Chuck Close: Life.

Chuck Close: Life. CHUCK CLOSE: Life (2010; $34.95), by Christopher Finch. PrestelPublishing. What a treat to review a book about somebody I have known. This isa book that is appropriate for high-school students, especially thosewho are contemplating a career as an artist. It tells the story of an artist born in Monroe, Wash., "on thefifth of July," 1940. His life is one in which he experiencedcultural and social turmoil. He moved from a community college to theUniversity of Washington, and then studied at Yale University. His early New York "art-world experiences" includedcontact with the Abstract Expressionists (Pollock, de Kooning,Reinhardt, etc.), and later, artists in the Pop movement (Warhol,Lichtenstein, Segal, etc.). Honors bestowed upon him are too numerous tomention. What is so dramatic and moving is that Chuck Close has lived in acondition of paralysis from his shoulders down for almost half his life.The narrative offered in this biographical account is not pretty orsentimental. It tells the story of a dedicated artist who has struggledwith childhood disabilities and physical trauma that would havedestroyed most people. Yet the book concludes with a simple quote fromChuck Close: "Art saved my life." www.prestel.txt.de | circle # 394