Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Recognized as one of the foremost representatives of the new realism of the 1960s and 1970s, Pearlstein is particularly noted for his nudes. He chooses as his subject matter the professional, nude model posed artificially under studio spot lighting with the intention of presenting visual facts as they appear to his eye without preconceptions. He avoids modifications aimed at beautifying or idealizing the subject. Unlike most new realists, he works directly from the model, never using photographic sources. The artist allows his models to pose themselves, and his only requirement is that the pose be spatially interesting. He begins drawing in the center of the paper and works outward. This approach sometimes results in the head or other parts of the body being cut off.
For Pearlstein, no part of the body is more important than another. ""| have been concentrating on detail partly because it was the thing that you were not supposed to do when I was developing as an artist,"" he says. ""That's what I've been doing more than anything else, because I see detail functioning in a very abstract way compositionally and enriching the surface."""