This essential volume on Chuck Close's innovative and groundbreaking techniques presents a life's work in printmaking by one of the most influential artists of our time. Since the retrospective exhibition of Chuck Close's prints first began touring in 2003, it has visited some 20 venues around the world, even as the artist has persisted in working prolifically and brilliantly in various print media. Revealing the full arc of Close's career in printmaking, including his most recent work and technical achievements, this book features everything from woodcuts, Woodbury types, and anamorphic etchings to felt hand-stamp prints, pulp-paper multiples, and watercolor pigment prints. With a thorough introduction, an essay by the distinguished scholar Richard Shiff, and interviews with the artist and master printmakers, this classic study will stand as the definitive reference on Close's print practice for years to come.

For the past 30 years, American artist Chuck Close (b. 1940) has concentrated on essentially one subject: the human face. This volume, the most comprehensive assessment of Close's work yet published, includes portraits of Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz, Lucas Samaras, and others. It accompanies a mid-career retrospective opening at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in February 1998. 178 illustrations, 113 in color.

Essays by Siri Engberg, Madeleine Grynsztejn and Douglas R. Nickel. Foreword by Kathy Halbreich and Neal Benezra.

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 SCHEDULE Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston September 13-November 23, 2003 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York January 13-April 18, 2004 Miami Art Museum, Florida May 14-August 22, 2004 Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee October 29, 2004-March 27, 2005 Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina April 16-August 7, 2005 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts September 6-December 4, 2005 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas April 16-June 28, 2006 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin July 29 - October 6, 2006 Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA January 28-April 20, 2007 Boise Art Museum, Idaho May 12-August 11, 2007 Portland Art Museum, Oregon September-December 2007

This volume critically surveys the full range of Chuck Close's career, in which he has explored the rich possibilities implicit in his original breakthrough almost four decades ago.