Chuck Close has revolutionized both contemporary portraiture and printmaking. Close made his first print as a professional artist in 1972 and printmaking soon became an important and most fruitful, experimental aspect of his artistic endeavor. His innovation in printmaking is now legend. Close was particularly concerned that his prints not simply be smaller versions of his paintings, but rather that printmaking open up an additional arena of investigation that would require him to engage in image-making in completely different ways. In addition to including finished prints, this exhibition features full suites of Closes preliminary proofs and various states of editions. Also on view will be the woodblocks and etching plates for several of the more complex images he has created. The exhibition is no less than a stellar investigation into the mechanics of perception and virtuoso artistic process. It has been seen at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; the San Jose Museum of Art is the only northern California venue.

Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration was organized by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. The exhibition and publication have been generously underwritten by the Neuberger Berman Foundation. Additional support was made possible by the Lannan Foundation, Jon and Mary Shirley, The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation and Houston Endowment Inc., Jonathan and Marita Fairbanks, Dorene and Frank Herzog, Andrew and Gretchen McFarland, Carey Shuart, The Wortham Foundation, Inc., Karen and Eric Pulaski, Suzanne Slesin and Michael Steinberg, and Texas Commission on the Arts.