Born in Monroe, Washington, in 1940, Close studied painting at Yale University before moving to New York in 1967. Although he greatly admired Abstract Expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and, especially, Willem de Kooning, he wrote, "They nailed it down so wellthat I couldn't do anything but weak impersonations of their work. . . . Once you know what art looks like, it's not hard to make some of it. . . . The dilemma I found myself in after having gotten out of graduate school is enjoying making art but not liking what I made." Close's paintings were based on black-and-white photographs he took of himself and his artist friends, all of whom