On relocating to New York, Close continued to explore realism, painting black-and-white photographic portraits of his family and friends onto large-scale canvases in precise detail, applying paint with an airbrush. His 1967 solo exhibition featured paintings of male nudes, proving controversial and ultimately resulted in a landmark court case that sought to extend freedom of speech to the visual arts.
Basing his paintings on photographic imagery, Close reduced his palette to black and white, culminating in his large-scale painting Big Nude (1967). Seeking to break from the gestural style that had characterised his student work, Close shifted toward Pop-inflected figuration before embracing the tools of commercial art and illustration. He taught painting at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he received his first solo exhibition in 1967. After studying at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna (1964) on a Fulbright grant, Close returned to the United States in 1965.
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