1940-

Chuck Close is an artist whose vision was forged early on in a full-fledged synthesis of minimalist, conceptual, and process art practices, combined with his own unique image-making.  That has placed him in the center of vanguard art production since the mid-’60s and made him one of the most influential artists of our time.  Close first experimented with the Polaroid in the late ’70s because of its capacity for immediate feedback.  The large format camera made images that were of great interest to Close:  large in scale and with extremely fine resolution.  “It was the first time I considered myself a photographer,” he says.  Beginning in 1988, Close faced personal and artistic changes after suffering a collapsed spinal artery that initially left him paralyzed from the neck down.  With time, his condition improved, and, though dependent on a wheelchair, he was able to begin working again.