Phillip Pearlstein was an American painter best known for modernist realist nudes. His realist nude paintings are credited for having revived portraiture on top of that he is cited by critics as the greatest figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s. His paintings are in collections of over 70 public art museums.
Pearlstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His interest in art began at an early age and when his parents noticed they supported him sending him to take classes on Saturday morning at... morePhillip Pearlstein was an American painter best known for modernist realist nudes. His realist nude paintings are credited for having revived portraiture on top of that he is cited by critics as the greatest figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s. His paintings are in collections of over 70 public art museums.
Pearlstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His interest in art began at an early age and when his parents noticed they supported him sending him to take classes on Saturday morning at Carnegie Museum of Art. At 18 two of his paintings won a national competition and were reproduced in color in Life Magazine. After high school Pearlstein attended Carnegie Institute of Technology’s art school and after a year in he was drafted in 1943 by the U.S Army to serve in World War II. He produced over 100 drawings depicting life in the Army. In the 1950s Pearlstein exhibited abstract expressionist landscape paintings. In 1961 he began to make nude paintings. From then on he went on to become a household name in nude paintings in over 70 museums like the Art Institute of Chicago.
