Philip Pearlstein

(American, 1924–2022)

Philip Pearlstein is an American painter widely regarded as one the greatest figurative artists of the last century. Pearlstein’s work is often composed of multiple nude models in complex interiors, featuring contrasting colorful objects and unusual, oblique perspectives—models are often glimpsed from behind room dividers or objects such as an electric fan, or in between the wings of a kite. He was born on May 24, 1924 in Pittsburgh, PA and studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology's art school both before and after World War II, and there met Andy Warhol. After graduating in 1947, the two moved together to New York, and during this early time, Pearlstein painted a portrait of Warhol that today can be found in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His earliest work consisted of in Abstract Expressionist landscapes, most notably those of Italy where he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study. After taking nude modeling classes, he soon veered away from abstraction to realism, and focused on the human figure thereafter. Pearlstein has had many solo exhibitions and was a Guggenheim fellow in 1969. In 2008, he was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy in New York, NY.