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Pearlstein was born in Pittsburgh in 1924 and received his B.F.A. degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He ws awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Rome where he studied for a year.

Pearlstein is considered to be a leading realist painter. His models were never idealized; instead he tells it like it is - with paint. The cool colors, the cropping of his figures and the unusual point of view from which they are painted, are characterisric of his work and the unflattering poses poses, ungainly avoirdupois, and unrelenting detail are also representative.

Source: Bulletin, November-December 1972.


Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997

"25 Years of American Painting: 1948-1973," Des Moines Art Center, Mar. 5 - Apr. 22, 1973

"New Paintings by Philip Pearlstein," Allan Frumkin Gallery, Inc., Chicago, Jan. 13 - Feb. 10, 1973
Published ReferencesDMAC Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1972, ill.

ART QUARTERLY, Spring/Summer 1973, ill. p.129

"25 Years of American Painting: 1948 - 1973," Des Moines Art Center, 1973, exh. cat. color ill. no.32

THE NATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, published by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.

Russell Bowman, PHILIP PEARLSTEIN: THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS, New York and London, 1983, cat. no.396, ill. p.343

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.169, b/w ill. pl.107, p.170

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.221, color ill. p.220

Samantha Baskind "Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists: Artists of the American Mosiac", Greenwood Press, 2007, b/w ill. pg. 216
DimensionsOverall: 60 × 72 in. (152.4 × 182.9 cm)
Accession Number 1972.86
Classificationspainting
SignedPearlstein 72 © (l,r oil paint)
ProvenanceArtist; (Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1972]
Two Female Models Sitting and Lying on a Navajo Rug
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Pearlstein
1976
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Pearlstein
1967
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Pearlstein
1977
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Guston
1978
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Henry Varnum Poor
1962
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Campbell Curtis
1963
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Campbell Curtis
1960