Chuck Close has died. The prolific artist, who catapulted to fame between the ’70s and ’80s with photorealist portraits, passed away the age of 81 in a hospital in Oceanside, New York, as confirmed by his lawyer to the New York Times on Thursday (August 19).
He made a name for himself for his oversized paintings of himself and the people he knew, including his most famous self portrait, a black and white image of himself with disheveled hair and a cigarette in his mouth.
He created the paintings using his signature technique of an airbrush and diluted black paint. In 2013, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and then frontotemporal dementia in 2015.
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