Philip Pearlstein


I am working on a large-scale canvas trying to recreate in paint the scene I have set up in my studio, painting directly from my own visual experience. If you look carefully at the bottom of the photo you see that I am standing on a platform so that I am looking down. That gives me the more compositionally interesting view of this set up. In another situation, this set-up would be called "performance art." The arrangement of the fabrics and the antique horse-drawn kiddy-car chariot, along with the poses of the two professional models, was put together collaboratively by the models and me using the collection of stuff I have gathered in my studio. What does it mean? It is about the process of composing, seeing, and painting. The theme is simply my take on the traditional one of artist and model, but as an exercise devoid of mythological reference or political implication. And I would rather not have a nervous breakdown over the subject.