Phillip Pearlstein - Canyon de Chelly
American, b.1924
Canyon de Chelly, 1979
Lithograph, 28 x 22.25 inches
Edition 72/100
Landfall Press
04.020

Alumni Gift

Born in Pittsburgh, Pearlstein attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he befriended Andy Warhol. It was the age of Pop Art and yet Pearlstein rebelled and went in his own direction. Pearlstein is known for his reinvention of figurative realism. He concentrated on changing the way the nude was seen, as a natural phenomenon devoid of identity other than the attributes of sex and skin color. He compared them to landscapes, which was his focus, earlier in his career.

Canyon de Chelly was part of a government project in the 1970s. The project was an exhibition of various painters, commissioned to paint scenes from across the continent. The Exhibition America 1976 traveled around the country, and as a member of the advisory panel, Pearlstein painted two views for the show, including Canyon de Chelly. This was one of the only paintings Pearlstein ever did in the style of plein-air, a French style that emphasized open air in a landscape.