- Chuck Close was known for his massive scale photo realist and abstract portraits of himself and others. - While many previous artists aimed at [[Reductionism]], Chuck is one of the few who was able to create synthesis by putting parts together to form a whole. - He suffered from face blindness and developed his technique to paint portraits. He would take a photograph of a model, then break it into many small cubes. He would decorate each and then put them back together. ![[Self Portrait - Chuck Close.png]] --- Reductionism in brain science is often followed by attempts at synthesis, at reconstruction, to see whether the parts, when put together, explain the whole. Such synthesis is rare in art, but one artist—Chuck Close—stands out for this very reason - [[Reductionism in Art and Brain Science]]