Pearlstein, Philip

Pearlstein, Philip,

1924–, American painter, b. Pittsburgh. He paints monumental nude figures directly from life with a verisimilitude that captures sagging and sallow flesh, works that recall photorealismphotorealism,
international art movement of the late 1960s and 70s that stressed the precise rendering of subject matter, often taken from actual photographs or painted with the aid of slides.
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 in their precise imagery and smooth surfaces. Pearlstein's style, which has changed little since the 1960s, is aggressively literal and purposefully unromantic. His subjects, which have become more complicated over the years, are depersonalized through arbitrary cropping and harsh lighting. Pearlstein's paintings have been exhibited widely and examples are in numerous major collections.

Pearlstein, Philip

(1924– ) painter, teacher; born in Pittsburgh, Pa. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh (1946–49), and at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (1951–55). Based in New York, he was a teacher at Pratt Institute (1959–63) and Brooklyn College (1963). He is best known for his portraits and nudes, in which he presents the subject in a harsh light and without any idealization of their features. Typical works are Two Nudes on a Mexican Blanket with Mirror (1972) and Two Models in Bamboo Chairs (1981).