Chuck Close

As a student at the University of Washington from 1958 to 1962, Chuck Close developed a style of abstraction deeply influenced by prominent artists such as Hans Hoffman (1880–1966) and Willem de Kooning (1904–1997). After earning his master of fine arts degree from Yale University, Close began painting large-scale photorealist portraits of his artist colleagues, friends, and family based on photographs he enlarged using a grid system. These portraits quickly established Close as one of the nation’s most prestigious artists. In the late 1990s, he began working with daguerreotypes (an early photographic process) then using these images to create a series of digital pigment prints, tapestries, and photogravures.