Philip Pearlstein - Contemporary Realism

Philip Pearlstein - Portrait of Alex Katz - 1978 - Oil on aluminum cutout painted front and back - H. 48, W. 32-1/2 inches (121.9 x 82.6 cm.) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)Contemporary Realism is a straightforward realistic approach to representation that continues to be widely practiced in the post-abstract era. It is different from Photorealism, which is a style that closely resembles photographs, but which is somewhat exaggerated, ironic and conceptual. One of the artists associated with Contemporary Realism was Phillip Pearlstein (born 1924). Pearlstein is hailed by critics as a preeminent figural painter (in the context of modernism).


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