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Housatonic Museum of Art Presents: Chuck Close and his Turnaround Arts Kids

Bridgeport, CT … The Housatonic Museum of Art


presents Chuck Close and his Turnaround Arts Kids that


will be on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport,


CT., from November 7 through


December 15, 2013 with a reception on November 7th from 7:30 – 8:30


pm. The Burt Chernow Galleries are free and open seven days a week.  Visit the website, www.HousatonicMuseum.org for


gallery hours.







The


exhibit will feature five (5) large-scale archival watercolor pigment prints


provided by the artist in association


with Magnolia Editions and Oakland, courtesy of Pace Gallery. Chuck


Close’s monumental portraits


explore the intersection of photography and painting, providing an arresting


experience.  To create his photo-based work, Close places a grid


on the photo and on the canvas, and working systematically, in  incremental units, he builds his images by applying small strokes of paint in


multiple colors. When viewed from afar, each cell is perceived as an average


hue creating a unified image, albeit in near


abstraction when viewed from a close distance.  The prints emphasize the cell structure


underlying the image which blurs into soft focus, affording an altered spin on


the traditional genre of portraiture. 







Manhattan-based visual artist Chuck Close recently


mentored 34 students in the sixth through eighth grades at Bridgeport's Roosevelt School, one of eight schools in the nation to participate in President


Barack Obama’s Turnaround Arts initiative which aims to improve low-performing schools by


increasing student "engagement" through the arts. The public-private


partnership was developed in cooperation with the U.S.


Department of Education
and the White House Domestic Policy Council.


Close was one of the eight high-profile creative talents who volunteered for the program, working closely with the


selected school students, faculty and surrounding communities. 

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Turnaround Arts tests the hypothesis


that high-quality and integrated arts education can be an effective tool to


strengthen school reform efforts-boosting academic achievement and increasing


student motivation in schools facing some of the toughest educational


challenges in the country.  Follow up


studies confirm the value of an arts rich education, especially for low


socio-economic status students, in academic achievement, completion of high


school and college, and becoming contributing members of their community. Yet


recent Department of Education Surveys indicate that students from low income


areas are being disproportionately short-changed on arts education


opportunities in their schools. Every child deserves a chance to feel special


and to excel in something, especially when they are not performing well in


other areas, (i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic).







 Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close was born in 1940 in Monroe, Washington. He received his


B.A. from the University of Washington, a


coveted scholarship to the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, and


his BFA and MFA from


Yale in 1964.  Close achieved early fame


as a painter through his large-scale painted portraits, mostly of


family and artist friends. Throughout his career, Chuck Close has expanded his


artistic contribution to portraiture through the mastery of varied drawing,


painting, printmaking, handmade paper collage, photography and Jacquard


tapestries. Although a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him


severely paralyzed and he relies on a wheelchair, Close has continued to work


with a brush strapped to his wrist.  His


work has since been the subject of more than 150 solo exhibitions including a


number of major museum retrospectives. Close's work is in the collections of


most of the great international museums of contemporary art, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in


Paris, the Tate


Modern
in London, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and


the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is represented by Pace Gallery


and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, White Cube, London and Blum


& Poe, Los Angeles.

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For further information contact Robbin


Zella, Director of the Housatonic Museum of Art at RZella@hcc.commnet.edu or (203) 332-5052.  Visit the HMA website: www.HousatonicMuseum.org 

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