Most Popular Books by Chuck Close

In January 2017 an exhibition of portrait art by Chuck Close was held in the 86th Street station of the newly opened Second Avenue Subway. This volume is a photographic record of that exhibition, featuring the subway station venue, the portraiture of Chuck Close, and Chuck Close himself who attended the exhibition. The photographs in this volume were taken by Lizzy Sullivan.

Chuck Close immediately liked the idea of a book without words. As a child, his severe dyslexia stood in the way of reading, making images all the more important. To this day, he remembers a visual encyclopedia from his early years and the feeling of being overtaken by the intensity of its pictures. The idea was also compatible with Close''s ongoing interest in revealing the process of his work, which he accomplishes largely through visual presentation, using very few words, if any. Scribble Book: Self Portrait is a self-portrait that emerges step-by-step out of the printing process, one plate and one color at a time. The viewer follows a series of 9 individual plate proofs along with a corresponding series of 9 progressive proofs. By comparing the plate proofs against the progressive proofs, the viewer may ascertain not only the effect as one color is added to another to create the final 9-color etching, but also the compositional decisions and careful modifications made by Close at each stage of the project.

"A Couple of Ways of Doing Something" replicates a deluxe limited-edition portfolio whose initial run was only 75 copies. This clothbound edition preserves the luxurious sensibility of the original with 22 extraordinary oversized daguerreotypes printed in rich tritone. Working with daguerreotype master Jerry Spagnoli to conquer the complexities of this venerable process, which yields images of astonishing detail and gravity, Chuck Close photographed many of the same artist-friends who have made regular appearances in his paintings over the years: Laurie Anderson, Lyle Ashton Harris, Cecily Brown, Gregory Crewdson, Carroll Dunham, Ellen Gallagher, Philip Glass, Bob Holman, Elizabeth Murray, Elizabeth Peyton, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, James Siena, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, Robert Wilson, Terry Winters, Lisa Yuskavage and himself. Each image is complemented by a poem on its subject by Bob Holman, the celebrated and widely published New York School poet who originated and hosted the famous Poetry Slams at the Nuyorican Poets Cafi and now runs the Bowery Poetry Club. With the counterpoint of Holman''s engaging poetry, the collected work becomes a transfixing group portrait of Close''s influential and highly creative circle of friends and colleagues, as well as an exploration of a challenging photographic medium. A traveling exhibition of the work will launch in November 2006 at the Aperture Gallery.