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You know, the way art history is taught, often there's nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting and the description of a great painting will very much sound the same.

Chuck Close

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Chuck Close
Age: 81 †
Born: 1940
Born: July 5
Died: 2021
Died: August 19
Drawer
Graphic Artist
Painter
Photographer
Monroe
Washington
Charles Thomas Close
Charles Close
Chuck Close (1940-2021)
Charles Close (1940-2021)
Often
Description
Art
Tells
Nothing
Photographer
Great
Photography
Much
Painting
Way
Taught
Sound
History
Lousy

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Most people are good at too many things. And when you say someone is focused, more often than not what you actually mean is they're very narrow.
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At the same time that I'm finding the color world I want, I'm also trying to make the imagery, you know, by the nature of the strokes themselves.
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There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden.
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I think the problem with the arts in America is how unimportant it seems to be in our educational system.
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I don't work with inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work.
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Inspiration is highly overrated. If you sit around and wait for the clouds to part, it's not liable to ever happen. More often than not, work is salvation.
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Sculpture occupies real space like we do... you walk around it and relate to it almost as another person or another object.
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Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good.
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Of all the artists who emerged in the '80s, I think perhaps Cindy Sherman is the most important.
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I think women realise that I love women, and very often women seem to love me.
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I have always attempted to create images that deliver the maximum amount of information about the subject.
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It doesn't upset artists to find out that artists used lenses or mirrors or other aids, but it certainly does upset the art historians.
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The camera is objective. When it records a face it can't make any hierarchical decisions about a nose being more important than a cheek. The camera is not aware of what it is looking at. It just gets it all down.
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Art saved my life in two ways. It made me feel special, because I could do things my friends couldn't, but it also gave me a way to demonstrate to my teacher that, despite the fact that I couldn't write a paper or do math, I was paying attention.
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All the best ideas come out of the process they come out of the work itself.
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A face is a road map of someone's life. Without any need to amplify that or draw attention to it, there's a great deal that's communicated about who this person is and what their life experiences have been.
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Paintings can make you cry and it's just **colored dirt**.
Chuck Close
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Get yourself in trouble. If you get yourself in trouble, you don't have the answers. And if you don't have the answers, your solution will more likely be personal because no one else's solutions will seem appropriate. You'll have to come up with your own.
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What difference does it make whether you're looking at a photograph or looking at a still life in front of you? You still have to look.
Chuck Close
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I'm plagued with indecision in my life. I can't figure out what to order in a restaurant.
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