Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration

Chuck Close--a man who describes himself as "an artist looking for trouble"--has for three decades consistently but variously challenged the accepted boundaries of the printmaking tradition. Published to accompany a retrospective of his prints opening at Blaffer Gallery and traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several additional museums around the country, this is the first comprehensive survey of Close's revolutionary prints.Featuring exquisite reproductions of the prints together with essays on Close's career and in-depth interviews with the artist and his master printmakers, the volume blends words and images to give readers unique insight into the creative process. The text highlights the intensely collaborative nature of Close's project and looks into the challenges posed by the unprecedented huge scale he prefers. Close may labor on a single print for as long as two years, working out aesthetic problems that might involve the retrieval of a centuries-old European method on one day and the creation of an entirely new technique (such as applying sunscreen to block light) the next. "Prints have moved me in my unique work more than anything else has," Close says. "Prints change the way I think about things.?From the artist's ambitious first mezzotint to his recent pulp-paper multiples, this book chronicles the genius of Chuck Close in the medium in which he has done his most exciting work. Taken together, these prints constitute a remarkable self-portrait of the creative drive, vision, and intellect of one of America's most important living artists.EXHIBITION Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of HoustonSeptember 13-November 23, 2003The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkJanuary 13-April 18, 2004Miami Art Museum, FloridaMay 14-August 22, 2004Knoxville Museum of Art, TennesseeOctober 29, 2004-March 27, 2005Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North CarolinaApril 16-August 7, 2005Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MassachusettsSeptember 6-December 4, 2005Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TexasApril 16-June 28, 2006Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, WisconsinJuly 29 - October 6, 2006Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CAJanuary 28-April 20, 2007Boise Art Museum, IdahoMay 12-August 11, 2007Portland Art Museum, OregonSeptember-December 2007