On the other hand, many have noted the intimacy of his work, enhanced by
the extreme closeness and direct expressions. Robert Storr, curator for
Close's recent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York notes "the
extreme intimacy with his subjects which Close, as a portraitest, presumes
would be impossible to sustain if the artist were genuinely indifferent
to them. Unique in modern art, the corresponding intimacy he establishes
between a given sitter, locked in photographic permanence, and the viewer,
who is at liberty to examine his or her every crease and follicle, as if
he or she were a laboratory specimen, is predicated on a subdued yet powerful
sense of mutuality."(Johnson)
Following his illness, Close has been forced to alter his method to
some extent. He is no longer physically capable of the obedience to detail
he paid in his earlier works. Howver, while lacking the intense expressionlessness
of his earlier works, his later works have a new dimension. To beginwith,
he has done away with his devotion to realism. He has begun to experiment
with color as he had not in the past, adding new dimensions and emotions
to work. Color...for Close, the unexplored Fourth dimension?
