Now available in a revised and expandededition, this book offers the first comprehensivecritical examination of one of America's mostcelebrated living artists. Chuck Close reinvented portraiture almost four decades agowith a series of nine-foot-tall, black-and-white likenesses ofhimself and fellow artists, which astonished an art worlddominated by minimalism and conceptualism. Close has sinceexplored the possibilities implicit in his original breakthroughin an array of mediums. This lavish, large-format volume is thefirst to deal with all aspects of Close's career and to placethem in a biographical context.Christopher Finch's insight into Close's achievement comes byway of hundreds of studio visits and thousands of hours ofconversation since he met Close in 1968. Finch provides anengaging, in-depth analysis of Close's portraits on canvas,from the continuous-tone airbrushed heads of the 1960s and`70s to the painterly "prismatic grids" of the past twodecades. The more than 300 illustrations featured in the booksurvey almost all of Close's paintings, including his most recentwork, together with a selection of his prints and multiples, andexamples of his photographic oeuvre. This beautifullydesigned volume reveals not only the variety of pictorialstrategies Close has devised, but the extraordinary personalityof the artist behind the work.