CHUCK CLOSE began his art career as a photorealist portrait painter. He was born with a neurological impairment called prosopagnosia which rendered him unable to recognize peoples faces. Despite this limitation, he spent his life painting portraits. He was unable to recognize anyones face or identify them, even if he spent time close with another individual.
Mr Close developed a spinal cord stroke and paralysis in midlife and was confined to a wheelchair. After his stroke Chuck continued painting portraits, however his technique changed significantly to an abstract art form; he began painting portraits using geometric mosaic pixels which was vastly different from his earlier artwork. He created highly detailed abstracted representations of peoples faces.
The pictures compare my abstract painting of Chuck Close using a technique similar to his, with Mr Closes older photorealistic self portrait.