Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Reeve Foundation honors artist Chuck Close

From ArtInfo:

NEW YORK—The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is honoring artist Chuck Close (pictured) with its Christopher Reeve Spirit of Courage Award tonight, reports the blog Unbeige.

Close has been paralyzed from the neck down since 1988, when a spinal artery suddenly collapsed.

"The Event," as he calls the incident, did not slow down his career, however, rather leading to the development of his signature technique of painting giant portraits that are photorealistic from a distance but reveal themselves to be composed of oversized, brightly colored pixels up close.

The artist told Unbeige last year that both his physical disability and the dyslexia and prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces) he suffered as a child "drove me to what I'm doing."

"I have these things, so either I can try to ignore them or deny them, or go with them," he said.

The award was presented at the Reeve Foundation's gala at the Marriott Marquis in New York Nov. 11. Also receiving awards are Broadway veteran James L. Nederlander and the New York Rangers.