“Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration” has traveled the globe for seven years, arriving in Washington for its 16th and final stop. Because every image Close paints is based on a photograph, when he first began making prints, in the 1970s, he decided to use the medium to reproduce photographs, not to make a copies of his paintings. He’s held on to every plate, Mylar stencil, and intermediate-state print used in the production of his final products—“Process and Collaboration,” then, is akin to a magician revealing his tricks. It’s about prints and printmaking, but also about their detritus. He reveals another secret, as well: what, exactly, has kept him so fixated on heads for 40 years.

THE EXHIBIT IS ON VIEW 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY (10 A.M. TO 9 P.M. THURSDAY) TO SEPT. 12 AT THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART, 500 17TH ST. NW. $8-$10. (202) 639-1700.