Dialogues Lecture: Artist Chuck Close and the Science of Face Blindness

How does a portrait artist paint if he has face blindness? Thousands of neuroscientists had the opportunity to ask artist Chuck Close this question during his keynote address at Neuroscience 2012 in October.

Close has produced iconic works of art while coping with serious impairments of body and brain: he experienced a spinal artery collapse and subsequent paralysis in 1988, and has the disorder prosopagnosia, sometimes known as “face blindness,” where the ability to recognize faces is impaired. In 2000, he was awarded the highest honor conferred by the United States on an artist: the National Medal of Arts. Watch his lecture to learn the skill behind his art.