Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
See The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects (1998); J. Guare, Chuck Close: Life and Work, 1988-1995 (1996); studies by C. Westerbeck (1989), R. Storr et al. (1998, repr. 2002), and T. Sultan (2003); M. Cajori, dir., Portrait in Progress (documentary film, 1997).
Licensed from Columbia University Press
See his autobiography (1987); biographies by K. Reese (1983), B. Pegg (2002), and J. Collis (2003); study by H. A. DeWitt (1985); T. Hackford, dir., Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, (film documentary, 1987).
Licensed from Columbia University Press
(born Feb. 13, 1923, Myra, W.Va., U.S.) U.S. test pilot. He served as a fighter pilot in World War II and became a flight instructor and test pilot after the war. Chosen to test-fly the secret experimental X-1 aircraft, on Oct. 14, 1947, he became the first person to break the sound barrier in flight, which was approximately 662 mph (1,066 km/hr) at an altitude of 40,000 ft (12,000 m). A brash and colourful personality, he retired with the rank of brigadier general in 1975 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.
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(born July 5, 1940, Monroe, Wash., U.S.) U.S. artist. After early Abstract Expressionist experiments, in his first solo exhibition Close showed a series of enormous black-and-white portraits that he had painstakingly transformed from small photographs to colossal, Photorealist paintings. Throughout his career, he concentrated on portraits—from the neck up—based on photographs he had taken. In addition to self-portraits, the paintings were usually of friends, many of whom were prominent in the art world. He experimented with a variety of media and techniques, including using fingerprints and colourful tiles that, seen from a distance, combined into an illusionistic whole. In 1988 a spinal blood clot left Close almost completely paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. A brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm, however, allowed him to continue working.
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(born Oct. 18, 1926, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. ) U.S. singer-songwriter. Though first interested in country music, in the early 1950s Berry led a blues trio that played in black nightclubs around St. Louis. In 1955 he traveled to Chicago and made his first hit record, “Maybellene,” which was soon followed by “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Rock and Roll Music,” and “Roll Over, Beethoven.” He was one of the first to shape big-beat blues into what came to be called rock and roll (see rock music) and to achieve widespread popularity with white audiences. After two trials tainted by racist overtones, in 1959 he began a five-year prison sentence for immoral behaviour. In 1972 he achieved his first number one hit, “My Ding-A-Ling.” He continued to perform into the 1990s. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were among the many rock bands greatly influenced by Berry.
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