Philip Pearlstein, Model on Cast Iron Bed with Weathervane Airplane, #2, 2005, Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
Marshall N. Price of the National Academy Museum describes the nude paintings by Philip Pearlstein as "a radical departure from the dominant aesthetic of abstraction . . . reactionary, even retardataire." The Pittsburgh-born painter is known for his modernist realism nudes, referred to by art critic Sidney Tillim as "not as a symbol of beauty and pure form but as a human fact--implicitly imperfect." Pearlstein's works are on display at more than seventy museums and he is the recipient of the National Council of Arts Administrators Visual Artist Award.