Philip Pearlstein's 2004 Exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery Showcases New Paintings

Philip Pearlstein's exhibition of 18 new canvases at Robert Miller Gallery in New York runs through February 7, 2004, at 524 West 26th Street. The show contrasts with John Currin's Whitney retrospective, highlighting Pearlstein's deep engagement with old masters like Ingres rather than Currin's crowd-pleasing shock tactics. Pearlstein's style, unchanged since the 1960s, features unexpressive touch, stylized cropping, and awkward poses, with recent works growing wackier and more crowded. His paintings depict models amid still-life objects like a Mickey Mouse puppet theater and swan decoys, playing with reality and artifice. The artist's meticulous rendering includes each hair on a chest or stitch in a quilt, using fluorescent lamps to democratize surfaces. Shadows in works like "Model with Butcher's Sign" from 2003 become intense observed objects, emphasizing the erotics of perception over naked bodies. Pearlstein's perversity stems from a warped pictorial intelligence, making his images impossible in any medium but paint. The exhibition is noted as an apotheosis, with compositions that blur installation art and painting, referencing influences from Picabia to contemporary artists like Mike Kelley and Vanessa Beecroft.