By Marion Cajori, 1997, 57 min.
Since 1969, when Close’s first series of black-and-white portraits was exhibited, his paintings have fascinated the public. Working from Polaroid photographs, Close paints colossal images of his family, friends, fellow artists, and himself, operating on the edge between abstraction and representation. Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress traces the artist’s evolution and follows Close into the contemporary art community of New York for encounters with Philip Glass, Alex Katz, and Kiki Smith.