Close reading : Chuck Close and the art of the self-portrait / Martin Friedman

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Portrait of the portraitist -- The day of infamy -- Beginnings -- SoHo immersion -- The chosen ones: Close's models -- Photographs into paintings -- Back to the studio -- The power grid -- The magic mark-marker -- Looking into himself: the self-portraits -- Revelations -- The first big one: the 1968 big self-portrait -- The hairy revolutionary: the descendants of a 1975 photograph -- Mid-'70s meditations -- Dotted faces: 1986 and 1987 -- Posthospital mirrorings and phantoms: 1991-95 -- Color close-ups: 1996 and 1997 -- A Jovian close: 2000-01 -- Back to raw basics: black-and-white masks, 2002-03 -- Simplifying the syntax: 2004-05 -- Behind his faces -- Close's artist models -- Artists painting artists -- Richard Artschwager -- Francesco Clemente -- Lyle Ashton Harris -- Jasper Johns -- Alex Katz -- Robert Rauschenberg -- Lucas Samaras -- Cindy Sherman -- Kiki Smith -- William Wegman.

One of the most admired and innovative contemporary artists working today, Chuck Close has pioneered ideas of scale, form, and color through the theme of portraiture, a genre that he has fundamentally redefined. The first book to focus on Close's self-portraits and the portraits he has made of fellow artists, Close Reading is a uniquely intimate portrait of Close's life and work by the former director of the Walker Art Center, Martin Friedman, a longtime friend who has had unprecedented access to the art.

English