When Chuck Close began painting portraits in the
late 1960s, he faced a total lack of enthusiasm
for portraiture in the art world. Four decades on,
the American artist is celebrated for reinventing
and reviving portraiture through his large-scale
paintings, which fuse thousands of abstract
shapes into realistic faces.
This retrospective brilliantly underscores
the evolution of Close's approach to painting.
It starts with the hyper-realism of his early works,
followed by his black-and-white pulp collages,
and then reveals how his use of the grid system
developed more openly. Close's work grew more
complex and expressive, the abstract shapes
becoming larger and more detailed.
Close describes this exhibition as "a cocktail
party," since it reunites paintings of some of the
key people in his life: his wife, Leslie, his daughter,
Maggie, other artists, such as Mark Greenwold
and Lyle Ashton Harris, and even his accountant,
along with several self-portraits. It's an uplifting
riot of a show.

May 26 through September 2, 2007
97-109 Jülicher Straße
52070 Aachen
Tel .+49 241 1807 104