“Crisis is a sieve which separates out the wheat from the chaff – It will play a decisive role in who keeps working and who falls by the wayside.”

Chuck Close, painter and photographer

In this 3 minutes video, Chuck Close here speaks about crisis on a global scale, and what artists do at such times.

His own life has had its share of struggles:

As a child:

• he was born during World War 2 (1940)
• his father died when Chuck was 11
• he suffered from nueromuscular condition which made it hard to lift his feet
• he missed most of 6th grade due to nephritis
• he had undiagnosed dyslexia
• he suffers from a condition which means he can’t recognise faces (he feel this actually drew him to portrait work, for which he is best known)

As an adult, in 1988 he experienced severe spinal artery collapse, which left him paralyzed from the neck down.  Through several months in rehab, with physical exercise, he recovered some movement in his arms, and can take a few steps, but essentially lives and works from a wheelchair, aged 77.