Chuck Close--a man who describes himself as "an artist looking for trouble"--has for three decades consistently but variously challenged the accepted boundaries of the printmaking tradition. Published to accompany a retrospective of his prints opening at Blaffer Gallery and traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several additional museums around the country, this is the first comprehensive survey of Close's revolutionary prints. Featuring exquisite reproductions of the prints together with essays on Close's career and in-depth interviews with the artist and his master printmakers, the volume blends words and images to give readers unique insight into the creative process. The text highlights the intensely collaborative nature of Close's project and looks into the challenges posed by the unprecedented huge scale he prefers. Close may labor on a single print for as long as two years, working out aesthetic problems that might involve the retrieval of a centuries-old European method on one day and the creation of an entirely new technique (such as applying sunscreen to block light) the next. "Prints have moved me in my unique work more than anything else has," Close says. "Prints change the way I think about things." From the artist's ambitious first mezzotint to his recent pulp-paper multiples, this book chronicles the genius of Chuck Close in the medium in which he has done his most exciting work. Taken together, these prints constitute a remarkable self-portrait of the creative drive, vision, and intellect of one of America's most important living artists. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston September 13-November 23, 2003 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York January 13-April 18, 2004 Miami Art Museum, Florida May 14-August 22, 2004 Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee October 29, 2004-March 27, 2005 Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina April 16-August 7, 2005 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts September 6-December 4, 2005 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas April 16-June 28, 2006 University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa (tentative) July 14-September 24, 2006 Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA January 28-April 20, 2007 Boise Art Museum, Idaho May 12-August 11, 2007 Portland Art Museum, Oregon September-December 2007

Terrie Sultan is Director and Chief Curator of Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston Richard Shiff is Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at the University of Texas at Austin