From Publishers Weekly
Pearlstein's coolly clinical studio nudes are recognizable by their bored, frustrated expressions, khaki skin, drooping mammaries, bodies cut off by the picture frame and genital regions calling attention to themselves. He has been a prominent realist since the 1960s, and Perreault, ex- Village Voice art critic, here claims Pearlstein as a major artist, the quintessential realist of our time. In his reverential essay, the author investigates how Pearlstein made his art deliberately nonexpressive, willfully renouncing narrative, psychology, symbol. We are left with purely formal qualities, said to make this painter's work "purer, more formal than abstract art." Most of the 160 images reproduced here have never before been published. Along with the nudes there are very ordinary studies of Roman ruins, Tintern Abbey and Stonehenge, plus an enormous 1986 watercolor of Jerusalem.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
