Chuck Close: Why Portraits?

In this inteview from 2010 Chuck Close discusses why he chooses to paint portraits. Close talks about how in the 1960's when painting was dead he decided that that would be the best time to do it; and when the art critics said that portraits were the one type of painting that really couldn't be done, Close decided to take a stab at that too. We should all be very happy that he did because Chuck Close is fantastic at making portraits of himself and other people.