artist and photographer known for his large-scale photorealist portraits, has died at the age of 81.Close’s lawyer, John Silberman, announced on Thursday that he had passed away in a hospital in Oceanside, New York.The artist made a name for himself for his oversized paintings of himself and people he knew during the 1970s and 80s, beginning with his first and most famous self-portrait, a black and white image of himself with disheveled hair and a cigarette in his mouth.He created the hyperreal