘closely’ (sorry…) since arranging for Minnesota’s Walker Art Museum to make the first museum purchase of one of Close’s paintings almost four decades ago. In ‘Work’ (re-released in conjunction with a complimentary volume, ‘Life,’), Finch showcases nearly all of Close’s significant work alongside numerous examples of the artist’s work in progress as well. From his famed ‘prismatic grid’ paintings to large format polaroids; from portraits of ordinary people to famous faces like Philip Glass and Bill Clinton, ‘Work’ showcases the full range of Close’s work from 1969 to the present.
In addition to Close’s remarkable work, Finch reveals much of the artist’s personal life including the challenge of regaining his painting career in the wake of a debilitating stroke. After four decades, Close is clearly one of America’s most important living artists and Finch’s ‘Work’ does both an excellent and complete job of elucidating exactly that.
July 26, 2010
It is befitting the work of painter Chuck Close that he has a large format coffee table collection of his mammoth sized groundbreaking portraiture output. After all, it was Close who uniquely created the wall format, head-shot paintings that have solidified his decade’s long reputation as one of America’s premier portrait artists.
Author and curator Christopher Finch has been following Close ‘closely’ (sorry…) since arranging for Minnesota’s Walker Art Museum to make the first museum purchase of one of Close’s paintings almost four decades ago. In ‘Work’ (re-released in conjunction with a complimentary volume, ‘Life’) Finch showcases nearly all of Close’s significant work alongside numerous examples of the artist’s work in progress as well. From his famed ‘prismatic grid’ paintings to large format polaroids; from portraits of ordinary people to famous faces like Philip Glass and Bill Clinton, ‘Work’ showcases the full range of Close’s work from 1969 to the present.
In addition to Close’s remarkable work, Finch reveals much of the artist’s personal life including the challenge of regaining his painting career in the wake of a debilitating stroke. After four decades, Close is clearly one of America’s most important living artists and Finch’s ‘Work’ does both an excellent and complete job of elucidating exactly that.
January 9, 2012
A fascinating and detailed chronical of Chuck Close's life from childhood to present. It includes many color plates of his work and discusses the fastidious nature of his artistic process; both before and after " The Event" that left him a partial quadrapalegic. It took me several months to push through this book but I am glad that I finished it.
April 15, 2009
absolutely love this book. great reproductions of his work but more importantly, a fantastic essay discussing and analyzing Chuck Closes' working methods.
December 18, 2009
look closely to the artwork and see!
January 21, 2016
Chuck Close does large portraits in many different media. After a rupture artery n\ear his spine, he must learn how to paint again.,
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews